Shared Housing
Success By Six
Spectrum Youth and Family Services
Take Charge Program. UVM Extension System.
United Ways Volunteer Connection & Retired Senior
Volunteer Program
(The) Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (VTCECH)
Shared Housing
Joslyn House, Resident Mgr, Arlene Wright.
Shared housing is defined as a situation where two or more unrelated people live together to their mutual advantage. Unlike a nursing or private care home, it is unlicensed and is more of an arrangement than a business. In the Joslyn House, for example, each of the 19 residents has a private room but shares a bathroom with one or two other people. The rest of the house hold is shared as common areas with equal access to the kitchen, living room, dining room, as well as the garden, laundry room, storage and work spaces. Organizers of the shared housing movement say that sharing housing promotes interdependence while still allowing active residents the privacy they need. Vermont has "cradled" program, as the National Shared Housing Program was located in Burlington for several years, having moved in 1994 to Baltimore.
The Randolph program won the Best Practices Award from the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development, one of only 13 awards given out in 1995 to private housing projects which best demonstrate excellence in integrating housing and supportive services for elders and people with disabilities. Joslyn House is more than just the sum of its residents' efforts at cooperation; throughout each week, it brings in support services such as meals, housekeeping, home health care and assistance with personal care for some of the frailer elders. Staff provides assistance with daily-living needs and coordinates with a host of existing community programs in the Randolph area. The project emerged in 1990 when Randolph Neighborhood services was trying to decide what to do with the large building that for decades had been the retirement home for the Vermont Order of the Eastern Star. (From a TA article by Eric Francis, "Randolph Discovers Winning Alternative for Elderly Housing." TA, 9/24/95 P1&2).
Success By Six
Agency of Human Services
Planning Division
103 South Main Street
Waterbury, VT 05671-0203
ph: 241-2227
fax: 241-2979
Contact: Hilda Green
The Success By Six Program is a grant providing statewide agency for communities wishing to enhance the ability of families to protect, nurture, educate, and support the development of their children so that each child will start school ready to learn. Funding comes from the Department of Education and from the Agency of Human Services. The hopes of the project are to provide a variety of opportunities for all families by collaborating with local communities and the public and private sectors for the well-being of everyone in the community. Stressing the idea that parents are their child's primary teachers, the Success-By-Six program hopes to help provide services that enable parents and their children to receive the training and support that they need, including the mental, physical, social, and emotional development of every child. Towns and organizations that have been granted some funding through the Success-By-Six Program and are instituting a variety of new services are Addison, Barre, Barton, Bennington, Brandon, Brattleboro, Burlington, Danville/Barnet, Grand Isle, Morrisville, Springfield, Swanton, Vermont Council on the Humanities, and Kindergarden Transition Services.
Spectrum Youth and Family Services
31 Elmwood Ave.
Burlington, VT 05401
(802)864-7432
hotline: (802)862-5396
Counseling Services
Residential Services
Spectrum Outreach Services
Domestic Abuse Education Project
Children's Legal Services
Emergency Services
Community Education
Spectrum offers a wide variety of services for youths and adults. Their counseling services are offered to help deal with existing issues as well as to prevent crises. Spectrum is licensed to place youths aged 12-17 in foster homes and also provide the following arrangements, mentor apartment living, supervised apartment living, and youth cooperative group residence. The transition into these living situations is aided with counseling, training, advocacy, and case management. The SOS program, 9-21 year olds, accesses runaway and homeless youth, provides necessary services, and helps them achieve self-sufficiency with a variety of options. The Domestic Abuse Education Project works with Women Helping Battered Women and the Department of Correction to monitor and take action when an abusive situation occurs, including support for the battered women and opportunities for the abusers to change. Legal assistance is also provided by Spectrum to children up to age 18 and to adults working on behalf of a child. Spectrum's emergency services include 24-hour crisis intervention and for children up to age 18, a temporary emergency shelter. As well, education in each of these areas is provided in workshops, lectures, and trainings.
Take Charge Program. UVM Extension System.
Bill McMaster
P.O. Box 346
Barton, VT 05822
Funded by a grant from the McConnell Foundation, Take Charge is meant to bring local residents and business people together in the interests of their community's future. Already nine communities have participated in the sustainable development program which consists of a series of three weekly meetings which focus on three questions: Where are we now?, Where do we want to be?, and How do we get there? At the end of this series of meetings the participates elect several projects to pursue. They divide into committees that tackle these various projects and continue by organizing plans of action. The town of Hardwick, for example, has completed a downtown building for commercial and residential uses and a brochure of local bed & breakfasts. Another Take Charge community, Cabot, formed a conservation commission, is addressing housing opportunities for seniors, developed a map of local businesses, and sponsored a day-long session about the Internet for the school and businesses.
United Ways Volunteer Connection
& Retired Senior Volunteer Program
95 St. Paul Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 864-7498
contacts: Martha Campione and Frank Foley
The UWVC and the RSVP recruits, places, and supports persons from grade school age and older in volunteer positions with more than 200 non-profit agencies, as well as civic, town, and state offices. Assignments match the volunteers interests and abilities with the needs for not-for- profits. The expertise of volunteers and/or the skills that they build, create valuable resources for solving many community issues. In the end, they enhance themselves and the environment around them.
(The) Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (VTCECH)
4 Laurel Hill Drive
So. Burlington, VT. 05403-7378.
(802) 865-0255.
Linda Lyons President, of Board of directors;
Robert Dostis is Executive Director.
The VTCECH serves as the voice of hungry Vermont Children. In 1994-5 has established sites that provided summer meals to over 300 low income children every day in 12 locations throughout the Northeast Kingdom; provided start-up funds for the Westford Elementary School to start a School Lunch Program, meaning that 100% of the schools in Chittenden County now have a lunch program: contributed to Vermont ranking 3rd in the nation for establishing new school breakfast programs, and organized individuals and groups to address hunger in their communities.
Comments to: crs@uvm.edu Reviewed on 4/16/97