Important Vermont Afterschool Update

Posted on April 5, 2022 by - Organization, Vermont Afterschool News

We wanted to share with you that Executive Director Holly Morehouse will be leaving Vermont Afterschool at the end of April in order to begin a new position as the Vice President of Grants and Community Impact with the Vermont Community Foundation. In the short-term, Nicole Miller will assume the role of interim director. We’ll be sharing information about our search for a new executive director in the near future. 

The news of Holly’s departure is the epitome of bittersweet-ness.

We are sad to see Holly go.


She has led Vermont Afterschool’s efforts from its beginnings as the Vermont Center for Afterschool Excellence in 2009 through thirteen years of considerable impact.

Here are just a few highlights:

  • Building Vermont Afterschool

    into the state’s leading resource for out-of-school programs, called upon at the legislative, gubernatorial, national, and international levels to share its expertise on social emotional learning, youth resilience, STEM pathways, youth voice, and professional development models.

  • Leading Statewide campaigns

    to help change the way Vermont supports children and youth from “Zap the Gap with Afterschool & Summer Learning” through to her work with the Governor’s Interagency Afterschool Youth Task Force on universal afterschool.

  • Organizing international learning exchanges

    with experts on youth development and youth voice, including youth workers and youth leaders from Finland and Iceland.

  • Empowering youth

    by hosting statewide youth forums; forming the State Youth Advisory Group to provide input on important policy matters concerning Vermont’s young people such as health equity and universal afterschool and summer programs; creating the opportunity for youth to write the Vermont Youth Declaration of Rights, and developing the Vermont Youth Project with its focus on youth voice, community engagement, and cross-sector strategic planning.

  • Convening the VT9to26 Coalition

    a statewide partnership group with over 100 members working collaboratively to take a multi-sector approach to issues affecting children and youth ages 9 to 26.

  • Fundraising

    and bringing in millions of dollars to support youth-serving programs across Vermont by envisioning a powerful braiding of public and private funding.

  • Administering Summer Matters for All grants

    $4M in grants to support the critical infrastructure of Vermont’s summer programs and working closely with the state to set up 94 school-age child care hubs on remote learning days as part of Vermont’s COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

But we’re happy, too.


For starters, we look forward to seeing Holly have an immediate impact on the great work of the Vermont Community Foundation. But also, Holly is able to leave at a time when Vermont Afterschool is operating in such a position of strength.

 

  • VTA continues to empower youth through initiatives like the State Youth Advisory Group, local youth councils, participatory budgeting processes, the Vermont Youth Vision Board, and Junior Iron Chef VT.
  • As we type this, S.197, the Youth Mental Health bill that allocates $2.5M in funds for multi-tiered systems of support for both in-school and afterschool grants is making its way through the VT Senate.
  • Likewise, H.293, a bill to create a State Youth Council to collect input from youth across Vermont and help inform the development of policies that affect young people, recently passed a voice vote in the VT House.
  • The 2022–2023 Afterschool & Summer Expanding Access Grant Program is set to distribute $4.25M in competitive grants to expand access to and improve the quality of summer enrichment opportunities and afterschool programming for children and youth statewide.
  • VTA continues to provide hundreds of hours of professional development through workshops to leaders and staff working in Vermont’s afterschool, summer, and youth-serving organizations, benefiting more than 17,000 children and youth.
  • VTA is reaching 76% of all afterschool and youth-serving program sites in the state and 89% of Vermont towns with afterschool and youth-serving organizations with our quality and youth-focused initiatives.

With special thanks to Holly, we are well-positioned to continue strengthening programs, building partnerships, and transforming communities so that all Vermont youth are active, engaged, connected, and heard.

Thank you, Holly, for all that you’ve done for Vermont’s youth, families, and the professionals who serve them!

We encourage you to join us in thanking Holly before her departure on April 30 by sharing your gratitude on this KudoBoard.