Vermont Afterschool’s Youth Resiliency Project is focused on supporting afterschool and out-of-school time programs and professionals in helping children and youth to build resilience and social emotional learning (SEL) skills. This project fits into our larger SEL work with specific goals designed to create lasting culture change:
- Increase competency across the region so that more afterschool, summer, and out-of-school time programs are trauma-informed;
- Create a Leadership Institute for Resilience in Afterschool (LIRA) to empower peer experts in the field; and
- Establish networks of support for afterschool program sites so they build and sustain SEL best practices going forward via a communities of practice training model.
Impact Update March 2019:
- To date, we have trained 219 afterschool professionals and direct service staff members in SEL and trauma-informed strategies
- There are 5 different communities of practice running with 43 different program sites participating
- LIRA is training 14 afterschool leaders over the course of the next six months with participants receiveing a SEL micro-credential at the conclusion
- Thus far, 6,216 students in grades PreK-12 from a total of 47 towns across Chittenden, Orange, and Washington counties have benefitted from this Project
