NVRH, Umbrella, & Lamoille Family Center Announce 2025 Sub-Award Recipients
ST. JOHNSBURY, VT (September 17, 2024) – Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH), Umbrella and the Lamoille Family Center are excited to announce the sub-award recipients of the 2025 Northeast Vermont Prevention Consortium – Prevention Lead Region 3.
Priorities that these awards will address include reducing underage substance use as well as high-risk adult substance use, increasing supports for LGBTQIA+ youth and creating a community where youth and adults feel valued. Competitive and non-competitive sub-award recipients and descriptions are listed below.
Newport Health District
Coventry Village School received $10,000 to continue supporting and educating students in grades six through eight about substance use and misuse. They will contract with Journey to Recovery Community Center to continue this programming.
Lake Region Union High School received $15,307 to continue providing prevention and early intervention supports and curriculum to students, including embedding Peer Support Recovery Coaches in the school part-time. The school is contracting with Journey to Recovery Community Center.
St. Johnsbury Health District
Kingdom East School District (KESD) received $15,885 for PROSPER (Promoting School Partnerships to Encourage Resilience). PROSPER is an empirically validated delivery system for supporting sustained, effective delivery of evidence-based programs (Strengthening Families Program 10 – 14 and Life Skills Training) for middle school youth and their families. Specifically, PROSPER is a collaboration between the University of Vermont – Extension, the Kingdom East School District and the community that builds strong families and youth, by developing better family communication, empathy, and skills needed to avoid risky behaviors.
The HUB received $15,151 to continue their project providing a welcoming and safe space for community members, likely living at or below the poverty line, to enjoy a meal together or take the prepared meal out to enjoy later. This project will involve local community volunteers to prepare, cook, package ready to-go meals and deliver meals to the HUB for distribution on a weekly basis.
Morrisville Health District
Hazen Union School received $15,000 to establish a school-based Student Wellness Center that will provide a safe space for holistic student support, allowing students to learn and develop tools to manage emotions, cultivate healthy coping mechanisms, and mitigate stress.
Hyde Park Elementary School (HPES) received $15,000 to build on their School House System implemented this past January with great success. These Houses will continue to act as their “school family” during all their years at HPES. This system builds character, encourages academic excellence, fosters school spirit, strengthens relationships and promotes a culture of belonging for all.
The Center for Agricultural Economy received $11,000 to build on work begun in the community through the FY24 grant award. The project fosters social connection, addresses needs identified by the community and emphasizes assets using a big picture approach.
Newport and St. Johnsbury Health Districts
Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NKHS) received $18,718 to expand on the FY24 grant award to implement a training plan. This plan includes recruiting an NKHS employee to become a nationally certified instructor in Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) to offer adults that interact with Northeast Kingdom (NEK) youth the opportunity to learn how to help when youth experience mental health or substance misuse challenges. This certification plan includes teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) to offer high school teens the opportunity to learn how to build a community of support for their peers. QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) certification will allow the instructor to co-present suicide prevention awareness introductory training for anyone.
Umbrella received $14,930 to fund an integrated approach for addressing risk and protective factors for individuals who are experiencing domestic/sexual violence and who have a history of substance misuse. They will utilize the needs assessment data collected from their FY24 grant award as the foundation for building a coordinated community response model. The focus will be on prevention strategies to reduce the identified risk factors and system improvements that support protective factors for survivors.
Morrisville and St. Johnsbury Health Districts
DREAM Program received $20,000 to support continuation of their “Guided Mentoring” program, which is an in school, curriculum-based, peer-to-peer mentoring program that explores four key themes: mentoring strategy, identity, sense of place, and purpose.
St. Johnsbury, Newport and Morrisville Health Districts
Coalitions Northeast Prevention Coalition, 302 Cares, ONE Prevention and Healthy Lamoille Valley received $100,000 per Health District with an additional $7,000 to each health district to increase supports for LGBTQIA+ youth. Funding for coalitions supports ongoing and sustainable substance misuse prevention work in their respective communities. Coalitions implement evidence-based practices aimed at promoting protective factors and reducing risk factors across the lifespan.
The Prevention Lead Organization Grant, which totals 1.2 million over two years, aims to increase regional and community capacity to deliver meaningful substance use prevention to optimize well-being among individuals, families and communities across the lifespan. The total amount funded for non-competitive and competitive sub-awards for FY25 was $482,546.
Funding was made possible by the Vermont Department of Health Division of Substance Use Programs. To learn more, contact the Northeast Vermont Prevention Consortium – Prevention Lead Region 3 Regional Coordination Team; Carolyn Towne, Cheryl Chandler, Amanda Cochrane, Jessica Bickford, Roynell Sanders and Joe Stacy at c.towne@nvrh.org or visit nvrh.org/nvpc-pl .