Page 49 - 2020 Annual Report

Northeast Kingdom Learning Services Umbrella

Northeast Kingdom Learning Services, Inc. (NEKLS) has served the
residents of Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia counties since the late 1960s. Since 1976, Umbrella has ensured that communities in Caledonia, Orleans and Essex counties have access
Beginning in one location in Newport, NEKLS has evolved to providing to services that cultivate a Northeast Kingdom where all people thrive free from abuse and oppression.
Umbrella operates 4 multi-faceted, client-centered programs and plays a crncial role in decreasing the
our FREE services in five Community Learning Centers and with various incidence and impact of domestic and sexual violence. Services offered include:
off-site and in-home educational programs. The residents of these counties
that have accessed NEKLS services have worked towards earning a high Social Change
school diploma or GED, gained job skills, prepared for college courses, Social Change focuses on a variety of initiatives in schools and in the community that aim towards
received family and child support services such as Early Intervention, and preventing gender-ha ed violence, substance misuse and tobacco use while creating a community where
much more. abuse and oppression are acknowledged and addressed. In FY20: 1717 Youth were served through 73
sessions, 258 adults were trained in 24 workshops. Umbrella also has 15 school partners throughout the
Throughout the COVID 19 Pandemic, NEKLS, INC has not skipped Northeast Kingdom.
a beat. Ensuring the safety of both our staff and consumers, we have Advocacy
continued to offer needed services and even adjusted and expanded what The Advocacy Program serves survivors and children of survivors who have experienced domestic and
we offer in order to meet the community needs. From Children’s Integrated sexual violence, stalking, teen dating violence, human trafficking as well as violence related to gender
Services working with families and local food and supply drives, to our or sexual orientation. In FY20: 519 people served; 60 households including 41 children (101 people
Administrative offices hosting a local social media campaign to bring housed in emergency shelter). New to our advocacy program this year, Umbrella added 12 new beds for
community members together at the start of the pandemic, we have emergency shelter for families fleeing domestic violence. Also new this year, 6 household including 8
continued to creatively collaborate and connect with those in the Northeast children (14 people) were housed in transitional housing. $64,974 was given out to support clients, which
Kingdom in Vermont. includes help with security deposits, food, personal belongings, moving expense , transportation, and rent.
Family- Based Services
State and federal budget challenges coninue to impact funding of Family Based Services focuses on connecting families to child-care and strengthening family relationship
community nonprofits such as NEKLS. Town appropriations are vital . Kingdom Child Care Connection assists families in Caledonia and southern Essex counties to receive
in keeping services free for the hundreds of community members we subsidized childcare, appropriate child care referrals and specialized childcare placement support. The
work with each year, helping to make their goals a reality. Funding Family Room offers supervised visitation for families throughout the Northeast Kingdom. Families are
helps to maintain high quality services as they are and to introduce new connected to needed support including child care through our Kingdom Childcare Connection. In FY20
instructional options as well. NEKLS is requesting a town appropriation 560 households received Umbrella support to access child care, 120 families connected to children’s
of $200.00 to help support programs that are accessible to the residents of integrated services and there were 60 new referrals to child care. Children participate in supervised
visitation with support of the Family Room. FY20 saw 93 children served with supervised visitation.
Brighton.
Economic Empowerment
In 2020, NEKLS continued its new offering at Ready, Set, Grow Childcare Economic Empowerment supports women with significant barriers co employment to work on their
located in the old Teddy Bear Factory on Farrant Street in Newport. The challenges with wrap-around, no-judgment support. Participants gain experience through culinary service
childcare opened in September of 2019 with the capacity to serve up and transition to employment on the pathway to meet their financial goals.
to 98 children from infancy to age 12 all while maintaining COVID 19 Women package and prepare food for homebound seniors via Cornucopia’s Meals on Wheels program
protocols and making an extra effort to support essential workers. We have and food service at the Ready, Set, Grow Center in Newport. In FY20 the Cornucopia program had 8
also debuted Step Up to Childcare, a FREE training program for those graduates, of which 100% gained employment po t-graduation. 12 former graduates received follow-up
interested in becoming home providers or working in a childcare center. support. Cornucopia produced 37,276 meals (717 weekly average). We have 5 clients in the extended
Cornucopia program and 2 new jobs were created.
Respectfully Submitted, Women and youth expand marketable skills while earning money towards our mission through our social
enterprise, Dolcetti Gelato. $3,000 earned with 8 pop up events in the summer of 2019.
Michelle Faust Given that some services are provided anonymously, it is difficult to provide each town with a precise
Executive Director number of people served by Umbrella. However, at least 4 households in Brighton were served by
Umbrella in FY20 and the community as a whole benefited from prevention and outreach programs in
schools, as well as training and consultation for human service and law enforcement professionals.
Community support is critical to sustain our programming and to discover innovative approaches to the
work Umbrella does. We are deeply grateful for Brighton’s support.
Respectfully,
Amanda Cochrane Executive Director

48 Town of Brighton, VT 2020 Annual Report 49