2001 Grant Recipients:

Samara Foundation is pleased to announce our Year 2001 grants. Fifteen organizations received $30,000 to benefit the Vermont gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities in a wide range of areas including HIV prevention, youth services, education, media development, social service and initiatives to address same sex domestic violence. Samara Foundation first awarded grants in 1998 and has now awarded over $92,000 throughout the state.

Arts:

UVM Department of Theatre (Burlington, VT)
$1,125 to underwrite the costs of tickets to be distributed to LGBT youth for the fall production of The Laramie Project. Opening in September 2001, The Laramie Project is a highly personal and moving account of how a town is affected when a young gay man is the victim of a hate crime.
http://www.uvm.edu/~theatre/

Community Celebration:

Green Mountain Freedom Band (St. Albans, VT)
$500 toward the purchase of a snare drum, a bass drum, sticks, mallets, carriers and stands. These additions will help the band reach its goal of having a complete marching percussion section. The Green Mountain Freedom Band was established in 1993 and consists of over two dozen members statewide.
greenmountainfreedomband@yahoo.com

Pride Vermont 2001 (Burlington, VT)
$500 to support cross cultural educational programming during the month of June. Pride Vermont is a non-profit volunteer based group whose goal is to provide a safe and supportive celebration of individuality through insisting on awareness and visibility in the state of Vermont for all LGBT people.
http://www.pridevermont.org

Education, Advocacy & Outreach:

Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights (Montpelier, VT)
$1,500 to coordinate discussion groups in local communities to ensure that schools continue to teach tolerance and diversity in the schools. Through social outreach, educational opportunities, and political action, VCLGR strives to promote civil rights, empowerment and social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Vermonters.
renfrew@sover.net

Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force (Middlebury, VT)
$4,000 for general operating expenses. VFTMTF's mission is to educate Vermonters about the injustice of excluding same-sex couples and the families they form from the status of civil marriage, and the myriad legal protections, supports and obligations that accompany that status.
http://www.vtfreetomarry.org

The Vermont Chapter of the National Organization for Women (Bennington, VT)
$2,000 to help fund a three-day summit bringing together women from seven New England states and New York. The summit will be held in Vermont to acknowledge and celebrate the gains made in Vermont with the passage of the Civil Union law and to strategize about how to extend similar rights throughout New England.
http://www.now.org

Women's Small Business Program (Burlington, VT)
$1,500 to develop a scholarship for low and moderate-income lesbians, bisexual women and transgendered people for Start-Up, WSBP's intensive business skills training course. Founded in 1989, The Women's Small Business Program's mission is to foster women's economic independence by enabling them to explore self-employment and develop skills needed for entrepreneurial success.
http://www.wsbp.org

HIV / AIDS Services:

AIDS Project of Southern Vermont (Bennington, VT)
$2,000 for the expansion of the HIV prevention program for gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in Bennington County. Their goals are to build healthy communities for MSM, provide health education and risk education workshops, circulate an MSM newsletter, and offer outreach to HIV-positive MSM in Bennington County.
http://www.vtbaap.org

Vermont CARES (Burlington, VT)
$2,000 to partially underwrite the technological upgrading of their newsletter communications. The mission of Vermont CARES is to improve the quality of life, create compassionate communities, and prevent the spread of HIV by working with people affected by HIV/AIDS as catalysts for social and individual change.
http://www.vtcares.org

Health & Community Service:

R.U.1.2? (Burlington, VT)
$1,500 to support the mounting of an exhibition of materials from the collections of the Vermont Queer Archives at the R.U.1.2.? Community Center. The exhibition will be presented in October 2001 to mark National Coming Out Week. R.U.1.2.? is a charitable organization with the purpose of providing venues for the social, cultural, artistic, and educational endeavors of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and allied communities through visibility, awareness, and community building.
http://www.ru12.org

Same-Sex Domestic and Sexual Violence Subcommittee (Burlington, VT)
$2,000 to implement a support and referral phone service for victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence in the LGBTQ community. The SSDSV was created in 1995 to examine and respond to the unique needs of survivors of same sex domestic and sexual violence.

Media & Communications:

Mountain Pride Media (Richmond, VT)
$4,000 for general operating costs. Created in 1996, Mountain Pride Media acts as publisher of Out in the Mountains, Vermont's monthly newspaper for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community since 1986. In addition to Out in the Mountains, Mountain Pride Media is also publisher of www.mountainpridemedia.org.
http://www.mountainpridemedia.org

New England Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association
$500 to assist in the formation and growth of the Vermont chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA). Founded in 1990, NLGJA works within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of lesbian and gay issues and oppose newsroom bias against gay men and lesbians and all other minorities.
barbara@abovefold.com
http://www.nlgja.org

Youth & Family:

Lyndon State College (Lyndonville, VT)
$625 for project support for the second annual CHANGE conference. This conference will pull together LGBTQA youth from Vermont colleges and high schools to strengthen efforts, raise energy and hone goals.
http://www.angelfire.com/vt/lscgsa

Outright Vermont (Burlington, VT)
$6,250 to be used as a leveraging tool to match gifts made in their 2001 Major Donor Campaign. Outright's mission is to foster sensitivity and understanding of the issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. For the past twelve years Outright has been Vermont's only comprehensive and statewide resource for LGBTQ youth.
http://www.outrightvt.org

The 2001 Samara Foundation grants were made possible through the generous support of our individual and corporate contributors and from the generous bequests of our Founding Benefactors: