BELLOWS FALLS — Thanks to Meeting Waters YMCA's After-School Program for Inspiration, Recreation, and Education program (Y-ASPIRE), hundreds of children in southeastern Vermont can continue to learn, grow, and thrive even after the bell rings at the end of the school day.
At least as important, Y-ASPIRE Executive Director Steve Fortier said in a news release, that also means several hundred parents can work with the peace of mind that their child is in a safe and nurturing environment.
“When Sue [Fortier, the Y's Program Director] and I created Y-ASPIRE in 1998, we made sure that it would meet the needs of working parents,” Fortier said. “What we do at Y-ASPIRE is all about positive youth development [and] supporting working parents.”
Enrollment is now open to the public for the 2016-17 school year. Current Y-ASPIRE parents were given a two-week period earlier in the month during which they could register their children.
Y-ASPIRE takes place at Brattleboro's Oak Grove, Green Street, and Academy schools; Dummerston School; Putney Central School; and Rockingham Central Elementary School.
The Bellows Falls program also serves Saxtons River Elementary School and Westminster Central School, with busing provided by the school system. Guilford Central School provides busing for its students to participate in the Y-ASPIRE program at Oak Grove School.
The Y-ASPIRE program runs after school for each of the 180 school days. It also runs for full days on all school vacations and most holidays, as well as for half-days on teacher in-service and other early release days. In all, the program operates for over 200 days during the school year.
Financial assistance for all Meeting Waters YMCA “out-of-school” programs is available through the Vermont Childcare Financial Assistance program and Meeting Waters YMCA's Reach Out to Youth scholarship fund, which is built by donations from local individuals, businesses, and civic groups.
As in all of the YMCA's programs, no one will be denied access to Y-ASPIRE for lack of ability to pay full program fees.