The Vermont Early Literacy Initiative (VELI) provides Vermont public libraries with picture books and early literacy training.
VELI was founded in 2010 and is now hosted by Vermont Humanities. The 21 VELI libraries represent a diversity in geography, size, audience, and experience. These libraries are located in Barre, Bellows Falls, Bennington, Bradford, Brattleboro, Cavendish/Proctorsville, Colchester, Craftsbury, Enosburgh Falls, Groton, Hartford, Hyde Park, Ludlow, Lyndonville, Orwell, Poultney, Randolph, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, Swanton, and Westford.
Each library receives a grant for the development of community programs that they feel will best meet the needs of their local area, specifically with an eye toward populations that do not typically use the library. They also have opportunities to co-develop booklists on topics important to them, such as everyday diversity, climate change, own voices, difficult topics, or whatever else they feel is most relevant and pressing to them, and we provide books from those lists to add to their collections.
For more information
Contact Wendy Martin, Literacy Programs Officer, at wmartin@vermonthumanities.org.
Testimonials from partner libraries
Literacy Programs Officer Wendy Martin recently spoke with two librarians whose libraries participate in the program, Bree Drapa of Westford Library and Kate Hunter of Orwell Free Library. Both shared insights on how the support of VELI eases some of the challenges of creating early literacy programming while running a small community library.
