Samara Foundation of Vermont
Announces Grants and Scholarships
Totaling $34,000

BURLINGTON — Samara Foundation of Vermont has awarded grants and scholarships totaling $34,000 to fifteen organizations serving the Vermont gay community and four high school seniors.

Four Vermont high school seniors will be receiving $1,000 scholarships for 2001. The Samara Scholarship was established in 2000 as an investment in the future of Vermont students who oppose discrimination and prejudice and who stand for the elimination of homophobia in our society.

Organizations funded in Samara Foundation’s Year 2001 granting cycle benefit the Vermont gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities in a wide range of areas that include HIV prevention, youth services, education, media development, social service and initiatives to address same-sex domestic violence.

HIV prevention outreach to men in Bennington County and technological upgrading were the focus of two AIDS service organization grants. AIDS Project of Southern New England and Vermont CARES each were awarded $2,000.

Expanded youth services for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth throughout Vermont are supported by four grants. The UVM Department of Theatre received $1,125 to underwrite the cost of tickets to be distributed to LGBT youth for the fall production of The Laramie Project, a highly personal and moving account of how a town is affected when a young gay man is the victim of a hate crime. Outright Vermont was awarded $6,250 to be used as a leveraging tool to match gifts in their 2001 major donor campaign. The Lyndon State College Gay / Straight Alliance received $625 for project support for the second annual CHANGE Conference. A $1,500 grant was awarded to The Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights to coordinate discussion groups in local communities to ensure that schools continue to teach tolerance and diversity in the schools.

A $500 grant to the Vermont Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association and a $4,000 grant to Mountain Pride Media aim to support fair media coverage and enhance communication for the gay community of Vermont.

The Same-Sex Domestic and Sexual Violence Subcommittee in Chittenden County received $2,000 to implement a support and referral phone service. Created in 1995, the SSDSVS examines and responds to the unique needs of survivors of same-sex domestic and sexual violence.

A $2,000 grant was awarded to The Vermont Chapter of the National Organization for Women to help fund a three-day summit to acknowledge 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. The Women’s Small Business Program received $1,500 to award scholarships for low and moderate-income lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people for Start-Up.

The R.U.1.2? Community Center received $1,500 to support the mounting of an exhibition of materials from the collections of the Vermont Queer Archives. The exhibition will be presented in October 2001 to mark National Coming Out Week.

This celebration of our communities achievements was supported by grants to Pride Vermont and the Green Mountain Freedom Band. Each organization was awarded $500.

The Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force received $4,000 to assist in their mission of educating 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.

The Samara Foundation, with offices in Burlington, is one of a network of gay and lesbian community foundations across the county. Samara Foundation is a charitable foundation whose mission is to support and strengthen Vermont’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities today and build an endowment for tomorrow.

Samara first awarded grants in 1998 and now has awarded over $92,000 throughout the state.

For further information about giving or granting opportunities contact Bill Lippert, Executive Director, Samara Foundation of Vermont, P.O. Box 1263, Burlington, Vermont 05402. Call 802-860-6236 or email at bill@samarafoundation.org.