Vermont Humanities Council

Our programs ensure that Vermont's local communities can offer vibrant, intellectually stimulating activities to the people who live or visit there. Last year, VHC sponsored over 1,500 programs in more than 160 towns,and distributed more than 20,000 books to literacy-needy families and child care facilities. People of all ages, from every economic and educational level and in every geographic area of the state, benefit from the cultural programming the Council sponsors.

Please visit our Web site at www.vermonthumanities.org
for information about our on-going programs.

Expanding Horizons

Whether it's through a summer humanities youth camp, praised by one girl for helping keep the cobwebs out of her brain; or through a museum exhibit transporting visitors to a different, distant land of snows through art and artifacts from Tibet, VHC expands Vermont's horizons. Our speakers bureau programs, grants, and conferences bring the world's wealth of ideas to people in Vermont's libraries, historical societies, schools, adult learning centers, senior centers, museums, and even prisons.

Building Community

We pattern our programs to genuinely deepen the sense of community that Vermonters value. Through our facilitated book discussion groups, our statewide one-book community reading program, and annual conferences, readers wrestle together with issues of globalization, dissect Shakespeare's theatrical kings' use and abuse of power, or identify with fictional Chinese characters' struggles between loyalty to family and loyalty to country. Expressing their own views and listening to their neighbors' perspectives, participants develop not only a deeper appreciation for literature, but stronger ties with each other.

Including Everyone

Because we know that people who are not proficient readers nevertheless think about life's interesting issues, VHC is deeply committed to humanities-based literacy programming. Avenues of exploration that are closed to adults or teens with insufficient reading skills can be opened through the scholar-led interactions with books and people that our Connections book discussion groups provide.

Teaching the First Teachers

Our training programs for child care providers and parents, and the thousands of children's books that we give to child care facilities every year, are aimed at ensuring that future generations reach school with the background they need to develop into enthusiastic learners and skilled readers. The programs are named for our conviction that it is Never Too Early to instill in youngsters the love of reading and learning.

A Positive Health Care Story

Beginning in 2003, VHC introduced a hospital-based book discussion program called "Humanities at the Heart of Health Care." It offers health care workers -- from doctors to receptionists, x-ray technicians to food service workers, nurses to janitors -- the opportunity to connect the world of health care with the world outside the hospital doors. It encourages health care professionals to listen, share, and reflect, using the powerful medium of story. Facilitated book discussions take place over dinner, conveniently located within the hospital workplace. VHC is working to help health care workers put the "humanity" back in their daily work life.