2005 GRANT RECIPIENTS

Samara Foundation is pleased to announce our Year 2005 grants. Eight organizations received $20,000 to benefit the Vermont gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender 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 $195,000 throughout the state.

Community Development and Celebration:

R.U.1.2?Community Center (Burlington, VT)
$3,500 to support improving and increasing lesbian health work at the center. The work, under the umbrella of the Vermont Diversity Health Project, will specifically address the disparate access to health care and discriminatory health care that lesbians and other sexual minority women receive and will include providing training in lesbian health issues to providers, support and referrals for queer women and the creation of an on-line health outreach tool for women.

R.U.1.2? addresses the social, cultural, educational, and health needs of Vermont's queer and allied communities across all races, ages, and genders through community building, social support, and civic engagement.
http://www.ru12.org

Education, Advocacy & Outreach:

Transgender Day of Remembrance (Burlington,VT)
$1,000 to support the Fourth Annual Day of Remembrance. The Transgender Day of Remembrance memorializes those who were killed due to antitransgender hate or prejudice. Since the first candlelight vigil in 1999 the DOR has grown to include events in over 110 locations. The first Vermont DOR was held in Burlington on November 20, 2002. For more info on DOR click here.

Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force (So. Hero, VT)
$1,750 for laptop acquisition, database conversion and to clean up their data to facilitate the identification of volunteers, fundraising and regular communication with their grassroots supporters. Their mission is to educate Vermonters regarding the issues surrounding the freedom to marry. The goal is full and equal legal rights for gay and lesbian Vermonters including,in particular, the legal right to marry.
http://www.vtfreetomarry.org

HIV / AIDS Services:

AIDS Project of Southern Vermont (Bennington, VT)
$1,500 to support regional prevention programs 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.aidsprojectofsouthernvermont.org

Vermont CARES (Burlington, VT)$1,500 for general operating support. 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:

SafeSpace (Burlington, VT)$1,250 to support their Youth Violence Prevention Project (YVPP). The main goal of the YVPP is to educate youth and providers about the violence perpetrated against and the within the LGBTQQ community, and how issues of dating, violence, sexual violence and bias crimes impact LGBTQQ youth in Vermont.

SafeSpace is a social change and social service organization working to end physical, sexual, and emotional violence in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning people (LGBTQQ). SafeSpace provides direct services to LGBTQQ survivors of violence, and educates the community about violence in the lives of LGBTQQ people and about the ways to help people access help and safety. http://www.safespacevt.org

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

Youth & Family:

Outright Vermont (Burlington, VT)
$5,000 to support direct services to youth, an increasing number of which are from outside the Burlington area. For the past sixteen years Outright has been Vermont's only comprehensive and statewide resource for LGBTQ youth.
http://www.outrightvt.org

Thank You!

The 2005 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: