MIDDLEBURY — The Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF) has announced the 2016 Building Bright Spaces for Bright Futures Fund (BBSFBFF) grants, with a total of $57,600 awarded to eight Vermont child care programs.  The 2016 grantees are:
• Children’s Early Learning Space, Waterbury
• Kiddie Garden, Swanton
• Little Dipper’s Doodle Children’s Center, St. Johnsbury
• Little Lambs of Orchard Valley Waldorf School, East Montpelier
• Mountain Village School, Stowe
• Orwell Village School of Mary Johnson Child Care Center, Middlebury
• Suzy’s Little Peanuts Dayschool, Ascutney
• Winston Prouty Center for Child Development, Brattleboro
Funded by legislative appropriations, contributions and revenue from a special-issue license plate, BBSFBFF grants are allocated for starting, relocating, expanding or improving a Vermont child care program’s physical facility and/or accessibility.
Grantees must be participants in the STep Ahead Recognition System (STARS), Vermont’s quality recognition system for child care, preschool and after school programs.
“The Loan Fund is proud to administer these important grants,” said VCLF Executive Director Will Belongia. “The Building Bright Spaces for Bright Futures Fund is having a tremendous impact, increasing the quality and availability of early care  education programs throughout Vermont,” he said. 
VCLF’s Director of Child Care Programs Hope Campbell agreed. “Studies show that high-quality child care has a tremendous impact on a child’s ability to succeed in all areas of life,” she said. “With these grants, Building Bright Spaces is helping provide that advantage to more and more Vermont children,” she added.
BBSFBFF was created in 2002 by the Vermont legislature to increase the quantity and quality of child care and early education programs in Vermont. Since its inception, the fund has awarded $1.275 million in 118 grants to 107 child care programs, benefiting over 3,200 Vermont children and their families.
Since 1987, VCLF has loaned over $90 million to local businesses, affordable housing developers and community-based organizations that has created or preserved 5,200 jobs; built or rehabilitated 4,000 affordable homes; created or preserved quality care for over 3,700 children and their families; and supported community organizations providing vital services to hundreds of thousands of Vermonters.