Youth Services
Services for Youth in Vermont
Hinesburg Community Resource Center and Hinesburg Friends of Families, a branch of HCRC, offers free playgroups and other great resources for local families.
Help Me Grow Vermont is a statewide system for improving access to existing resources and services for expectant parents and families with young children through age 8.
Prevent Child Abuse Vermont promotes and supports healthy relationships within families, schools and communities to eliminate child abuse.
Building Bright Futures is Vermont’s Early Childhood State Advisory Council.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.
Children's Literacy Foundationaims to inspire a love of reading and writing among low-income, at-risk, and rural children up to age 12 throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.
Outright Vermont is a group whose vision is to build “a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ youth have hope, equity, and power!” Outright Vermont offers social and support groups for youth and families and training for youth-serving professionals.
WEBSITES FOR YOUTH & Parents
Vermont Youth Book Awards
The Red Clover Award promotes the reading and discussion of the best of contemporary picture books in nearly all of Vermont’s elementary schools. Each year over 20,000 K-4 students read, or have read to them, the ten nominated books. Students then vote to pick the winner.
2024-2025 Red Clover Winner: The Red Clover Book Award, celebrating books for students in kindergarten through fourth grade, was awarded to Whalesong: The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas, written and illustrated by Zachariah OHora.
2026-2027 Nominees:
Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka Con La Papa by Sara Andrea Fajardo, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Cat Nap by Brian Lies
Fireworks by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Cátia Chien
The History of We by Nikkolas Smith
In The Desert by David Elliott, illustrated by Gordy Wright
Late Today by Jungyoon Huh (Translated by Aerin Park), illustrated by Myungae Lee
Lena The Chicken (But Really A Dinosaur) by Linda Bailey, Iillustrated by K-Fai Steele
Stalactite & Stalagmite by Drew Beckmeyer
This Is Orange by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Julie Morstad
Whales In The City by Nancy F. Castaldo, illustrated by Chuck Groenink
Vermont Golden Dome Book Award
The Golden Dome Book Award was created to honor excellence in children's literature. Each year since 1957, Vermont students in grades four through eight have selected their favorite book from a list of 30 nominees. It is recommended that students read at least five of the year's nominated titles before voting. Voting takes place in the spring.
2025-2026 Golden Dome Book Award Winner: The Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, celebrating books for students in grades 4-8, was awarded to Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie.
2026-2027 Nominees:
Busted by Dan Gemeinhart
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk
Death by Whoopee Cushion by Vicki Grant
The Experiment by Rebecca Stead
Gus and Glory by Sarah Guillory
The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes
The Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell
It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango
It’s Watching by Lindsay Currie
The Last Ember (The Aerimander Chronicles, book 1) by Lily Berlin Dodd
Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls by Judith Rossell
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser
Octopus Moon by Bobbi Pyron
Pocket Bear by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Charles Santoso
The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu
Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Same Page by Elly Swartz
Three Blue Hearts by Lynne Kelly
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman
The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur: A Graphic Novel Based on a True Story by Allan Wolf, illustrated by José Pimienta
Very Bad at Math by Hope Larson
What Fell From the Sky by Adrianna Cuevas
A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Yas Imamura
The Green Mountain Book Award (GMBA), initiated in 2005, is a reader's choice award for Vermont students in grades 9 - 12. The program is intended to encourage high schoolers to become enthusiastic and discriminating readers. It is recommended that students read at least three of the year's 15 nominated titles before voting in the spring.
2025-2026 GMBA Winner: Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo.
2026-2027 Nominees:
All the Noise at Once by DeAndra Davis
And the Trees Stare Back by Gigi Griffis
Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming
Hekate: The Witch by Nikita Gill
If Looks Could Kill by Jule Berry
Love, Canter, Action by Katie Gilbert
Rebis: Born and Reborn by Irene Marchesini, art by Carlotta Dicataldo
Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout
Sunward by William Alexander
The Dead of Summer by Ryan LaSala
Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin
We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer, art by Joelle Murray
When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur
When We Ride by Rex Ogle