While the weather has many feeling that summer has not arrived yet, the calendar tells us that the new school year is just around the corner. With that comes another year of the Meeting Waters YMCA’s ASPIRE out-of-school program.

ASPIRE serves over 200 youth from eight different communities through its ASPIRE sites at Brattleboro’s Green Street, Academy, and Oak Grove Schools; Dummerston School; Chester-Andover Elementary School; and at the Meeting Waters YMCA’s Bellows Falls’ facility for students of Rockingham Central School, Saxtons River School, and the two Westminster Schools. ASPIRE begins the first day of school and ends on the last.

ASPIRE—the After-School Program for Inspiration, Recreation and Education—was created in 1999 by Meeting Waters YMCA Program Director Susan Fortier and her husband Steve Fortier who serves as the organization's Executive Director. The program runs after school for each of the 180 school days. It also runs for full days on all school vacations and most holidays, as well as for half-days on teacher in-service and other early release days. In all, the program operates for over 210 days during the school year.

Each day of an ASPIRE program includes physical activity, nutritious snack, assisted study time and a cooperative group project. Activities are centered around monthly themes such as Different But the Same; Our Community; and Kindness and Justice. It is the program's main objective to provide safe and reliable care in a fun, enriching environment that emphasizes social, academic, and emotional growth. Through various activities, students in the ASPIRE program develop "life skills" such as cooperation, problem-solving, group decision-making and leadership. They also learn more about themselves, their community and their world. Service learning projects benefit other community agencies as well as the ASPIRE participants. Monthly Family Nights focus on family strengthening and health.

Each ASPIRE site is licensed with the State of Vermont as a school age child care program which ensures high standards of safety, appropriate facilities, proper staff training, and an age-appropriate curriculum. Licensing also means that many families are eligible for Vermont's Child Care Subsidy Program which supports working parents with incomes within middle to lower levels as well as those in job-training or welfare-to-work programs. Through contributions to the regional Y’s annual Reach Out to Youth fundraising campaign, as well as a grant from the Turrell Fund, the Meeting Waters YMCA is also able to provide scholarships to a number of families. As in all of the YMCA's programs, no one will be denied access to ASPIRE for lack of ability to pay full program fees.

In combination Meeting Waters YMCA’s Lewis Day Camp and ASPIRE programs combine to provide year-round “out-of-school” programming for area youth.

The Meeting Waters YMCA is a charitable, social service organization founded in 1895. Its programs serve children, teens and families from over 20 Vermont and New Hampshire communities throughout the Fall Mountain, Springfield, Bellows Falls and Brattleboro regions.

For more information about ASPIRE you can visit the Meeting Waters YMCA’s website at www.meetingwatersymca.org. For information and registration materials, call the Meeting Waters YMCA office nearest you (Brattleboro: 246-1036; Bellows Falls: 463-4769; Springfield: 885-8131) or email them at info@meetingwatersymca.org.