A Brattleboro nonprofit will open up a family shelter after receiving a surprise $1 million donation.
Chloe Learey, executive director of the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development, said the group received a call earlier this month about the money.
“It’s the kind of call that keeps you in the work, and makes you know that there is hope, and that we can, by working together and coming together make a difference and keep moving forward,” Learey said.
The group hopes to have the shelter up and running “before the snow flies,” Learey said.
It’s the kind of call that keeps you in the work, and makes you know that there is hope, and that we can, by working together and coming together make a difference and keep moving forward.Chloe Learey, Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development
After purchasing the former Austine School for the Deaf in 2016, Winston Prouty has been working to rent out and develop the property’s buildings and more than 175 acres.
For the last year the group set up a family shelter in two of the former school dorms using state money from the emergency housing program that was set up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When that funding ended in June, the shelter closed.
Vermont communities, already contending with one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, have struggled to serve residents who lost their temporary shelter when the state scaled back that program.
During the roughly one year that it was open, the Winston Prouty shelter worked with local social service groups, serving 28 families, according to Learey. Eighteen of those families were able to move into permanent housing.
The $1 million donation will allow the nonprofit to reopen one shelter, which will house eight to 10 families and operate for at least two years.
“We’re going to have one building this time. Two was a lot to manage,” she said. “We learned a lot from running the family shelter. We have some good experience in terms of how to set it up for success.”
The donation to Winston Prouty was made by Nancy Braus, the former owner of Everyone’s Books in downtown Brattleboro.
In a press release, Braus said her mother died in February and left an inheritance. She said her parents were longtime supporters of local organizations in western Massachusetts.
“Watching the number of people experiencing homelessness in our town continue to grow has made me want to do something truly impactful, and when my mother passed away in February I was given that chance,” Braus said. “Every child deserves the security of a safe, warm place to sleep at night, a privilege I’ve always been fortunate to have.”
