Funded by the A.D. Henderson Foundation and the Vermont Education Initiative, VSA Arts of VT's Early Childhood Development Program brings enhanced arts-based services to over 100 children in Burlington and Winooski whose families are homeless, at-risk of becoming homeless, or residents of Winooski and the Old North End in Burlington. Programming takes place at the Riverside Public Housing Project, the Committee on Temporary Shelter's Family Shelter, the Champlain Multi-Generational Center, the Sara Holbrook Center, and within the public school system of Winooski. These programs run year-round.

VSA Arts of Vermont has conducted three separate year-round arts programs for pre-schoolers and elementary school aged children, along with program coordination and art supplies. These programs - New Visions Dance Project, Start With The Arts and Home in the Arts - have been enormous successes.

The intent of the above programs is to provide early childhood development services for children with disabilities, lower-income families who reside in public housing, and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming so. Along with expanding the number of hours of available subsidized childcare - and, through the creation of evening and weekend programming, which increases the flexibility of that childcare - VSA Arts of Vermont's goal is to contribute to the emphasis on quality care that will insure children who are at-risk receive the necessary supports for healthy development.

VSA Arts of Vermont believes that the arts play a critical role in children's intellectual and social development. The efficacy of arts-based pre-and early elementary school curricula has been demonstrated in many studies, particularly in regards to increasing facility in reading, writing, and math:

"The groundbreaking theory of multiple intelligences, developed by Howard Gardner of Harvard University broadens our view of how humans learn and reach their potentials. It shows that the arts can play a crucial role in improving students ability to learn because they draw on a range of intelligences and learning styles…incorporat[ing] music, art, drama and dance into the basic curriculum…produces a significant effect on overall success in school…For example, students of the aptitude test…scores for students who studied the arts for more than four years were 59 points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math sections than students without any experience in the arts"