IN-SIGHT CELEBRATES ITS 15TH YEAR

Thanks to hundreds of supporters around the country and a legion of volunteers throughout the years, In-Sight is celebrating its 15th anniversary. With your help, In-Sight has been able to provide a constructive, creative outlet for over 1,000 Brattleboro area young adults - some at real risk for drug use, early pregnancy, and crime.

In-Sight's growth can be looked at in five-year cycles. InSight was started in 1992 by John Willis and Bill Ledger while they were in downtown Brattleboro once day discussing a grant proposal to travel 1,200 miles away to photograph indigenous people in Canada. During their conversation, they were distracted by aimless teenagers and police who were moving them along for loitering. Rather than travel to Canada, John and Bill decided to "act locally" and teach what was then a one-time, one-month class during the summer break for these teens. The budget for that class was about $500.00.

Five years later In-Sight had mushroomed to a not-for-profit Vermont corporation and had achieved 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. By 1997 In-Sight was offering introductory, intermediate, and advanced classes in the Fall, Spring, and Summer, and had formed an association with the Brattleboro Area Teen Center, now known as the Brattleboro Area Boys & Girls Club. A full Board of Directors was created to assist with organizational, programing, outreach, and fundraising, and the budget had soared to $10,190.

By 2001 over 800 kids had taken classes at In-Sight, which by that time was offering not only its core curriculum but also had developed classes in association with other local organizations and institutions such as the Brattleboro Retreat Health Care Center, Kindle Farm School for Boys, the Women's Crisis Center, and the Hall Farm Center for Arts and Education. A student exchange was set up with the Hall Farm to bring kids from Bronx, New York and Brattleboro together for a weekend of photography in Townshend, thus laying the seeds for the Exposures program. In-Sight had hired its first employee, Ariane Burke, on a half-time basis. In-Sight also published its first newsletter (summer 2001), and launched the silent auction, our largest single fundraiser. In that five-year period, the budget increased almost 400% to $38,980. During the past five years, the program has grown to the point where we have two employees, one full-time and one part-time.

Over 1,200 kids have now taken at least one class, and Exposures has become so successful that it has its own budget and advisory committee with Hall Farm. In 2003 we moved into our own space, which has created a degree of autonomy we did not have while in association with the Boys & Girls Club. Efforts were made to increase community outreach and awareness of our program and we had our first spot on Vermont Public Radio in 2002, and launched our annual scholarship drive with local businesses in 2003. This year In-Sight also hired a Program Director and Assistant Director, both of whom previously have not had experience with In-Sight, a change which symbolizes our entrance into the "mainstream" of the non-profit world. In-Sight's budget continues to increase, and has almost doubled since 2001, to $70,160 for the current fiscal year.

Growth over the next five years will be guided by the new Program Directors as decision-making and leadership continue to diversify. Short-term goals include involving community leaders and local parents in programming and fund-raising, thereby increasing our own presence in the community. Additionally, we hope to take Exposures international, thereby giving children in Brattleboro an opportunity to use the world as a classroom. We thank you for your past support and hope you will continue to support In-Sight as we move into an exciting phase of development.

For more information, please call 251-9960 or e-mail tipp@sover.net.

And, of course, please stop by when you are in the area!