2016 Community Outreach

VTM Group’s Community Outreach program facilitates opportunities for employees to give back to local organizations by making a donation directly from their paycheck each month. Annually, employees nominate and vote on the three non-profits to support for the coming year and we’re excited to announce our 2016 selections!

HomePlate
HomePlate supports the positive development of young people experiencing homelessness or housing instability through community building, education, access to services and resources, and youth empowerment.

The organization is Washington County's only drop-in center and outreach team designed to support and empower youth experiencing housing instability. In 2013 we served 983 youth, with the help of 700+ volunteers, a staff of 5.0 FTE, and over $300,000 in in-kind donations such as hygiene supplies, clothes, space, time, and donated food. HomePlate is proud of our non-assuming program model that meets youth where they are in order to provide meaningful support and opportunities for growth.

Sparrow Clubs USA
Sparrow Clubs USA is primarily a Pacific Northwest charity, serving in the states of Oregon and Washington. During the recent recession, we have had to pull back from operating outside the Pacific Northwest due to the lack of resources. The recent airing of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition featuring the McPhail family and Sparrow Clubs has sparked a large interest in Sparrow Clubs across the nation. While we would love to be able to launch Sparrow projects in every state, it is just not possible at this time. Our Board of Directors is willing to review inquiries outside of Oregon and Washington on a case by case basis.

Tucker Maxon School
Tucker Maxon is an auditory-verbal school, which is another way of saying we teach all of our students to listen and talk. While we respect all forms of communication and a parent’s right to choose what is best for their child, sign language is not a part of our curriculum.

Tucker Maxon creates a language-rich environment with many opportunities for open-ended discussion, hypothesis, and critical thinking. At Tucker Maxon we believe that vocabulary, abstract language and question comprehension are critical to a child’s success in school as such these ideas occupy a prominent place in our curriculum. We respond to each child’s individual needs with small class sizes and a dynamic, collaborative teaching approach that lays the groundwork for a lifelong love of learning.

Students who need extra help receive it; those who are ahead are challenged appropriately; and every student is known and valued.

More information about the program, and groups we've supported in the past, is available on our Community Outreach page.