Future of Vermont Action Team Takes First Steps toward Action
We want to thank you for your contributions to the Vermont Proposition Initiative over the past couple of years– your ideas and concerns, and those of thousands of others, helped us to build a set of transformational goals designed to optimize the best of Vermont at mid-century. It is an audacious and proactive effort to think collectively in new ways about the enduring challenges we face as a state and to begin to develop new approaches and partnerships that will be critical to creating a better future.
As a member of the Partnership for the Future of Vermont, we want to share with you several key updates on the Proposition effort as the Future of Vermont Action team begins to meet and refine their priorities and work for the year ahead.
The Future of Vermont Action Team has authored a letter to legislative leadership asking their support for several critical legislative initiatives this year to expand affordable childcare options for all Vermonters.
In building the Proposition, we heard from Vermonters that now, more than ever, we are experiencing a childcare crisis. Many parents can attest to the impact of closures from illness or under-staffing. Low prevailing wages for childcare providers make it nearly impossible to build a sustainable career in the field. In this time of urgency, the Action Team has prioritized supporting the efforts of Let’s Grow Kids and other lead advocates working to secure transformative investments in this sector as the state decides how to invest unprecedented levels of one-time federal funding. You can read the Action Team’s letter here.
The Team will focus first this year on the areas of climate change and the working landscape, education equity and transformation, and broadband access and affordability.
In reviewing all 10 elements of the Proposition, the Action Team identified these three areas as critical starting points for potential leadership and partnership. In particular, they are committed to approaching each through the lenses of racial equity, economic opportunity, disability, and civic engagement as they think about potential action steps. They have been bringing together experts in climate change, working lands, and education to share insight on gaps, needs, and opportunities in each arena to help them determine the action steps needed. In February, they will convene a broad cross-section of stakeholders to identify gaps in Vermonters' access to reliable affordable broadband, identify ways to help lower barriers to access, and ensure equitable use of digital tools for all Vermonters. This conversation feels critical as the momentum for the build out of broadband networks across the state reaches a new highs.
The Action Team will determine its first set of starting priorities and opportunities for action this spring.
After hearing from a variety of experts in each field, and gathering testimony from a range of stakeholders, the team will schedule a dedicated retreat in March to frame a platform for action around the areas in which they can help drive transformative change. As they advance in this work, they will look to all of you to help share your ideas and perspective, and to lend your collective support and wisdom to this work. Please email nick@vtrural.org, with any thoughts or input on the process. We will be in in touch once priorities are set to let you know how you can get involved.
This Partnership is still growing, and its impact deepens the more voices are at the table. We hope you will consider sharing this news and encouraging others to sign up for the Partnership for Vermont’s Future. Building this robust list of supporters helps demonstrate Vermonters' collective optimism for the future, and our unwavering ability to step forward to work to improve our own lives and those of our children, no matter how daunting challenges of the moment seem to be.