Current News

Vermont Business Magazine National Life Group has launched a new program to honor first responders who are making a difference in the communities they serve beyond their public safety duty. Through the Do Good Heroes program, National Life’s network of community-based agents will recognize and reward local police and fire-rescue departments and individual personnel making a positive impact through participation in community service activities. National Life agents across the country, with help from community members, will identify fire-rescue or police departments and personnel at the municipal, county or state level deserving of recognition and nominate them for a Do Good Heroes award.

All nominees receive a public profile on DoGoodHeroes.net, an awards presentation event, local press release and recognition on social media. Each month, one nominee will receive a $1000 award to be donated to a nonprofit organization of their choice, and up to four additional nominees will receive a $500 award to donate.

by Bill Schubart As a community, we need to make cost-efficient, long-term, and morally responsible decisions. Are we a punitive state or a supportive community that enables healing and shared prosperity? Do we invest in people and communities or jails, homeless shelters, and emergency rooms? The women’s prison (CRCF) is filthy, inhumane, and unsafe, and should be closed. No one disagrees with this, but what do we replace it with?

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public has announced the first recipients of the Made Here Fund, an initiative to broaden and diversify storytelling in Vermont. Ten projects by content creators representing six Vermont counties will receive a total of $100,000 to produce pieces including short documentary and animated films, digital shorts and audio series. The fund was launched in 2022 to broaden and diversify Vermont storytelling. Makers from across the state were invited to apply for special funding, provided by supporters including current and former members of Vermont Public’s board of directors. 

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center has received a Certificate of Need from the Green Mountain Care Board to relocate and consolidate its existing outpatient Dermatology and Ophthalmology practices at its Tilley Drive campus in South Burlington. The project, estimated to cost $35 million, will allow UVM Medical Center to address longstanding access challenges to these services, based on historical demand and highlighted by the State of Vermont’s assessment in 2021. The plan brings together four existing Dermatology and Ophthalmology sites, two of the busiest specialty practices on the hospital’s main campus, which currently have limited physical space and cannot expand to meet demand. The new facility will make more efficient use of space and resources, and offer patients a location easily reached by car or public transportation, including the free shuttle operated by SSTA, which brings patients from the downtown Burlington transportation hub to all of the clinical sites at Tilley Drive.

Vermont Business Magazine The need for more Service Supported Housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) is the centerpiece of a new study that will be released by the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council at a State House press conference on Wednesday, March 15 at noon in the Cedar Creek Room. Resources exist to build, rehabilitate, subsidize, and enhance housing for financially eligible Vermonters, including those with I/DD, but disability service providers and housing developers have not traditionally worked together in Vermont, according to the report. During the 2022 legislative session, parents of adults with I/DD came forward to advocate that more housing options be created for their sons and daughters. The result was Act 186, which commissioned the Council to prepare the report and set aside $500,000 for pilot planning grants for new housing models. The grants will be awarded later this spring.