Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday April 30, over 120 Brandon community members gathered at Otter Valley Union Middle & High School for a free dinner with live music and forums to share their experience of living or working in Brandon and what they’d like to see for the community’s future.
“Brandon: A Hub and Our Home” is a three step process for community decision-making around Brandon’s future community and economic vitality. The community is currently in the first phase which is all about understanding the town’s strengths and challenges and brainstorming ideas for the future.
Community members participated in six forums on topics including housing and jobs, education, community resources, infrastructure and public safety, recreation, and more. Earlier in the day, around 35 students at Otter Valley shared suggestions for a wide variety of actions the community could take that would make Brandon a better place for them today and in the future.
Suggestions included places for youth to gather, more entry-level jobs at local businesses, building local trails, and more. Notes from all forums will be available on the Brandon: A Hub and Our Home website.
The first phase of the process continues through May 15, and there is still time for more community members to weigh in with ideas for the future of Brandon's economy, community, and quality of life. All community members – residents, business owners, those that work in town, youth and students, and anyone who cares about Brandon – are encouraged to fill out a one-question, anonymous survey so that their perspective is included. The survey can be found both online (bit.ly/BrandonOurHome) and in-person at the Library, Senior Center, American Legion, and Town Office. The neutral external facilitators of this process, the Vermont Council on Rural Development, want to hear from every community member so that the outcomes reflect the shared values of Brandon.
In the second phase, the community will gather on May 27 at 6 pm in the Brandon Town Hall and via Zoom to review the ideas and choose a few to take action on. Like the first event, there will be free dinner, childcare, and rides to the Town Hall available. Detailed information about the next event and the whole process are available at bit.ly/BrandonOurHome or by contacting Alyssa Johnson at the Vermont Council on Rural Development at 802-222-6896 or [email protected].
Vermont Council on Rural Development
The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of the locally-defined progress of Vermont’s rural communities. A dynamic partnership of federal, state, local, nonprofit and private partners, VCRD is actively non-partisan with an established reputation for community-based facilitation. The organization has facilitated community prioritization processes with over 100 towns across the state to bring residents together to share ideas and move toward common solutions. These processes have resulted in hundreds of locally defined projects including new childcare centers, wastewater infrastructure, downtown redevelopments, and much more.
Vermont Council on Rural Development vtrural.org
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