On Thursday April 30, all Brandon community members are invited to gather at the Otter Valley Union Middle & High School for a free community dinner and the opportunity to be an active participant in sharing and developing ideas for the future of Brandon.

This event is the first of three steps in the “Brandon: A Hub and Our Home” process facilitated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) to engage residents in community decision-making for Brandon’s future community and economic vitality. In the first meeting the community will brainstorm ideas for the future. In the second, attendees will choose top priorities. In the third, community members will build action plans with help from experts and create local task force groups to implement them. All community members – residents, business owners, those that work in town, youth and students, and anyone who cares about Brandon – are invited and encouraged to join the process to shape the future of town.

On April 30th, community members will come together to discuss what is working well in town, challenges facing the community, and opportunities for action on topics chosen by a group of Brandon community members with many different perspectives. VCRD will facilitate the discussions and a Visiting Team of state, regional, federal and non-profit leaders will listen, share reflections, and support the community as they begin this work.

All community members are invited to join any of the following sessions that they are interested in:

  • 4:30–6:00 pm – Community Resources; Recreation and Community Engagement; Development, Housing, and Jobs

  • 6:00–7:00 pm – Free community dinner with live music

  • 7:00–8:30 pm – Beyond Downtown; Education; Infrastructure and Public Safety

Free childcare will be provided during the forums. If you need a ride to the event, call Sue Gage at the Town Clerk’s office at 802-247-3635 x 203 to coordinate a ride from The Bus. For ASL interpretation or other accommodations, contact Alyssa at [email protected] or call/text 802-222-6896.

For those unable to meet in person, a separate online Zoom forum covering all six topics will be held from 7:00-8:30 pm. Community members can also share their ideas through online and paper surveys. A link to the login info for the Zoom forum, online survey, and more details about the process can be found at bit.ly/BrandonOurHome.

Alyssa Johnson, VCRD’s Community Visit Program Director says, “This process is a key opportunity for all members of the Brandon community to share their ideas and shape the future of their community. We know that the best ideas come from within the community, and people from all corners of Brandon are welcome and encouraged to come out and share their ideas!”

The Brandon Selectboard invited the Vermont Council on Rural Development to conduct this Community Visit process. VCRD is a non-partisan nonprofit helping Vermont communities develop their capacity for a prosperous and sustainable future.

Steps two and three of the “Brandon: A Hub and Our Home” process will take place on May 27 and June 25 when community members will come back together to champion action ideas, set priorities, and sign up for task forces to take action on each priority. A team of technical and financial resource providers will join the final step to help the new task forces as they create action plans.

“Brandon: A Hub & Our Home” is funded with support from the Northern Border Regional Commission, Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, Vermont Community Foundation, National Life Foundation, the Windham Foundation, and VCRD supporters and donors.

For more information, visit bit.ly/BrandonOurHome, or contact Alyssa Johnson at VCRD 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 90 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.