Summits convene state and federal leaders and encourage their cooperative goal-setting and mutual investment in response to key rural priorities in Vermont.
Produced by the Windham Foundation and facilitated by VCRD. On August 14 and 15, 2013, a few dozen leaders in the forest products sector of Vermont gathered at the Grafton Inn for a Windham Foundation Conference entitled Vermont’s Forest Economy: Advancing Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Value-Added Forest Products. The participants of this conference brought together…
The NEK Today and Tomorrow Summit was designed by the Northeast Vermont Development Association and Vermont Council on Rural Development to build action to advance the health and prosperity of NEK communities while maintaining their character and protecting the working landscape that surrounds them. With the positive economic growth in the northern tier of the…
The Governor’s Workshop on Education, held June 12 and 13 at the Grafton Inn, was designed for the Administration and partners to explore key policy ideas to improve Vermont’s Pre K‐12 education system, to develop a comprehensive and coordinated education platform, and to define specific action steps to be implemented over the next two years…
Participants at the Summit on the Future of Vermont’s Working Landscape shared their commitment to advancing the enterprise that serves as the foundation for the future vitality of rural lands and rural communities. Five afternoon breakout sessions reviewed the five-point Vermont Working Landscape Partnership Action Plan and offered their advice to improve it and initiate…
The 2009 VCRD Summit on the Future of Vermont marked a watershed point. It served as the official “report out” to Vermonters on the findings of the Council on the Future of Vermont. It turned their findings into a challenge to Vermonters, and especially the leaders gathered together for the day, to consider specific ways…
The Council on the Future of Vermont and St. Michael’s Center for Social Science Research are proud to release Vermont in Transition: A Summary of Social, Economic and Environmental Trends. This book covers the major changes in fourteen public policy issues areas in Vermont over the past two decades. St. Michael’s College researchers worked in…
This compendium of findings highlights priority topic areas that have emerged through VCRD’s body of work, and considers challenges identified by communities, some of the accomplishments of VCRD at the community and policy level, and unmet community development needs in Vermont. Read the “Rural Development in Vermont: Community & Policy Findings” Report.
In September 2008, VCRD hosted the annual conference of the National Rural Development Partnership / Partners in Rural America (PRA). Participants from 13 states joined Vermont rural leaders in Montpelier for 4 days of dynamic sessions around “Advancing Creativity and Innovation in Rural America” which kicked‐off at the State House and included a bus tour…
VCRD chose the subject of the 2007 Conference based on the growing momentum in Vermont (and globally) to identify our unique local assets and use them as essential building blocks to strengthen our rural economies. VCRD’s 2004 report Advancing the Creative Economy, and the “Creative Communities Program” (CCP) VCRD led over the past two years,…
VCRD chose the subject of the 2006 Summit process based on deep and widespread concerns in Vermont today about global climate change, our dependence on oil, “peak oil,” and perceptions of the growing challenge of national energy policies. Paralleling global and national security concerns are the questions on the future of Vermont’s energy supply, re-licensing…