BDCC and SeVEDS Publications:
The BDCC & SeVEDS Annual Reports provide an overview of the BDCC’s work in the previous fiscal year. The annual report is largely focused on Windham county data and looks to quantify the BDCC & SeVEDS’s impact on the region. The annual report also looks at each of the BDCC’s programs to assess their impact on the community. Previous annual reports can be found at the same link.
BDCC celebrated 70 years serving the Windham County community in 2024. To celebrate, BDCC updated a historic publication that marked a previous milestone: a 50th anniversary newspaper published in 2004 to celebrate half a century of accomplishments. The 70th anniversary retrospective adds the legacy of more recent staff, board members, and partners to that of our predecessors. Read the newspaper here.
BDCC workforce development staff published an article about BDCC’s Welcoming Workplaces programming in the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Journal in April 2024. Welcoming Workplaces supports employers in attracting, retaining and nurturing an increasingly diverse southern Vermont workforce.
A new Regional Data Report has been published (fall 2021) to provide information on the regional economy in areas such as workforce, employment, housing and demographics. It also provides information on where to get more data relevant to local or regional economic factors.
BDCC’s 2021 Guide to Recruitment and Retention offers both concrete and big-picture steps employers can take to hire and retain quality talent in a tight labor market.
The 2019 “Good Jobs” White Paper published by BDCC’s Workforce Center of Excellence. With declining birth rates, low unemployment rates, dropping workforce participation, and limited progress in addressing poverty or addiction, we can no longer afford to merely focus on today’s job vacancies. Instead we must think bigger, longer term, and system wide. It is now time to focus on the quality and quantity of those jobs today, tomorrow, and years in the future.
SoVermont Workforce Center of Excellence Brochure: This brochure provides information about, and an overview of, the various programs conducted by the Southern Vermont Workforce b of Excellence, including the high school Pipelines and Pathways Program, the Paid Internship Program, the Southern Vermont Young Professionals, and the Targeted Recruitment and Retention. It also highlights the regional partnerships in workforce development.
Pipelines and Pathways Fall 2019 Report and Scope and Sequence. An overview of the high school career development program as well as the materials for students, parents and educators to plan career awareness and learning throughout high school.
White Paper VY Impacts 2019 Update FINAL. BDCC & SeVEDS track the impact of the 2014 closure of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. The 2014 regional economic plan (2014) prioritized recovery from the lost jobs, wages, and spending.
2023-4 Brattleboro Report FINAL DRAFT This report was first produced by BDCC & SeVEDS at the request of the Brattleboro Selectboard in 2019, and updated in early 2024. It contains a general overview of economic conditions based on publicly available data sources.
In order to define the workforce challenges faced in the Windham Region, the SeVEDS 2014 Workforce Report was conducted. This was a unique opportunity to survey some of the largest businesses in Windham County and use the data for a detailed examination of local workforce. The primary purposes of this project were to define challenges in terms of a gap in workforce skills, and to analyze local job potential and opportunity in the following 5 years.
In 2019 a new initiative was launched to conduct “real time” workforce demand surveys. The first Hiring Needs Assessment Report began with a look at Accounting and Bookkeeping administrative roles in the region. In 2020 two more assessments were conducted. The second Hiring Needs Assessment Report looked at demand for Manufacturing and Production workforce. The 2020 Hiring Needs Assessment Report focused on jobs requiring CDL (commercial drivers licenses) credentials. In 2021 an informal Hiring Needs Assessment was conducted to understand construction and trades workforce needs in the region, to complement statewide labor research on this sector.
Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone Report: The Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone consists of the 44 towns across Bennington and Windham County. The report lays out the Zone’s problems as well as its assets and provides an assessment of each as well as a vision for the region going forward.
Southern Vermont Economy Project: Strategies, Accomplishments and Impacts Utilizing the USDA RCDI Grant: The Southern Vermont Economy Project, funded by USDA RCDI grant, came to a close at the end of June 2019. This three year project worked with municipalities, nonprofits, and regional organizations to increase their capacity around economic development and workforce development projects. A final presentation was put together, showing the impacts, strategies, and accomplishments over the past three years.
Apprenticeship Project Report: This 2016 outlined the feasibility of developing apprenticeship and training programs for regional employers with the ultimate goal of using such a program to recruit, attract, train, and retain workers in the Windham region. Currently, apprenticeships are used primarily among plumbing and electrical firms, but the report argues that these types of training programs could be useful to other businesses going forward, as the need to add skilled workers continues to grow.
Internship Program Report: This report focuses specifically on the internship program, providing background on the project’s goal of matching local students with an internship opening at a local business. It also looks at employer participation in the program and what industries have been participants.
Targeted Expertise Recruitment Task Force Report: In 2016 BDCC in collaboration with New Chapter convened a special Task Force comprised of CEOs, workforce partners, state officials and subject experts. The goal was to understand the challenge of recruiting and retaining workers with specialized skills and talent. This report provides an overview of the Task Force findings and recommendations which form the basis of BDCC’s ongoing recruitment assistance efforts regionally and in collaboration with state agencies.
Business Accelerator Feasibility Study: The business accelerator feasibility study was completed in 2016 and assessed whether a traditional business accelerator would be feasible in Southern Vermont. While the outcome was that there were not enough resources and business activity to support an accelerator, the report did make different loan recommendations that have informed BDCC decisions going forward, specifically pertaining to the Instig8 program.
Instig8 and Xclr8 Report: This report examines the Instig8 program, a BDCC initiative designed to help local entrepreneurs start or grow a business. The report includes best practices (such as broadly accessible workshops, mentorship opportunities, and a clear path forward for all businesses), a SWOT analysis of the region, and the need for a program such as this one in Southern Vermont.
Ecovation Hub Report: This report provides an update on the Ecovation Hub, a group formed after the closure of Vermont Yankee that was created to replace the jobs lost in the closure with employment opportunities in the fields of green building and resilient design. The report primarily provides an update on the Ecovation Hub’s various projects, looking to both the present and the future.
This BDCC Report on Internal Projects from 2017 summarizes the BDCC’s projects which includes the CEDS, Ecovation Hub, Instig8, and SVEP. This report on internal projects includes brief summaries of nine different reports; the full reports are individually linked on this page.
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies:
In 2019, Windham and Bennington Counties combined to create a joint comprehensive economic development strategies. The 2019 Southern Vermont CEDS is designed to serve the entirety of Southern Vermont. The CEDS is a guide for the continuation of successful economic development projects that will help foster the creation of new projects to aid the region’s economic situation and prepare a comprehensive inventory of economic and community development projects and job creation prospects in the region.
Windham Regional CEDS Report: A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is “a region’s playbook for engaging in collaborative, region-wide transformation of the economy in order to raise productivity, create wealth and increase prosperity for residents.” The 2014 CEDS linked exists to be the first step in reversing economic decline in the region by providing guidelines on how the Windham region must proceed if we are to remain competitve going forward. Having this document to encourage regional co-operation is crucial in a smaller place like Windham County where each town must rely on surrounding towns to create a sustainable economy.
State and Regional Publications:
The Vermont State Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is the statewide version of the Windham County CEDS highlighted above. The Vermont CEDS lays out an economic development strategy for the state and was recently updated for 2020, from an older 2014 version. The goal of the CEDS is to, “Improve the ecnomic well-being and quality of life of Vermonters while maintaining our natural resources and community values” which it achieves by laying out specific goals and measurable targets over four key areas and sets overarching targets for the next five years.
The Vermont Futures Project is an organization dedicated to improving the economic future of Vermont. The Vermont Futures Project gathers data and provides analysis about different sectors of the economy, such as workforce & talent, entrepreneurship & innovation, and economic activity. The website provides many different data points about the Vermont economy and is a useful data resource for those interseted in learning about the statewide economy.
The Vermont Advanced Manufacturing Report from 2013 was created in response to Governor Shumlin’s directive in his January 2012 Budget Address to create the “Advanced Manufacturing Partnership” to bolster Vermont’s manufacturing sector. It comprises the recommendations given by a group of forward-looking Vermont manufacturers, higher education, government and other leaders interested in manufacturing who first came together in July 2012 under the leadership of Lawrence Miller, Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, to discuss ways to help strengthen and grow manufacturing in the state and suggest some first steps toward the design and implementation of a strategic plan for manufacturing in Vermont.
Windham Regional Commission Regional Plan (2014). From the report: “The purpose of the Windham Regional Plan (the plan) is to provide guidance for change in the Windham Region. The plan reflects shared values and concerns of the people who live in the 27-towns and it discusses issues facing the region. Based on a set of over-arching regional goals and priorities, the plan sets long-term policies for the region. The plan is a living document that must continually evolve to reflect the dynamic social, economic, and environmental conditions in the region. Statute requires that the regional plan be updated only once every eight years, but it is the WRC’s intent that the review and update process should be an ongoing effort.”
From 2011, the Windham and Windsor Housing Needs Assessment (WWHT) engaged consultant John Ryan, Principal of Development Cycles, Montpelier VT, to provide a Needs Assessment for Brattleboro and portions of Windham and Windsor Counties in support of WWHT’s next five-year planning effort. The goal of the assessment is to profile housing needs in individual communities, identify areas of opportunity for WWHT, and provide important context for understanding need in relation to other regional centers within Vermont. The following summarizes key findings from that assessment. From the executive summary.