UVM Leahy Institute Grant to Help Develop Regional Organization for Immigrants
The Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships at the University of Vermont has announced nearly $2.4M in grants to fuel partnerships between UVM and organizations throughout Vermont with the goal of addressing pressing challenges in our state. BDCC will be the recipient of one of the grants to develop a community based organization that will support a growing new American community in southern Vermont. This new project will build upon an ongoing UVM faculty research project led by Professor Pablo Bose, executed in partnership with SIT World Learning and ECDC, the southern Vermont refugee resettlement agency.
More than 20 UVM research programs will participate in these projects, which will influence the work of over 40 public, private, and nonprofit organizations in Vermont. “These grants embody our land grant mission by ensuring that expertise from across the University of Vermont is applied for the direct benefit of our state,” said Patricia Prelock, UVM Interim President. “These university-community partnerships stimulate dialog, identifying challenges and offering potential solutions that strengthen Vermont communities while impacting research and learning here on our campus.”
BDCC’s work to support immigration is part of a strategic approach to economic development based in the Southern Vermont Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. Learn more at https://brattleborodevelopment.com/seveds/ and https://www.sovermontzone.com/ceds
Read the complete UVM press release to learn more on projects across Vermont at https://www.uvm.edu/news/engagement/uvms-leahy-institute-awards-24m-advance-vermont-partnerships
About BDCC Welcoming Communities
Welcoming Communities is a series of initiatives and collaborative partnerships that seeks to make the region more equitable and inclusive for current and future BIPOC community members, and for foreign-born workers, and non-citizen residents. It seeks to improve the ways in which all BDCC programs serve diverse stakeholders, and launches new targeted activities through partnerships with employers and community-based organizations. The long-term goal of Welcoming Communities is to build a community and economy that supports diversity, immigration and in-migration to southern Vermont to increase the vitality of our communities and strength of our workforce. For more information please visit www.brattleborodevelopment.com
