BDCC Thanks Sponsors for May 12 Summit: ‘Cultivate Change’
Southern Vermont – BDCC would like to thank sponsors of the Fifth Annual Southern Vermont Economy Summit, to be held May 12th, 2022 in Dover, Vermont. People’s Bank will be this year’s Summit sponsor. Brattleboro Savings and Loan joins them in sponsoring this year’s plenary Keynote, “Building Systems to Welcome New Americans,” by Joe Wiah and Thomas Huddleston of the Multicultural Community Center, who are leading regional efforts to welcome people displaced from Afghanistan.
Registration for the event is now open and can be found at www.SoVermontZone.com/Summit. The theme for 2022 is “Cultivate Change”.
Sponsors make it possible for this event to attract nationally recognized speakers like Daniel Herriges from Strong Towns. The Vermont Department of Commerce and Community Development is sponsoring Herriges, who will provide two workshops on housing and redevelopment. Strong Towns is a nationally recognized organization dedicated to revitalizing small and rural communities.
At lunchtime, MSK Engineering of Bennington, VT will sponsor the lunchtime keynote, “Decriminalize Development,” presented by Chet Clem of Lyme Properties. A contributing member of Proud Places and 3rd generation leader of the “Damn It, Do It” movement, Chet was formerly the Editorial Manager at The Onion. His talk will serve to bring some levity to bear on the ‘D-Word’ and encourage positive change in our communities.
In addition to these topics, attendees can choose from a variety of sessions geared toward business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs, government officials and board members from across the region, and economic development professionals.
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and Bennington County Regional Commission co-sponsor the event on behalf of the Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone, and as part of the Southern Vermont Economy Project, which helps build capacity, expertise and resources in the Zone with support from the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative.
Additional sponsors of this year’s Summit include Green Mountain Power, The Bank of Bennington, Stevens & Associates and M&S Development, The Richards Group, the Vermont Community Loan Fund, Efficiency Vermont, AARP, Vermont Student Assistance Corp, GPI Construction, and Engelberth Construction, Inc. Vermont Electric Power Co (VELCO) is sponsoring a SoVT themed hat for all attendees registering prior to April 15, 2022. In addition, The Vermont Futures Project will sponsor materials recognizing Southern Vermont’s Emerging Leaders.
BDCC would also like to thank our community sponsors: Vermont News and Media, Front Porch Forum, Great Eastern Radio, Vermont Business Magazine, GNAT TV, and Five Maples Development Communications.
Press Contact:
Meg Staloff, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation
(802) 257-7731 mstaloff@brattleborodevelopment.com
About the Southern Vermont Economy Summit
The Southern Vermont Economy Summit is an initiative of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Southern Vermont Economy Project (SVEP), which works to stabilize, improve and expand the rural economic and workforce development network in Southern Vermont. The Summit’s goal is to increase capacity and collaboration among partnering organizations and communities. SVEP is funded by the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative, as a program of BDCC & SeVEDS. For more information on the summit, please visit: www.SoVermontZone.com/summit
About the Southern Vermont Economy Project
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Southern Vermont Economy Project provides training and technical assistance to increase local capacity, skills, and resources in order to advance local projects critical to Southern Vermont achieving community, economic, and workforce development goals. In its second round of funding by the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative, SVEP 2.0 partners include; the Towns of Rockingham, Brattleboro and Bennington; the Windham Regional Commission; Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies; Bennington County Regional Commission; Bennington County Industrial Corporation; Readsboro Hometown Redevelopment Inc.; and Bellows Falls Area Development Corporation. For more information please visit: www.brattleborodevelopment.com/svep/
About the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation is a private, nonprofit economic development organization that serves as a catalyst for industrial and commercial growth throughout Southeastern Vermont, including Windham County and the towns of Readsboro, Searsburg, Winhall and Weston. BDCC serves as the State of Vermont’s certified Regional Development Corporation (RDC) for the greater Windham County area. BDCC is one of 12 RDCs throughout Vermont. This BDCC activity was made possible in part by a grant from the State of Vermont through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. For more information visit: https://brattleborodevelopment.com/
About Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies
Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) is an affiliate of BDCC that grew from a 2008 grassroots effort, initiated by BDCC, to reverse the economic decline of the Windham Region and plan for the economic impacts from the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. In 2014, after multiple years of regional input, education and data gathering, SeVEDS submitted the Windham Region’s federally recognized S.M.A.R.T. Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for federal approval. For more information visit: www.seveds.com
About the Bennington County Regional Commission
The Bennington County Regional Commission (BCRC) was created by the seventeen towns and villages it serves and works on behalf of those municipalities to build strong, resilient, and sustainable communities, to foster economic prosperity, and to promote a high quality of life for residents of the region. The BCRC is one of Vermont’s eleven regional planning commissions, and it also provides the services of a regional development corporation. For more information visit www.bcrcvt.org
About Bennington County’s Regional Economic Development Group (RED Group)
The Regional Economic Development Working Group (RED Group) is a volunteer body committed to increasing the shared prosperity and quality of life for the seventeen municipalities in southwestern Vermont. The group has a diverse membership that reflects the varied community, business, workforce, and demographic characteristics of the region. The RED Group focuses on the internal and external economic development issues that affect the Bennington County region as a whole; the regional implications of local economic development issues; the process of regional economic development from local, state, and federal perspectives; and options for future initiatives.
About the Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone
The Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone was established by an act of the 2015 Vermont Legislature. The Zone convened a Committee which called on Bennington County and Windham County to develop a region-wide CEDS. For more information please visit: www.SoVermontZone.com
About the Southern Vermont Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, or CEDS, is a strategy-driven plan for regional economic development. The CEDS development process is designed to bring together public and private sectors in the creation of an economic roadmap to diversify and strengthen the regional economy. The CEDS development process analyzes the regional economy and serves as a guide for establishing regional goals and objectives, developing and implementing a regional plan of action, and identifying investment priorities and funding sources. The Windham Region’s federally approved CEDS was completed in 2015 by SeVEDS and is being implemented by BDCC. The 5-year update will include Bennington County and all Towns within the Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone. For more information please visit: www.SoVermontZone.com/CEDS
