Practical Ways Towns Can Welcome Newcomers
Getting connected in a new town
When someone moves to a new town in Vermont, there are all kinds of ways they interact with the local municipality – getting a dog license, figuring out trash pickup or drop-off, registering to vote. All of these are important, but none of these things are particularly likely to truly help a new resident orient to the community.
In small towns that are powered by volunteers and community engagement, whose culture is built on interwoven networks, getting newcomers connected is vital. As a top state for relocators, how can Vermont towns ensure that newcomers easily find their way into meaningful community involvement?
Towns currently rely on informal welcome processes
As part of BDCC’s GROW SoVermont program to help welcome new and returning Vermonters, we called every town in Windham County to ask, “What does your town do when you become aware of new residents?”
Some towns, like Westminster and Halifax, have a welcome letter or packet for newcomers that the town clerk has put together. Other towns have volunteer organizations that deliver a welcome basket as they hear of new residents. And although town clerks do their best to make newcomers feel welcome if they come into the office, more than half of Windham County towns have no formal process or resources for newcomers.
Practical welcome strategies for towns
A more comprehensive approach to welcoming newcomers doesn’t have to be complicated.
Based on our conversations with towns and our experience working with newcomers through our relocation programs, we’ve put together some simple recommendations, along with checklists and templates to help towns evaluate and implement those recommendations.
The single most important recommendation for welcoming newcomers is to have a welcome page on your town website. The great news is that most of the necessary information is probably already on your town website – it’s just a matter of making it easy for newcomers to find! You can see a sample welcome page and download a simple planning checklist at sovermont.com/grow-partners/town-welcome.
Other recommendations include creating a simple process to ensure that relevant community organizations regularly receive lists of newcomers and that new residents know they are encouraged to stop by the town office to say hello.
You can learn more about these recommended practices through our Knowledge Bites webinar on April 17 and find helpful checklists and templates at sovermont.com/grow-partners/towns.
Let’s hear it for town clerks
Of course, this conversation wouldn’t even be possible without the dedication of the town staff that keep our communities running. Uniformly eager to help, full of information, and remarkably on top of things, these civil servants deserve all the appreciation we can heap on them. So, next time you’re near your town office, stop in and share some words of appreciation with the staff – the welcome goes both ways.
About GROW SoVermont
BDCC is a regional partner in a statewide network helping to grow Vermont by welcoming new and returning residents. The GROW network is a program of Think Vermont and is funded in part by Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
