Release Date: Thursday, March 17th 2016

SeVEDS Funded by Voters at Town Meetings

SeVEDS Funded by Voters at Town Meetings

Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) support requests were on the Town Meeting warning in 9 Southeastern Vermont towns this year.

SeVEDS is an affiliate of the Windham Region’s Regional Development Corporation, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC).  It is a regional board of predominantly private sector directors hail from towns throughout southeastern Vermont. Since its legal formation in 2011, SeVEDS has focused on developing a comprehensive regional plan to reverse the economic decline in Southeastern Vermont while maintain the quality of place.  In December of 2013 that plan, a federally recognized Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, or CEDS, was completed.

For the fourth year in a row SeVEDS, asked voters in the region’s towns to support the regional effort at a $3 per person calculation, and for the first time, human resources were dedicated to the petitioning process in  Westminster, Vernon and Marlboro.  On Town Meeting day the requests in the towns of Rockingham, Westminster, Putney, Vernon, Wilmington, Dover and Marlboro were funded by voters, raising approximately $54,000 to continue to augment and develop the regional workforce initiatives.  Brattleboro Town Meeting Representatives will vote on Saturday whether or not to appropriate funds to the effort.  While most towns voted to raise the funding through the municipal tax, in Brattleboro the funding will come from a program income fund established with state and federal funding for economic development.

Reversing the declining population and workforce of the Windham Region is beyond the capacity of individual towns.  SeVEDS maintains that its regional board and sustained regional funding demonstrate that all towns in southeastern Vermont have a stake in growing the regional economy and workforce.

Municipal support continues to be leveraged with existing state and BDCC financial support to staff execution of the Windham Region CEDS. 2011 and 2012 funding from the region’s municipalities has allowed SeVEDS to fund a Director of Workforce Development, facilitate the formation of the Six College Collaborative, launch a new Internship Program, and develop a young professional networking group.

With municipal support, SeVEDS has been able to connect extensive labor market research and a Windham County Hiring Inventory to career awareness and readiness programming across Windham County high schools, bringing a highly contextualized and uniquely relevant curricula that will best prepare students to enter the regional economy.

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, 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.

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 on the CEDS or SeVEDS visit www.seveds.com.

For more info contact: Kristin Mehalick, SeVEDS Project Manager, BDCC
kmehalick@brattleborodevelopment.com or 802-257-7731 ext 226