The economic issues that Vermont’s Working Communities Challenge teams took on were too big to be solved in just a few years. Problems like poverty, a lack of affordable housing, and unemployment don’t just fade away.

But the teams, and an independent evaluation by Mt. Auburn Associates, say real progress was made in Vermont, and the work isn’t over, even if their affiliation with the Working Communities Challenge is ending. That message was clear when the teams met to mark the close of Vermont’s WCC, which is part of the Boston Fed’s Working Places initiative.

“This is not a conclusion,” said Stephen Michon, deputy director of Regional and Community Outreach at the Boston Fed. “This is an acceleration and celebration of that next phase.”

Working Communities Challenge began in Vermont six years ago

The Boston Fed’s community development arm created Working Places as part of its broader efforts to promote employment and economic growth on a local and regional level. It launched the Working Communities Challenge, or WCC, in Vermont in 2019.

The first four Vermont teams received $1.9 million in funding from state, private, and nonprofit sources. The effort expanded to eight teams in 2022 with an additional $2.32 million commitment over three years from the state of Vermont.

The grant periods expired this year, along with the Boston Fed’s official support, which included guiding, organizing, and advising the teams. To mark the milestone, the Boston Fed held a “celebration event” in May, where teams looked back and ahead.

An approach that requires people to know their neighbors

The WCC aims to bring people together from sectors that might not organically interact, such as the business and social services communities. They then team up to attack a longstanding problem that locals have prioritized addressing.

Speakers at the event, including members of all eight teams, detailed their projects, results, and prospects. WCC steering committee member Ted Brady, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, emphasized the importance of these projects. But he said that to him, the core achievement of the WCC was establishing new and lasting ways for communities to collaborate.

“What we really wanted was a change in the way people were working together,” Brady said. “And I think I saw this.”

Sarah Waring, also a steering committee member, said the approach demands that people better understand their communities and each other. She said teams had to work across sectors, town lines, and industries. That meant dealing with new people, who often had different languages and cultures.

“You had to learn about your neighbors, your neighbors’ neighbors, and your neighbors’ neighbors’ neighbors,” said Waring, executive director of the Northern Border Regional Commission.

Teams share accomplishments at celebration

Each team leader summarized their achievements and hopes for what’s ahead. Here are highlights from those presentations:

• The Greater Barre team aimed for a 15% reduction in local single mothers living below the poverty line, and they’d hit 12% as of the event. Their approach included offering individual financial coaching at workplaces and working to expand access to small-dollar loans. The team also focused on mitigating the “benefits cliff,” when a raise in pay means a worker no longer qualifies for badly needed public assistance.
• The Northwest region addressed the area’s worsening housing crisis. They showed the human impacts of this challenge, spread the word about available resources, and developed new housing through pilot projects. For instance, the “Promising Properties” project works with communities to convert available municipal space into housing units.
• The Springfield team helped low- and moderate-income people find and keep employment. They supported improving transportation through “micro-transit” options, similar to ride-sharing services. They also gave out free laptops and developed digital literacy courses to assist people in their job training and searches.

Carlos Rincon, a senior community development analyst with the WCC, ended the event by emphasizing the importance of the connections the teams made, which he said are critical to continued success.

“Those connections depend on you, on keeping yourself engaged in the community,” Rincon said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”