Latest Progress Reports
Northeast
Kingdom
REAP Zone
Lead
Entity:
Northeast
Kingdom
Enterprise
Collaborative, Inc.
Demographics
State:
Vermont
Community
Population:
60,862
Poverty
Rate: 13.5%
Background
Essex
, Orleans
and
Caledonia
Counties
of
Vermont
make up an area known as the “Northeast
Kingdom”. The
three county region is the most isolated and sparsely populated corner of the
state. As a result, it has
consistently been the most economically distressed.
The countryside is dotted with picturesque villages that have lost their
economic foundation, leaving behind poverty and a community infrastructure with
few means of support.
Purpose
The Rural Economic Area
Partnership (REAP), as a pilot program, is established to mitigate the negative
effects of a lack of employment opportunities and job losses to rural
communities. This REAP is also
established to create an environment for communities to find strategies to solve
their own problems. The outcomes and
lessons learned will help USDA to assist other communities throughout rural America
experiencing similar problems. The REAP will document the success of the Northeast Kingdom Enterprise
Collaborative and its member’s efforts to promote social, economic and
community development in the region.
The Northeast Kingdom
Enterprise Collaborative is committed to the economic and social well being of
the Northeast
Kingdom and the highest possible quality of life for its
people and communities. The
Northeast Kingdom Enterprise Collaborative is a non-profit organization
incorporated in the state of
Vermont.
The
Board of Directors is inclusive of the community, including low income
residents. The Board of Directors
will bring a wide variety of public and private individuals and organizations
from the area into the planning of the demonstration area.
The Snelling
Center
for Government will provide financial and
administrative services for the Northeast Kingdom Enterprise Collaborative.
Strategic
Plan Highlights
- Economic
Development – in order to promote economic development the Northeast Kingdom has
targeted high unemployment, low wages, and low skills as major areas of
emphasis and will; improve technical assistance for businesses, in marketing,
financial management, and communication skills in order to promote
productivity; provide workplace skills training to allow for individual
business success, promote career ladders with educational opportunities;
recruit industries paying livable wages while developing and
maintaining physical infrastructure needed to support economic development;
support activities for commodity producer associations to enable collective
processing and marketing efforts, increase activities that allow landowners
and loggers to manage and harvest timber in a manner that maximizes income
for themselves.
- Education
– develop cost effective means to meet professional needs of our schools
to deliver excellent educational programs, improve the provision of training
to target market driven needs of traditional age students, mature students,
employees and employers, and entrepreneurs by developing facilities and
initiatives, implement plans to improve Telecommunications infrastructure in
the region by increasing knowledge and capabilities of all residents, and
use distance learning to increase access to educational opportunities,
develop curriculum and activities that connect schools to the community,
recognize youth are an import asset in the region and support youth leadership
roles in the community, promote the use of community libraries as important
educational and community resources.
- Local
Government and Leadership – implement leadership development programs,
provide expertise to communities to assist them in
techniques for citizen involvement, support services for volunteers, teach
conflict resolution to civilians, provide technical assistance for grant
writing and fundraising to local governments and organizations; provide
financial and technical resources to maintain, restore, upgrade and improve
accessibility of historic community buildings.
- Health
and Wellness – increase the number of health career providers in the
region; develop professional health education programs within the region, and
use telecommunication technology to provide local access to medical
specialties and diagnostic services that cannot be sustained on a full-time
basis; improve transportation to medical facilities and/or establish
satellite clinic sites in remote areas; teach health and wellness at local
resource centers to promote healthier civilians, and develop a comprehensive
education and wellness strategy for the Northeast Kingdom.
- Housing
– preserve landmark historic structures as affordable housing through
continued or adaptive reuse as multi-family housing; repair and rehabilitate
single family homes; expand housing for seniors and
special needs persons; support programs which assist individuals in the
affordable ownership of their own homes; support programs which meet
housing expenses; rehabilitate mobile home parks; provide housing to
homeless families, individuals, and youths; expand transitional housing
that matches housing opportunity with independent living skill development;
eliminate lead based paint in homes and educate citizens on essential
maintenance practices.
- Transportation
- upgrade roads, bridges, bicycle, pedestrian
and trail networks, and assist low income residents to own their own
vehicles; expand and support efforts to recruit volunteer drivers; encourage
the integration of public transportation and school bus transportation;
improve collaboration among organizations and individuals with shared and
interdependent service of economic needs for transportation; market options
to the public such as lowering prices of public transportation; improve
airport facilities to accepted FAA standards enabling airport to operate
during non-daylight hours, inclement weather, or up to fifteen hours per day
in the winter; revitalize Northern Vermont Railroads.
- Arts
and Culture - Maintain artistic
and cultural venues by sustaining and increasing sales; maintain and improve existing
facilities and create new facilities; build philanthropy to support the
arts; increase programs for children to participate in the arts, including
linking artists with schools and youth programs; provide programs that honor
and support the history and culture of the region.
- Recreation,
Parks and Conservation – increase recreation programs and accessibility
including: developing facilities to promote indoor recreation; creating
recreational use plans for newly conserved areas and other trail networks,
and managing recreational use on trails corridors; promoting community
involvement to improve water quality and conserve key natural resources.
Contact: |
David Snedeker |
Address:
|
181 Rod Key Street |
|
Lyndonville, VT
05851 |
Telephone:
|
(802) 748-5181
|
Fax: |
(802) 748-6042 |
Email: |
dsnedeker@nvda.net
|
Last Updated:
05/19/2008
REAP
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