What is the VCRD?

 

This is Paul Costello, I am the executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. We are a 5013c nonprofit that is charged by the federal Farm Bill to help coordinate state and federal policy in Vermont. We do that by being a local organizer that serves democracy at the most local levels. We don’t think we know what is good for rural communities, but we help them line up around key issues that they identify, set key priorities, and line up to build action plans to move forward. We bring teams of state, federal, non-profit, and private sector officials with us to small towns and have them line up work plans to revitalize, or improve life, or advance their community or economic opportunity.

 

On the other side we facilitate statewide policy development that is informed by what we learn from communities all across the state and that looks to add up what we learned to advance policies that give communities in rural Vermont opportunities to move forward. We have done work around ag development, forest products industry, the Creative Economy, the working landscape, and the structure of planning. We manage the Council on the Future of Vermont, the largest scale analysis of public values and goals in the history of Vermont, we believe. We have led major statewide coalitions to advance broadband demand and use for community and economic development. We are always looking for how to be useful, to build unity, and advance public policy for the common good.

 

Exceeding Expectations 

 

Now there has been this perception, and there was this perception, that Rutland was in a “rut,” or something. And I’m not in any position to judge that, when we came to town people turned out, people were excited. And, you know, I think that there may have been a bottled up sort of sense of: we want to do stuff from the grassroots. We want to take leadership, but we haven’t really been asked. Or, there really hasn’t been a vehicle to do that kind of stuff before. It was inspiring. You know, for us it was really inspiring, just the sheer numbers of people who showed up and at the end of the second night I think there were one-hundred-and-fifty to two-hundred people lining up to volunteer to be on working groups. It was way beyond what you would expect.

 

A Poster Child

 

Rutland is a model of community and economic development through the creative economy. It is interesting that Rutland is, in a way, a poster child for how towns pick themselves up. And you know, in community development you’re never done. It’s not like you go through a process and everybody lines up together and you accomplish things and then you’re done worrying about community and economic development. You’re always going to have challenges, and you’re never “there.” You’re always on the train to make the best that you can of your community, and the cool thing is that a lot of really great things were gestated through the creative economy movement in Rutland. In a way, some of the very best things that have happened in Rutland in the last 10 years have come from those volunteers. It’s a tremendous bit of work that they’ve done for the common good.