Top shot callers in the Northeast Kingdom have rolled out a plan for the region’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, centered on longstanding problems exacerbated by the pandemic.
The plan, issued by the Northeast Kingdom Collaborative on Thursday, identifies broadband, low-income housing, the arts and more as immediate priorities for the region as it looks to bounce back.
“Having a common road map so that we’re all headed in the same direction is what we were hoping to do with this document,” said Katherine Sims, executive director of the nonprofit collaborative, which pulls together leaders across sectors in the Kingdom.
The plan details 15 recommendations for immediate implementation across five categories: broadband, housing, education, business support, and cultural and civic infrastructure. Each point lists a partner for the initiative.
Some of those recommendations are already being pursued, Sims said, such as work to install short-term, fixed-wireless projects to address the need to work and learn remotely in a region with some of the worst access to high-speed internet in Vermont.
Efforts on housing have already been made, too. Rural Edge, an affordable housing provider in the Kingdom, received CARES Act funds this month to renovate three buildings it owns in St. Johnsbury and set aside five units for families moving out of homelessess.
That will help address the plan’s call for more housing for people experiencing homelessness.
“I think it’s remarkable how quickly folks have united, acknowledging what issues we face, and really acknowledged that we have the ability working together to make a huge dent in addressing the homeless population and problem in the state,” Rural Edge Director Patrick Shattuck said.
The plan recommends not only more housing, but also expanded support systems for families who have experienced homelessness.
Physical housing, financial assistance and counseling, and outreach services are all part of addressing homelessess, said Jenna O’Farrell, who leads Northeast Kingdom Community Action, another partner in the plan.
The recommendations, she said, are “really looking at all three legs of the stool.”
Her nonprofit had added more positions in the spring to meet the growing needs for housing brought on by the pandemic. But it has added even more positions since, she said: staff who work on rehousing people and a liaison to work with landlords.
“We want to be able to go into the homes and support people to be able to maintain their housing,” she said of the support services.
Other proposals described in the recovery plan are still in the works.
One, in the education category, calls for assessing child care needs in the region. Building Bright Future — a public-private partnership established by law to monitor the state’s early care, health and education system — is helping make that happen.
“Our role in this is really to support them in conducting a needs assessment,” the organization’s executive director, Morgan Crossman, said of regional leaders.
The child care field has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. And though Crossman said details of the needs assessment haven’t yet been hashed out, she is excited to see it roll out.
“They are taking a regional approach and recognizing the needs of kids and families are different, based on where kids are in the state,” Crossman said.
Sims, the regional collaborative director, said she doubts anyone will be surprised by the recommendations. They mostly tackle topics discussed for years in the Kingdom. But Covid-19 has spurred stakeholders to act faster.
“Everyone sort of put their own interests aside and said collectively, ‘We’ve got to do whatever we can to get this out there,’” said Shattuck, the Rural Edge director.
“That energy, and that spirit, hopefully lasts a lot longer than the pandemic,” he said.
