The Vermont League of Cities and Towns seeks volunteers to join the VLCT Equity Committee to help us center justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging in all aspects of local government. VLCT is especially interested in volunteers with the following qualifications:
- Municipal experience
- Varied types of experience and municipal positions
- Diversity with relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability
- Represent varied types of cities and towns (rural and urban)
- Represent varied geographies
- Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion work and who will actively participate in the mission and objectives of the committee.
Application Deadline: August 28, 2024
About the Equity Committee
In the autumn of 2020, VLCT’s Board of Directors began acting to help our members tackle the complex work of justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Like our member municipalities, the Board needed to have many meetings, uncomfortable conversations, and thoughtful exchanges before taking these actions. By the spring of 2021, VLCT adopted a Statement of Equity and Racial Justice, adopted an Equity and Social Justice Plan, and called for volunteers to help us implement these concepts in the spring of 2021. The Equity Committee was charged to “… help create an action plan that outlines concrete ways that will actively promote equity and inclusion, both within the organization and with our members.” In early 2022, the VLCT Equity Committee helped build a comprehensive, three-year Equity Strategic Plan that was adopted by the VLCT Board in July of 2022.
VLCT’s mission is to serve and strengthen local governments. The Equity Committee helps us meet this mission by considering, evaluating, and recommending how VLCT should provide equity services to our members and how our organization itself can become a more anti-racist model employer and service provider. With the help of a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, VLCT was able to hire an equity consultant to build a foundation for this work, providing organizational best-practices, subject matter expertise, and recommendations on how to move forward.
VLCT hopes the work the Equity Committee is helping us undertake will create stronger communities, better government, and a more welcoming Vermont. For more information about what the Equity Committee is, what it has accomplished, or what it is working on, visit vlct.org/dei.
If you are a local official or a champion of equity, I hope you will consider volunteering to help us on this journey. Alternatively, if you know someone who you think could help us undertake this work, you may nominate an individual using the same form.