Your feedback can make a difference.
Please help us help you by sharing your feedback in the Vermont Evaluation of Rural Technical Assistance (VERTA) survey about Vermont’s system of community and economic development technical assistance for municipalities.* It will take you less than 10 minutes (promise!) to complete! Here is the survey link:
https://qualtrics.uvm.edu/jfe/form/SV_7O1GsTBwDKdNlsi
Why participate?
Vermont’s rural communities face growing challenges, including aging infrastructure, complex regulations, limited municipal capacity, and economic decline. While technical assistance (TA) providers exist, rural towns struggle to access the support they need. These challenges are further exacerbated by a lack of cohesive support from state agencies and partner technical assistance (TA) providers. While TA support exists, anecdotal evidence from rural communities suggests significant room for improvement.
Municipal staff, volunteers, and elected officials need coordinated, robust, and sustained support to strengthen municipal operations and governance, capital planning and finance, civic engagement, and community resilience. The Vermont Evaluation of Rural Technical Assistance (VERTA) charts a path forward - advancing rural prosperity through capacity building, research and data collection, student and university engagement, and strategic coordination of state agency and rural technical assistance providers to leverage better outcomes.
VERTA will work closely with UVM, state agencies, and TA service providers (like VLCT) to create actionable recommendations for an integrated approach to delivering rural technical assistance. This partnership among UVM, the State of Vermont, and TA service providers will co-develop new solutions and models of advancing rural development and resilience that retains and builds upon the rural town and village foundation that we risk losing.
*This research is required as part of Vermont’s Act 181 and is conducted as the Vermont Evaluation of Technical Assistance (VERTA) by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont and many other collaborating partners.