Right now, Brattleboro faces a defining moment.
As the Town considers its FY27 budget at Brattleboro’s Open Town Meeting on April 11th, we are being asked to make difficult choices. But let’s be clear: including Human Services funding in our municipal budget is not just a monetary decision. It is a resolution about who we are as a community and our commitment to the future we seek for Brattleboro.
Groundworks operates numerous programs, and it is true that our shelter programming is our biggest expense. While it’s fair to say that running shelters is a big part of our business, it’s not our passion or mission. What motivates our staff, from Shelter Advocates to the Executive Director, is helping people—specifically helping people in some of the most vulnerable circumstances.
We look forward to the day—and it may take years for enough housing to be available—when our shelter on South Main Street can be converted to a general-use community center and our shelter on Royal Road is available for brief stays to help people get back on their feet.
A thriving downtown and safe community are goals we all share. The path to achieving these aims runs directly through addressing the root causes of homelessness and poverty—not around them. When we all have stable housing, access to services, and our basic needs met with dignity, we are better positioned to thrive as members of our community. Our work at Groundworks isn’t just about providing immediate assistance—it’s about creating lasting positive change that benefits everyone who calls Brattleboro home.
Groundworks is planning to replace the 30-bed Morningside House with a new 40-bed shelter designed for an enhanced, refined, and safer shelter program.
Groundworks’ Outreach Team launched in February and is engaging with unsheltered people in the community; facilitating service connections related to housing, and specialized health care needs, obtaining identification, and providing support with basic needs such as critical camping gear, food, and clothing, etc.
Josh Davis, Executive Director of Groundworks Collaborative for the past 11+ years, has announced that he will be leaving the organization in the coming weeks to become the Executive Director of SEVCA—Southeastern Vermont Community Action—at the start of the new year.
The ArtLords, known for painting their war-torn capital of Kabul with Taliban-censored messages of human rights and social justice, have created their first permanent mural in the Green Mountain State on Groundworks Collaborative’s Foodworks building.
By Kevin O’Connor | VTDigger | August 16, 2023
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