A message from Kara...

As a member of the Council on the Future of Vermont, and as the Executive Director of RU12?, I would like to personally invite you to a special LGBTQ focus group on Thursday, June 19th from 5-6pm at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.  This unique and historic event will be taking place in the Pickering Room, upstairs at the Library. This is our chance to contribute our unique perspectives and concerns about Vermont's future to what will be a significant final report to be used by policy makers and leaders for years to come.

RU12? is proud to be partnering with the Council on the Future of Vermont which is a 2 year program, produced by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD). VCRD is a small non-profit that works on rural policy initiatives at the state level. This policy work is grounded by work in local communities, where VCRD does visioning, facilitation and convening to help bring communities together around the strategic issues and plans that are defined locally. This new program, the Council on the Future of Vermont, is meant to step back from some of this local work to identify and explain what issues are common across the state, what challenges and opportunities we face, and what priorities Vermonters have for the next generation. Our mission is to create a statewide dialogue in which each Vermonter has the opportunity to share the vision they have for the future and what we might do to achieve that vision. 

To do this, the Council on the Future of Vermont is traveling all around the state of Vermont, sitting down with high school students, with seniors, firemen, teachers, nurses, business leaders, veterans, pastors and many others. We’re holding public forums as well as focus groups. We will be visiting the greater Burlington area on June 19th, and would like to invite the LGBT community, with the help of the RU12? Community Center, to join us for a discussion of about an hour. We would value learning from members of the LGBT community in the Burlington area about how Vermont has and should react to equal rights issues, to social and cultural trends, and to safe and healthy spaces for all its citizens. We think that this conversation will ensure that the work we’re conducting all over the state does not miss this critical element of Vermont’s future. The Council on the Future of Vermont wants to ensure that this project reaches deep into Vermont’s current issues so that this project can serve as an historic marker for our time. We hope you can be a part of this work.

For more information fact sheets are attached and you may also visit www.futureofvermont.org.

Please help spread the word and feel free to contact me with any questions, 860-7812.