As an organization, our core purpose is to address foundational needs for affordable housing, food, community infrastructure, and access to land using a systems lens.
We believe that: everyone deserves access to safe, affordable, and dignified housing; farms and forests are a critical part of our communities’ and our ecosystem’s well-being; prioritizing the needs of low-income and marginalized communities creates immense statewide benefit; and everyone who lives in Vermont should feel welcome here.
In order to ensure that all Vermont residents have access to everything our state has to offer, we invest in initiatives such as:
- Creation of permanently affordable homes
- Conservation of land for community needs, such as recreational land and summer camps
- Shelters and services that reduce homelessness
- Recovery Residences to support Vermont residents with substance use disorder
- Reducing the cost of farmland for beginning farmers, and supporting partner organizations’ research into new farmland affordability mechanisms
- Free public access to conserved land
- Grant writing services for farmers, working lands businesses, small towns, and under-invested communities
- Administration of a lead abatement program that provides funding and contractors to remove lead paint, reducing children’s exposure to lead
- Administrative and fiscal support to the independent Land Access and Opportunity Board
- Supporting community-based organizations
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that the place we call “Vermont”, in which we gather, live, and work, is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Abénaki and Mohican people. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between our Indigenous friends, their land, and the natural world.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work in this place and strive to be mindful stewards of the land in partnership with Vermont’s Indigenous population, including Abénaki, Mohican, and others with Indigenous heritage who call Vermont home. We commit to fostering respectful relationships and to supporting the preservation of Indigenous cultures, traditions, and land stewardship practices.
We pledge to continue learning from and with our Indigenous friends, colleagues, partners, and organizations to promote a future where their voices are respected and upheld.
