Burlington, VT — no sleepy backwater in a tiny state. It’s a hotbed!
admin January 30th, 2008
A few short weeks ago, instead of “touring” with my new book, I “got toured.” I was the lucky recipient of a whirlwind up-close look at living democracy emerging in Burlington, Vermont.
My host was the indefatigable Yiota Ahladas, head of the Center for Community and Neighborhoods in the city’s Community and Economic Development Office. Last fall she’d heard me speak, using living democracy “stories” drawn from all over the planet. So, she must have thought: Wait a minute! Lappé should see what we’re doing right in her own backyard.
So from meeting to eating, from viewing to “vanning” through town, I was immersed for two and a half days in the Burlington experience.
I learned that in only about 20 years Burlington has created a culture of expectation about citizen involvement in community problem solving, a culture in which its assumed that citizens and government work together to get things done.
And the results are already impressive: Burlington, as a share of its housing stock, has more permanently “affordable” homes than any city in the country. Since 1995, its neighborhood associations have jumped from four to fifty. Its inner-city farm, the Intervale, enables citizens, including students, to grow some their own food. A city goal is ten percent of Burlington produce coming from within its city limits in fewer than 10 years.
The city also provided land and $700,000 in grants to build Burlington’s food cooperative, the only downtown market located within reach of low-income families, which has grown to become the nation’s the 2nd largest food coop by sales per unit of space.
The day I arrived, a citizens’ board made up of the neighborhood groups with designated seats for people in poverty and in public housing was meeting to decide how the City’s CDBG dollars get spent (nearly a million). CDBG is the City’s only flexible source of development money.
In most cities the Mayor calls the shots for CDBG and likely funds the building of a big-box stores or some other common economic development strategy, or maybe buys fire trucks. But in Burlington, because of its values and process, dollars go toward strengthening citizen-led social-benefit organizations and into government support of affordable housing, local economic development, food security, neighborhood improvements, and other creative local venues to end poverty. That night was the first meeting, and women in poverty, and a film they produced, helped prepare the board about poverty to set priorities.
Restorative Justice.In Burlington, the community doesn’t just push non-violent offenders into the court system, perhaps forever damaging their life chances and costing taxpayers big bucks — while failing to heal the damage they’ve done.
Most are assigned to work out the problem with community volunteers. I got to sit around the table and see such “restorative justice” first hand as a young couple, who’d foolishly gotten caught up in an illegal prescription drug offense, talked openly with the citizen panel trained to handle such cases. The panel helps decide on appropriate restitution to the community and to victims.
The conversation moved far beyond “paying for the crime.” The community volunteers gently asked the couple about the challenges in their lives and offered supportive, non-judgmental suggestions on everything from jobs to caring for their three-year-old son. In the end, they all agreed on letters of apology, including to the pharmacy, and community service in a facility where their toddler can also play.
Restorative Justice is re-knitting communities in dozens of states, and internationally as well. Yet most Americans still haven’t heard of this commonsense way to ensure that perpetrators, victims and the community all heal — reducing the fear and division that are among crime’s worse consequences.
Welcoming 4,000 refugees in a city of about 40,000. Some outsiders might think: Oh, it’s easy to build strong community in Burlington where there are few racial and class differences; but its experience isn’t relevant to the rest of us. Wrong. In one grade school, among the children two dozen native languages are spoken. Since 1990, nearly 4,000 refugees have been resettled in the Burlington area, not even counting the growing number of immigrants and other diverse populations who are choosing Burlington as home.
To create new bonds, each family is invited to bring to school stories, cuisine and art from their homeland to share with all. One observer noted that while adults often fear differences, children see with eager eyes. After an African refugee family shared its culture, one child, I was told, rushed home excitedly: “Mommy, today I learned that in Uganda people live in mud houses. Can we build a mud house this summer?”
Circles of Support/ Neighbors Keepers. Class barriers in many American communities are just as huge as racial ones, so in Burlington small groups of citizens — some really poor, some middle class — meet together monthly. The goal is making new friends, sharing experience and helping move people in what is called “generational” poverty move into more satisfying lives. Sitting in one of these evening gatherings, I was touched by the courage of all to step into their discomfort zones and was reminded that beneath all the pain and dysfunction of poverty is isolation. Connection itself heals. Circles of Support is a nation-wide movement that began in Iowa just over a decade ago.
Americorps VISTA. Central to Burlington’s success is a cadre of young VISTA organizers who devote a year of their lives to fighting poverty. With boundless energy, these organizers are testing new ideas and programs, reaching people in poverty, leveraging resources, engaging volunteers, building the capacity of non-profit agencies, and creating a legacy of leadership and engagement that is contagious. VISTAS created or fuel many of the projects I observed in Burlington. I was impressed by the breadth and depth of their reach and impact on challenges ranging from access to health care to refugees’ micro-enterprise development.
A number of projects started with the support of VISTA organizers have not only been successfully sustained over the years but have become National models. One is the Good News Garage, which takes donated cars, trains homeless to fix them, and donates those cars to low-income people to further their economic opportunity and stability.
Burlington houses a disproportionate share of the regions poverty and effectively uses these VISTA volunteers to lower systemic barriers to opportunity and empowerment. For many of the VISTAs, their work is a stepping stone to meaningful careers in public service.
In my brief tour I learned of the city’s seven neighborhood assemblies, now officially part of how the city does its business; felt privileged to witness leadership training, available anyone who wants to become a more effective democracy-maker; enjoyed a free meal (for anyone) at a center that’s half senior center/half nursery school, and learned that in planning a new playground fifth graders were invited to draw pictures to guide designers; so, even the youngest in Burlington are learning that their voices have power!
Of course, I only touched the surface, but I hope in years to come to return many times to Burlington. For more now, see my host Yiota’s own account of community-building, Burlington-style among our Stories from the Edge.
My goal isn’t to identify “models” of living democracy; the whole idea of a model can stifle creativity. But we do learn possibility from each other; just that knowing others are breaking new ground can stir our own courage and ingenuity.
Frankie
