Leveraging Technical Assistance to Empower Rural Communities

Final Reflections

In the final episode of the series, Suzanne Kelley and Richard Amore take a look back at how the Health Equity and Community Design Technical Assistance Pilot came about, share their takeaways from the program and reflect on how future work can take relevant concepts further. We’ll also hear from Charles T. Brown and Dr. Melicent Miller of Equitable Cities and Health Forward.

Leveraging Technical Assistance to Empower Rural Communities

As part of the Health Equity and Community Design Technical Assistance Pilot program, about 25 Vermont communities applied for and received Technical Assistance, or “TA.”  When a community receives technical assistance, they get direct support and access to experts for consulting on public health projects. In this episode of the podcast, we’ll take you through two communities that received different kinds of TA from our support team. We’ll hear from Gail Isenberg and Meg Harris, community advocates in Cornwall whose vision for a place to play pickleball blossomed into a multi-purpose recreation and gathering area. We’ll also hear from organizer Michelle McCormick, who describes a mobility audit in downtown Marshfield.

Trusted Leaders, Connecting Communities

Today, we dive into one part of the unique Technical Assistance Pilot program that wrapped up last year in Vermont.  One of the goals of the program is to provide extra capacity to municipal leaders who might want to, but not have the time, funds, or expertise on staff, to advance health equity through healthy community design and placemaking efforts.  When developing the idea for this project overall, Richard and Suzanne felt it was essential, if they were going to offer external “experts” to help towns advance health equity, that those experts included people from the populations we wanted to be sure were reached. So to make sure that the needs of all community members are being met, they developed the idea of  “Health Equity Ambassadors.”  Today you’ll hear from two health equity ambassadors about how working on the Technical Assistance pilot gave them a chance to make Vermont’s rural communities more equitable for everyone.

Empowering Vermonters to Create Better Places

We’ve talked a lot on this show about community projects that inspire ordinary people to get involved in making the places they call home better. The Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development supports many of these grassroots projects through the Better Places program. In this episode of the podcast, we’ll explain what the Better Places program is and share how it empowers community leaders to create more vibrant, inclusive, and accessible places in small towns across Vermont.

Reducing Isolation and Building Social Connection in Small Towns

In the spring of 2022, the US Surgeon General released an advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. Social isolation is an issue nationally and people living in small and rural towns are certainly not immune. Rural places connected only by highways and dirt roads make it harder to get around if you don’t drive, and cold winters make it more difficult to enjoy outdoor activities and gathering places. Racism and socio-economic barriers can also make people feel isolated in the communities where they live. To make small towns into healthier places, we need to reduce isolation and improve feelings of social connectedness. We’ll hear from Arwen Turner, Executive Director of Come Alive Outside,  Sung-Hee Chung, activist and founder of Powered Magazine, and Kelly Stoddard Poor, Director of Outreach at AARP. Each of our guests today brings a different approach to enriching our social fabric and social connectedness. A sense of belonging can improve people’s lives by almost every measure, from physical health to mental well-being.