Health Committee Meeting Notes – April 20th, 2021

Below are the notes from the Health Committee’s April meeting. This meeting most prominently featured a student research presentation on the challenges facing rural transportation in Rutland County and preliminary draft recommendations. To download a docx of the meeting notes, click here.

• Welcome and Introductions

• Announcements

  • Work Vermont 2.0 Program – Lynn Hughes (Employment Consultant 802-404-6402/mlhughes@vabir.org)

    • Program to help SSI and SSDI recipient explore self-sustaining employment
      • Wrap around support services offered
    • Goal is to improve the quality of life of SSI and SSDI recipients by raising their income level
    • Enrollment period runs from April 1^st to September 30^th
      • Program hopes to enroll 100 participants
      • Anyone who applies will receive a $25 gift card
    • Partners are asked to refer potential participants to the program
      • To qualify, participants must be recipients of SSI or SSDI, 58 years of age or younger, and worked at least 1 day in the past 5 years
    • Digital informational factsheets are available to distribute to potential participants

  • Overdose Data to Action Grant group – Caprice Hover

    • Dismas Woman’s House reopened and accepted their first group of women
    • Turning Point Center restarted their home visits in communities around the county
    • The grant helped update communication technologies with both Dismas House and Turning Point Center
    • Group is researching potential trainings for county first responders and community members, with possible contenders including:
      • Compassion fatigue
      • Substance abuse disorder language
      • Motivational interviewing
      • Substance abuse stigma

  • 211 Data – Nanci Gordon (nanci@unitedwaysvt.org)

    • Data from first quarter of 2021 is now available
    • 320 referrals related to housing and shelter in Rutland County
    • 125 referrals related to healthcare in Rutland County
    • 28 referrals for mental health evaluation/ treatment and substance abuse in Rutland County

  • Bowse House Trust – Jamie Bentley (jabentley@rrmc.org)

    • Press release soon announcing the beginning of the next application period
    • Informational meeting on May 3^rd, 3:30pm – 4:30pm, to discuss the process and various grants available
    • Learn more about the trust and sign up for the information meeting through this RRMC webpage

  • Community Health Needs Assessment – Jamie Bentley (jabentley@rrmc.org)

    • Priority area meetings on May 4^th, 5^th, 11^th, and 12^th to focus on implementation strategies
    • Each priority area has its own corresponding meeting
    • Register for the meetings via this PDF

  • Prescription Drug Takeback Day

    • The awareness holiday is this Saturday, April 24^th
    • Year-long prescription drug takeback locations in our area include:
      • Rutland Pharmacy
      • RRMC
      • Castleton Police Department
      • Fair Haven Police Department
      • Rutland County Sheriff

• Subcommittee Announcements

  • Food Insecurity Subcommittee – Kim Williams (kwilliams@vtfoodbank.org)

    • In the beginning stages of creating a resource database of all food sources in Rutland County
      • Goal is to use an app as the platform, but subcommittee is addressing logistical concerns around updating the information

• Rural Transportation and Climate Justice: Draft Recommendations presentation – Precious Makuyana and Malika Talwar

  • • Presentation and research developed from a joint project of students from VT Law School, Yale School of Public Health, and Yale School of Environment

  • Project Background

    • View transportation through its intersection with public health, greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts, and embedded inequalities
    • Transportation viewed as a social determinate of health
      • Determines accessibility to healthcare, food, employment, and education

  • Project Goals

    • Set and develop strategies to bridge the transportation gap in rural communities
      • How to increase public transportation use
      • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation
      • How to ensure transportation access is available for vulnerable populations to meet daily and essential needs
    • Inform Conservation Law Foundation advocacy around Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act, American Rescue Plan, America Jobs Plan

  • Methodology

    • 25 stakeholder interviews and community engagement
    • Literature reviews and policy analysis
    • Feedback processing
    • Project ran from Fall of 2020 through Spring 2021, with a focus on St. Johnsbury and Rutland

  • Current Transportation System

    • Vermont’s transportation system is highly car dependent
    • Transportation network contributes to 47% of Vermont’s total greenhouse gas emissions
      • Highest percentage of any state
    • Limited public transit services in rural areas
    • High reliance on non-profit transportation providers that fill in policy gaps

  • Identified Barriers

    • Rural character and built environment
      • Car-centric infrastructure that is not pedestrian or bicycle friendly
    • Access for vulnerable populations
      • Transportation difficulties for elderly, people with disabilities, and low-income people
    • Lack of awareness and information around existing transit services
      • Basic awareness that services exist
      • Real-time information about services
      • Transit providers may not be aware of the service needs of communities
    • Stigma associated with public transit
      • Inconvenient public transit network; lack of amenities, facilities, bathrooms, benches at bus stops
      • Stigmatized image of public transit users based on socio-economic and agist stereotypes
    • Electrification
      • High upfront costs for low-carbon vehicles
    • Climate Impact
      • Lack of engagement of local stakeholders in developing a climate adaptation plan
      • Lack of information around existing resilience and climate response plan

  • Preliminary Draft Recommendations

    • Enhanced public transit experiences
      • Supporting local demand responsive systems
        • One stop shop for booking and information
        • Providing funding and capital support for electric vehicles
        • Targeted outreach for specific groups of potential customers (ex. low income, night shift, elderly, people with disabilities)
      • Improving comfort and safety of existing services
        • Appealing public transit centers and bus stops
        • Reducing first and last mile connectivity issues by increasing deviation
      • Awareness and information about existing services
        • Continue technology improvements to Go! Vermont Trip Planner and its Transit App
          • Expand to volunteer driver and ride services which most benefit elderly and riders with disabilities
        • People mainly continue to rely on Google Maps and not the VT apps, demonstrating a need for targeted outreach
          • Rely upon social service agencies, veterans groups, disability rights groups to help with outreach
    • Electrification
      • Support the Mileage Smart and Replace Your Ride state electrification programs
        • Targeted outreach to communicate incentives of programs
        • Collaborate with dealerships
        • Provide more funding to expand subsidized incentives
        • A focus on medium duty electric vehicles that can handle VT terrain and weather
    • Responding to Climate Impacts and Disasters
      • Engaging key stakeholders (including nontraditional ones) in the development of resiliency and emergency plans and the Rural Subcommittee of Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act
        • Food banks and hunger councils; healthcare providers and health centers; emergency transportation providers; persons with disabilities; elderly and senior centers; veteran organizations; low-income communities; shelters
      • Communicating emergency preparedness and climate adaptation plans
      • Improving coordination with the local government and municipalities
    • Built Environment
      • Long erm shift in Vermont land use and structural development plan
        • Concentrating residential buildings, commercial growth, and essential services in designated downtown and village centers
        • Promote multiple use roads and pathways

  • Audience Feedback and Discussion

    • RRMC is in the midst of comparing funding sources for continuing and expanding their transportation network
      • Looking at two grants, one for a volunteer funding and a second for paid positions
      • Grants are mutually exclusive and it’s a tricky situation to navigate between them
    • How does the expansion of broadband connectivity intersect with transportation, especially from a telehealth perspective
    • At what level of advocacy is this form of transportation policy change most helpful?
      • Statewide groups, such as the Conservation Law Foundation, should engage local governments into this conversation
      • There is a lack of coordinated engagement at this level
    • At the municipal level, infrastructure development adoption, such as complete street policy, is driven by financial incentives
    • The 50 anniversary of ACT 250 bill, vetoed by the Governor last year, addressed numerous issues on transportation interconnectivity
      • Since it was vetoed for an entirely different reason, there is a state effort to bring back the transportation aspects of the bill as a stand alone piece of legislation

  • Moving Forward

    • This joint student association hopes to continue its partnership, expanded to a number of different issues, into the future
    • Anyone with feedback on this presentation or transportation input, please message Dale Azaria at dazaria@clf.org
      • Please do so by Monday, April 26th