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.
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Welcome and Introductions
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Announcements
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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 1st to September 30th
- 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
- Program to help SSI and SSDI recipient explore self-sustaining employment
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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
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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
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Bowse House Trust – Jamie Bentley (jabentley@rrmc.org)
- Press release soon announcing the beginning of the next application period
- Informational meeting on May 3rd, 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
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Community Health Needs Assessment – Jamie Bentley (jabentley@rrmc.org)
- Priority area meetings on May 4th, 5th, 11th, and 12th to focus on implementation strategies
- Each priority area has its own corresponding meeting
- Register for the meetings via this PDF
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Prescription Drug Takeback Day
- The awareness holiday is this Saturday, April 24th
- Year-long prescription drug takeback locations in our area include:
- Rutland Pharmacy
- RRMC
- Castleton Police Department
- Fair Haven Police Department
- Rutland County Sheriff
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Subcommittee Announcements
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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
- In the beginning stages of creating a resource database of all food sources in Rutland County
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Rural Transportation and Climate Justice: Draft Recommendations presentation – Precious Makuyana and Malika Talwar
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- Presentation and research developed from a joint project of students from VT Law School, Yale School of Public Health, and Yale School of Environment
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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
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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
- Set and develop strategies to bridge the transportation gap in rural communities
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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
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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
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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
- Rural character and built environment
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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
- Continue technology improvements to Go! Vermont Trip Planner and its Transit App
- Supporting local demand responsive systems
- 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
- Support the Mileage Smart and Replace Your Ride state electrification programs
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Long erm shift in Vermont land use and structural development plan
- Enhanced public transit experiences
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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
- RRMC is in the midst of comparing funding sources for continuing and expanding their transportation network
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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
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