e-Vermont - Vermont Council on Rural Development

About e-Vermont

From 2010 to 2012, the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project helped rural towns realize the full potential of the Internet. e-Vermont worked locally to ensure best use of online resources to strengthen everything from education to government to business to community connections. It was funded through a federal program for Sustainable Broadband Adoption (SBA) and the matching support of local funders. It was one of only two projects nationwide to receive funding in the first round of NTIA Sustainable Broadband Adoption grants for a community based approach to adoption.

Through a competitive application process, the e-Vermont partners selected 24 rural communities from around the state to receive services between spring of 2010 and spring of 2012. Each partner provided a different area of expertise, including technology in education, small business development, public libraries, municipal government, basic Internet education, and strengthening neighborhood communications.

Details of our first year of work are found in the June, 2011, annual report. Two updates are available, the December, 2011, midyear update, and a March, 2012, addendum. A report is available from our final conference on Vermont’s Digital Future.

The final report summarizing all work in e-Vermont and larger lessons learned is available here; final reports for individual communities are available here.

Services

e-Vermont Partners collaborated with 24 communities from 2010-2012 offering services in a range of areas, which are described below. Many of the lessons learned and resources developed through this in-community work are made available through our toolkits and archived webcasts. To read about services received by individual towns, please visit the communities page.

Community Conversations – Identifying creative projects to meet local goals through the Vermont Council on Rural Development
Accessing Information Anywhere – Libraries in the digital age and the Department of Libraries
21st Century Learning – 1:1 computing initiatives in Vermont schools with Digital Wish
Teaching the Basics – Lessons in basic Internet skills from the Vermont State Colleges
Growing Your Business Online – Advising services for small businesses from the VT Small Business Development Center

Partners

Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) – VCRD served as the lead partner for the e-Vermont project. VCRD helps Vermonters and Vermont communities develop their capacity to create a prosperous and sustainable future through coordination, collaboration and the effective use of public and private resources.

Broadbandvt.org – The broadbandvt.org website is the primary broadband information resource for Vermonters and houses the initiative to map Vermont’s broadband infrastructure.

Digital Wish – Digital Wish is solving technology shortfalls in our schools by getting equipment into classrooms, engaging parents and the larger community, and helping educators integrate technology into their teaching goals.

Digital Wish – One-page overview

Front Porch Forum – Front Porch Forum helps neighbors connect and builds community through hosting regional networks of online neighborhood forums throughout Vermont.

Snelling Center for Government – The Snelling Center for Government is committed to a vision of government that works for the people of Vermont. It runs the Vermont Leadership Institute and Vermont School Leadership Project, engages the public on policy issues, and consults on projects to make government and government programs better.

Snelling Center for Government – One-page overview

Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) – VtSBDC provides no-cost, confidential business advising and low-cost training services to all small businesses and new ventures in Vermont. They offer specialized resources in agribusiness, technology and commercialization, government contracting (PTAC), regulatory and environmental assistance, youth entrepreneurship, and assistance to veterans and service-connected Vermonters.

Small Business Development Center – One-page overview

Vermont State Colleges – The Vermont State Colleges (VSC) have a mission of providing affordable, high quality, student-centered and accessible education, fully integrating professional, liberal, and career study. The VSC system includes the Community College of Vermont, Vermont Technical College, Castleton State, Lyndon State, and Johnson State colleges.

Vermont State Colleges – One-page overview
VSC e-Vermont Workshops (doc)
VSC Workshops in One Sentence (doc)
VSC Workshops in One Sentence (doc)
VSC Workshops – Promotional template (doc)

Vermont Department of Libraries – The Vermont Department of Libraries is part of the Agency of Administration and provides a variety of library and information services to state government, libraries statewide, the general public and Vermonters with special needs.

Department of Libraries – One-page overview

The e-Vermont Community Broadband Project also benefited from the participation of the Evslin Family Foundation and Vermont Community Foundation in our partnership, and the media and outreach work of Flywheel Communications.

Funding & Sponsors

Funding and Sponsors

e-Vermont is supported by a $2.5 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, with matching support from the following Vermont philanthropists and corporate associates (bringing the total value of dollars supporting the project to $3.7 million):

Dell
Comcast
Evslin Family Foundation
Jan and David Blittersdorf Foundation
Microsoft
University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies
The Vermont Community Foundation
Vermont Rural Partnership

e-Vermont Materials

The following materials were created for town e-Vermont steering committees to use when organizing local projects and outreach, and are helpful to clarify the e-Vermont program.