On Tuesday February 18, all Roxbury community members are invited to gather at the Roxbury Village School for a free community dinner and the opportunity to be an active participant in sharing and developing ideas for the future vitality, quality of life, and prosperity of Roxbury.

This event is the first of three steps of the “What’s Next Roxbury?” process. Each discussion is facilitated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD). In the first meeting the community will brainstorm ideas for the future. In the second, attendees will choose top priorities. In the third, community members will build action plans with help from experts and create local task force groups to implement them. All community members are invited! That includes residents, business owners, those that work in town, youth and students, and anyone who cares about Roxbury. All are welcome to help shape the future of town.

Roxbury Country Store owner and Community Visit Chair Randy Whitney says, “I encourage all community members to join the February 18 dinner and discussion, as now is the time to have a say. We need to bring our community together to meet the goals of Roxbury’s future. The more voices involved, the better.”

Attendees can join forums to discuss what is working well, challenges in the community, and opportunities to take action. The forum topics were chosen by a representative group of Roxbury community members with many different perspectives. VCRD will facilitate the discussions from 4:30–8:30pm in the Roxbury Village School. Local residents, workers and business owners, and families will be joined by a Visiting Team of state, regional, federal, and non-profit leaders who will listen, share reflections, and support the community as they begin this work.

All community members are invited to join any of the following sessions that they are interested in:

4:30–6:00 pm – Community Connection, Coordination, & Communication
4:30–6:00 pm – Town Pride & Identity

6:00–7:00 pm – Free Community Dinner, with live music from the Northfield Fiddlers

7:00–8:30 pm – Community Spaces: Buildings & Green Spaces
7:00–8:30 pm – Seniors, Families, & Youth

The Roxbury Selectboard invited the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) to conduct this Community Visit process. VCRD is a non-partisan nonprofit helping Vermont communities develop their capacity for a prosperous and sustainable future. In the past 20+ years, VCRD has worked with over 90 communities across the state to bring residents together through their facilitated community processes to share ideas and move toward common solutions.

Alyssa Johnson, VCRD’s Community Visit Program Director says, “Communities in Vermont, especially our smallest towns, have the opportunity to define and implement their own priorities and path forward – but they need collaboration, support, and resources to get it done. This process is a chance for residents from every corner of Roxbury to share their ideas for the future of their town, and to access the support and resources they need to accomplish their goals.”

Community members can also share their ideas through an online survey. More details on the event and the survey can be found at bit.ly/WhatsNextRoxbury. Childcare will be provided during the forums; interpretation or other accommodations are available by request — contact Alyssa at [email protected] or 802-222-6896. If you need a ride you can call Susan D’Amico at 802-485-5590.

Steps two and three will take place on March 24 and April 28 when community members will come back together to champion action ideas, set priorities, and sign up for task forces to take action on each priority. A team of technical and financial resource providers will join the final step to help the new task forces as they create action plans.

“What’s Next Roxbury?” is funded with support from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, National Life Foundation, USDA Rural Development, Northern Border Regional Commission, Vermont Community Foundation, Windham Foundation, Wisdom Connection, and VCRD supporters and  donors.

For more information, visit bit.ly/WhatsNextRoxbury, or contact Alyssa Johnson at VCRD at 802-222-6896 or [email protected].

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The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of the locally-defined progress of Vermont’s rural communities. VCRD is a dynamic partnership of federal, state, local, nonprofit and private partners. Actively non-partisan with an established reputation for community-based facilitation, VCRD is uniquely positioned to sponsor and coordinate collaborative efforts across governmental and organizational categories concerned with policy questions of rural import. The organization has facilitated over 90 Community processes, resulting in hundreds of locally defined projects including new childcare centers, wastewater infrastructure, downtown redevelopments, and much more.