Social sources

Researchers have studied how greenspace influences human health. These forest bathing participants find benefit in surrounding themselves with nature.

Under the bill, fathers in prison would be able to take parenting classes, visit with their children in a child-friendly space and talk to them via free video calls.

Current home set to be torn down soon

Here are four groups across the state that are fighting for a safer, more just Vermont.

The program lives in a space distinct from the cold surfaces of the rest of the prison. In the room two green couches sit atop a patterned rug, with a shelf of toys stacked against the wall.

The bill would guarantee employees can take two weeks of unpaid time off from work after the death of a family member.

A third of Vermont high schoolers described recently struggling with mental health when they answered the state’s latest survey of youth risk behavior.

The bill is modeled after California’s 2024 School Food Safety Act.

Rutland Regional Medical Center has installed a Mamava lactation pod providing hospital workers and the public a comfortable, private place for mothers to pump.

“It’s a really gut-wrenching situation for all the parties involved,” said the commission’s executive director.

The Central Vermont Refugee Action Network was founded in 2015 due to concerns with how people were being separated and mistreated at the border.

Usually up to 20 detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are held in state prisons on a given day.

VT Dog Rescue continues its work after founder’s death.

The state advisory group plans to keep monitoring research and policy around psilocybin nationwide.

The Greater Randolph Senior Center delivers about 45 meals per day to homebound people 60 and older, as well as adults with disabilities.

“Prisons are the least transparent and most understudied public institutions in the country. So doing research inside prisons — people just don’t do it, and therefore they’re like these black boxes.”

In a unanimous resolution, city councilors said Winooski had “greatly benefitted from his dedicated work and effective leadership” and that he made the city “a better place for years to come.”

“Music is one of the longest lasting forms of memory because it’s mapped in so many different parts of the brain. So even when there’s deterioration, music can stick,” an event co-founder said.

The stockpile can reimburse search and rescue efforts in the Green Mountain National Forest, said the state treasurer.

Any Brattleboroean can benefit from MicroMoo2 but the influx of resettled refugees made the need even more urgent.

As of mid-July, none of the property owners nor local officials had heard back from FEMA. A year after floods ripped through Vermont, they have been left in the lurch. 

“We want to bring to bear for good, but we also want to do that in a very humble and a servant style.”

Tent City, as the encampment was known, sat tucked in a patch of woods behind the downtown train station and Food City grocery store.

Elkins and Gravel became co-executive directors in January. Putting the statement into writing, said Elkins, was a way for AWARE to take a concrete step toward committing to diversity.

Participants slept outside to raise awareness of veteran homelessness and to fundraise for a nonprofit called The Veterans’ Place in Northfield.

Right now, around a dozen interns regularly assist about 30 people at three Cathedral Square locations.

Homelessness rates in Vermont have shot up by 18.5% since last year, as of this past January.

Under current law, first responders employed by the state don’t have to prove PTSD is related to work when seeking workers’ compensation. The new bill would give that presumption to more state workers.

‘It’s not necessarily doing anything to reinvent restorative justice or restorative approaches; it is making it so it is more streamlined access across the state,’ Dolan said. ‘This is trying to get some consistency and also respect the uniqueness of each county.’

“What does it hurt to do this? What if you’re a student who, for the first time, is getting a period, and you forgot something?” said the bill sponsor.

More people aren’t getting the help they need for basic services, which has meant the library is asked to fill that gap.

Now the Vermont Department for Children and Families is perhaps two months away from setting up temporary quarters in Middlesex in a state complex most recently used for inpatient mental health.

The state’s pandemic-era motel voucher program will continue for Winooskians and other Vermonters until April 2024. 

Nearly one in five positions sits empty within Washington County’s state-designated mental health provider.

Social services leaders say they’re scrambling to figure out what to do when the state’s program to help homeless people stay in hotels ends.