Champlain Initiative
The Champlain Initiative is a multi-sector collaborative that mobilizes the creativity and resources of the community to address key challenges identified by stakeholders. It was established in 1996 with a mission of improving the health of our community over a 20-year period.
We work through a team approach that is guided by shared vision and informed by key indicators and community dialogue.
Our team initiatives:
- Incubate critical community services and programs;
- Leverage financial and human resources to solve our community’s greatest challenges;
- Connect public and private sector initiatives to maximize investments in our community; and
- Measure improvement in the region’s health and quality of life using indicators.
INITIATIVES
The Champlain Initiative is examining the causes that shape our challenges, connecting people who are creating innovative solutions and exploring how we can ensure our community is stronger for the coming changes.
Building on the outcomes of our ten-year anniversary stakeholder meeting in 2006, the Champlain Initiative is engaging our community in multi-sector solutions to four challenges that participants identified as changing the face of our community:
- Demographic Change
- Health
- Energy
- IT & Communications
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Since our inception, the Champlain Initiative has created innovative and positive changes in our community, including:
Our Get Info Champlain Valley project became Vermont 211, the state’s information and referral system. As Vermonters grapple with the impacts of the recession, Vermont 211 receives more and more calls.
Our Get on the Move Champlain Valley helped establish the Vermont Department of Health’s Get Moving Vermont campaign, resulting in new fitness opportunities for staying healthy.
The Champlain Initiative’s Our Children Our Future project brought statewide attention to the assets of at-risk teenagers, helped establish a community focus on mentoring with the creation of Mobius - the Mentoring Movement and played a key role in the construction of the Burlington Skateboard Park.
Our Healthy and Just Community initiative was instrumental in the formation of the United Way of Chittenden County’s Bridges Out of Poverty project. This innovative project encourages communities to remove personal, social, economic and political obstacles that prevent individuals from becoming self sufficient. This has been a particularly valuable program for employers in raising awareness about generational poverty and providing support to their employees to improve retention and promotion of lower wage workers. The University of Vermont is one of the employers benefitting from this initiative.
Our Champlain Counts reports demonstrated how diverse stakeholders can work together to establish indicators of a healthy community, measure progress toward our goals and identify how individuals, organizations, government and businesses can take action.
If you would like to join a team, or learn more about our work, please contact Barry Lampke at barry@unitedwaycc.org or (802) 861-7836.
