Can Vermont solve its childcare shortage?

Vermont’s record low unemployment rate – now hovering at around 2% — has spawned another problem: the state can’t find enough workers. One recent study says Vermont is short about 11,000 workers per year.  What does child care have to do with this problem? A lot, it turns out. Parents who can’t find or afford quality child care can’t reliably show up at work and some even end up leaving the workforce altogether. But crisis is the mother of opportunity, and employers are turning to new solutions to lure workers with innovative childcare option. We explore the childcare challenges & solutions with employers, advocates and parents. (October 2, 2019 broadcast)

Emily Blistein, director of business strategy, Let’s Grow Kids

Shelley Sayward, vice president, Casella Waste Systems

Lindsay DesLauriers, president, Bolton Valley Resort

Kailie Speciale, housekeeping supervisor, Bolton Valley Resort 

Nicole Grenier, owner, Stowe Street Cafe, Waterbury; director, Children, Youth & Family Services, Washington County Mental Health, author of op-ed piece on childcare crisis

An advocate returns to the mountains: Lindsay DesLauriers of Bolton Valley on paid family leave, skiing & climate change

For the last decade, Lindsay DesLauriers has been in the news as an advocate for paid family leave and other progressive causes in her role as the state director for Main Street Alliance. In 2018, DesLauriers turned her skills from advocacy to her family business. She is now president and COO of Bolton Valley Resort, which her father Ralph purchased in the 1960s, and which she now runs with two of her brothers. DesLauriers discusses her journey from being a child growing up on a ski mountain, to ski bumming in Colorado, to returning to Vermont to champion socially responsible businesses, and now to shepherding her family’s ski area into a new era as one of the ski industry’s few female chief executives. She is implementing paid family leave in her own business and tackling the challenges that climate change poses to a Vermont ski area. (July 10, 2019 broadcast)

Lindsay DesLauriers, President & COO, Bolton Valley Resort

Will paid family leave become law in Vermont?

Paid family leave for Vermont employees moved a step closer to reality when the Vermont House of Representatives passed legislation for it on May 3, 2017. What form will the coverage take, and what will it take for paid family leave to become law? (May 3, 2017 broadcast)

Jen Kimmich, co-owner, The Alchemist

Lindsay DesLauriers, state director, Main Street Alliance