Stop the cuts: Advocates defend antipoverty programs

Posted on February 13, 2020 by David

The programs that low-income rely on are under attack. Nationally, Pres. Trump is slashing money for food stamps and affordable housing, to name a few. In Vermont, Gov. Scott is proposing to eliminate funds for two longstanding anti-poverty programs: the Micro Business Development Program, established in 1988, which provides free assistance and access to capital to help low-income Vermonters start their own businesses, and the Vermont Matched Savings Program, established in 2000, which matches saving and offers financial education program for low-income Vermonters. Representatives of Vermont’s community action agencies and program participants discuss the role and impacts of these antipoverty programs and what will happen if they are eliminated. (February 12, 2020 broadcast)

Jan DeMers, executive director, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO)

Liz Scharf, Director of Community Economic Development, Capstone Community Action

Jennifer Fowler and Tim West, program participants

Why are so many women poor? Breaking out of the gender poverty trap

Posted on January 15, 2020 by David

Why are women a disproportionate share of Vermonters in poverty? Why are 4 out of 10 women who work full time unable to meet their basic needs? Why do women earn 84 cents for every dollar earned by a man? What does it cost a young mom to take a few years off to raise kids? These questions and more are the focus of a report on Women, Work & Wages from Change the Story Vermont, an initiative to align policy, program, and philanthropy to fast-track women’s economic status in Vermont. The organization recently received national attention when it created sports jerseys emblazoned with #equalpay, which were worn by members of the Burlington High School girls soccer team during a game this fall. The players were penalized for wearing unauthorized uniforms but their advocacy of equal pay for women went viral. We spend the hour discussing the issues affecting women, work and poverty in Vermont. (December 18, 2019 broadcast)

Tiffany Bluemle, director, Change the Story Vermont

Cary Brown, executive director, Vermont Commission on Women

Part 1

Part 2

What could you do with a few thousand dollars? Author Bob Friedman says you can change the world

Posted on December 19, 2018 by David

What would you do with a few thousand dollars? Author Bob Friedman argues that you could transform your life, and the world, with an investment like this in his new book A Few Thousand Dollars: Sparking Prosperity for Everyone (The New Press, 2018). Friedman is chair emeritus of Prosperity Now, formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a national economic development nonprofit founded in 1979. He helped create the US micro-enterprise and savings and asset-building fields and the international enterprise development and child savings fields. (December 5, 2018 broadcast)

Robert Friedman, author, A Few Thousand Dollars

Capstone Community Action: A half-century fighting poverty and giving hope

Posted on September 21, 2016 by David

For more than a half-century, Capstone Community Action (formerly Central Vermont Community Action Council) has been helping Vermonters in need. Today, they serve thousands of people with services including emergency food and fuel, weatherization, business advice, family support and child care. We take a virtual tour of the work of Capstone with their program leaders and several program participants. (Sept. 14, 2016 broadcast)

Dan Hoxworth, executive direct, Capstone Community Action

Eileen Nooney, director, Family & Community Support

Maryanne Miller, director, Head Start & Early Head Start

Michael Deering, Head Start Parent & VP of policy council of

Paul Zabriskie, director, Weatherization program

Kelly Richardson, owner, Sunflower Salon, Waterbury

Waterbury’s Good Neighbor: Rev. Peter Plagge

Posted on December 30, 2015 by David

We dedicate our last show of 2015 to going beyond the headlines to talk with folks on the frontlines of working with some of the most vulnerable Vermonters. For 15 years, Rev. Peter Plagge has been pastor of the Waterbury Congregational Church and director of the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, an emergency financial resources for Waterbury area residents. He talks about the hidden face of poverty, how to help, and the power of listening.

Rev. Peter Plagge, pastor, Waterbury Congregational Church, Director, Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund

Fighting poverty & changing lives

Posted on December 18, 2015 by David

Leaders of two Vermont anti-poverty organizations talk about the scope of the problem and what works.

Duncan McDougall, founder and director, Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF). CLiF has provided free literacy programs and brand-new books to low-income, at-risk, and rural children up to age 12 in almost 85% of the communities in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Mark Redmond, executive director, Spectrum Youth & Family Services. Founded in 1970, Spectrum is a nationally recognized leader in helping youth ages 12-26 and their families turn their lives around, serving 2,000 teenagers, young adults, and their family members annually.

Employing the unemployable: Creating brownies & hope at Greyston Bakery

Posted on October 1, 2015 by David

If you’ve ever purchased Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked or Chocolate Fudge Brownie, you have helped the unemployed. That’s because the brownies in the ice cream are from New York’s Greyston Bakery, which employs the most unemployable people in America. The bakery has an open hiring process, and does not do screenings or background checks. What began as a social experiment in 1982 has now helped thousands of people get back on their feet.

Greyston is located in Yonkers, New York. Its mission to hire ex-convicts, recovering addicts, the homeless, and others who have had trouble finding work. Among the benefits that its workers enjoy are childcare and subsidized housing. The bakery’s profits go to the Greyston Foundation, which supports local gardens, health clinics, and free job training programs. The bakery employs about 85 people.

Mike Brady, president & CEO, Greyston Bakery

Inequalities: Civil Liberties Under Fire in Vt; Ending Inequality & Poverty

Posted on March 25, 2015 by David

Does Vermont have a racial profiling problem? Is your privacy at risk? Are your civil liberties being violated by drones, license plate readers, and other new electronic surveillance?

Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU, talks about the state of civil liberties in the Green Mountain State

Today, 47 million Americans live in poverty, while middle class incomes are in decline. The top 20 percent now controls 89 percent of all wealth. Can poverty be ended?

Scott Myers-Lipton, author of Ending Extreme Inequality: An Economic Bill of Rights to Eliminate Poverty and professor of sociology at San Jose State University

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