About - Vital Communities

About Vital Communities

Our Mission

Vital Communities engages Upper Valley people, organizations, and communities to create equitable solutions to our region’s challenges, with a focus on those disproportionately impacted by them.

We work to build a thriving Upper Valley by focusing on major issues facing our region, including housing, transportation, climate disruption, access to nourishing food, and civic engagement.

Intrinsic to this work is a steadfast commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion so that people of all backgrounds and life experiences are involved at every level; and an ongoing acknowledgment that our office is sited and our work takes place within the sovereign homeland of the Abenaki Nation and People.

Vital Communities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Service Area

What is a Vital Community?

Our Approach

History

990 & Privacy Policy

Our Service Area

Vital Communities’ offices and service area are located within the sovereign, unceded homeland of the Abenaki Nation and People. Since ancient times, the Abenaki know that they have always been here, are still here, and will always be here. We pay our respects to them and the wisdom of their elders and culture.

Our 69-municipality service area includes the Upper Valley, which straddles the Connecticut River between New Hampshire and Vermont with the tri-city core of Hanover and Lebanon in New Hampshire, and White River Junction in Vermont. The area also includes other hubs such as the Lake Sunapee region, Greater Randolph, former industrials towns of the Route 11 Corridor to the south, and Northeast Kingdom towns to the north. The municipalities range in population from Lebanon, NH, (pop. 13,623) to Orange, NH (pop. 264). The region is bisected by the Connecticut River and includes the White, Mascoma, Ompompanoosuc, Ottauquechee, Sugar, Mascoma, and Black rivers, and many smaller streams. The three tallest peaks are Mount Moosilauke (4,803′), Smarts Mountain (3,238′), and Mount Cardigan (3,156′). The three largest bodies of water are Lake Sunapee, Mascoma Lake, and Lake Morey.

What is a Vital Community?

We define a vital community as one where:

All individuals have access to the resources and connections they need to live and thrive.

Everyone strives to act in close reciprocity with and respect for the land, climate, and natural ecosystems.

Everyone feels connected, included, and welcome, and sees themselves represented in their community.

At Vital Communities, these interconnected and overlapping components represent our vision for a thriving Upper Valley.

Our Approach

Our guiding perspective is that none of us know everything, each of us knows something, and together we know a lot. Together is where Vital Communities shines. We believe that removing barriers for people to come together and hosting a space so that diverse voices can be heard, doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional action and a commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, in alignment with our Strategic Compass.

Vital Communities works within the community to develop successful projects by listening, being challenged, and actively seeking out voices of those most impacted by the issue. Some projects are time-bound, achieving their goals in a couple of years. Others continue indefinitely becoming part of the community. Still others spin off to other organizations.

Vital Communities’ role in a project shifts depending on what is needed. Sometimes this means being project lead, sometimes it is coordinating a network, other times it is providing resources to a partner.

Our History

Vital Communities began in the work of the local League of Women Voters in 1993. Concerned with the number of uncontested elections in the Upper Valley, the League began to convene issue forums in which residents could ask questions about key issues and hear local experts share their perspectives. Much of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the years since we owe to founding figures such as Delia Clark, Betty Porter, and Steve Glazer.

Our History in Brief