Affordable housing, transportation options, affordable childcare, and food access: It’s not surprising that these needs came out on top in a set of Community Health Needs Assessments published recently by Dartmouth Health and other area health care institutions.
The Dartmouth Health results were presented at the July meeting of the Vital Communities Corporate Council, which meets every other month to bring together top representatives of locally based employers to listen and respond to the challenges people face.
Dartmouth Health’s Greg Norman, Senior Director, Community Health, and Barbara Farnsworth, Director of Community Health Partnerships, gave an overview of Dartmouth Health’s assessment process and findings. Under the Affordable Care Act, health care institutions are required to complete this assessment every three years and then develop planning based on it. See the needs assessments from all Upper Valley hospitals here.
The Corporate Council then heard from representatives from nonprofits addressing the areas of need: Andrew Winter, Executive Director, Twin Pines Housing; Amy Brooks, Executive Director, Early Care & Education Association; Kristi Lenart-Rikert, Executive Director, LISTEN Community Services; Adams Carroll, Executive Director, Advance Transit; Johanna Doren, Direct Markets & Local Food Access Director, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont; and Kathleen Vasconselos, Executive Director, Grafton County Senior Citizens Council.
The panel was organized by Sarah Jackson, Vital Communities Executive Director, and Jenny Levy, Hypertherm’s Executive Vice President, People, Community & Environment, who chairs the Corporate Council. Hypertherm hosted the meeting in their Heater Road, Lebanon, facility.
Take-aways of the presentations include:
- Median household income varies hugely from town to town in Upper Valley, from $163,654 in Hanover to $46,642 in Charlestown. This means our communities are growing more segregated by income, concentrating poorer households in certain communities.
- Substance abuse treatment options and access to services for older adults have both improved since the previous assessement in 2021.
- In housing, the availability of water and sewer presents sizable obtstacles. Tariffs also drive up housing costs. Federal funding for affordable housing has been significantly reduced.
- Lower-income households are being squeezed by cuts to food stamps, heating assistance, and Medicaid. LISTEN is putting more of its budget into food and heating assistance, and the staff time required to help people navigate the red tape with getting benefits has increased by 50 percent.
- Transportation options need to be considered along with other infrastructure when planning housing, so that areas served by public transit are prioritzed for new construction.
- Federal cuts have impacted programs for small-scale and organic or regenerative farmers, and affect food access and farmer assistance focused on climate or equity. Immigration policies and tariffs also affect agriculture in our region.
“All these needs are interdependent,” said Greg. “They affect all of us. We need businesses, towns, and nonprofits to think about these needs strategically, not in isolation. If you create more childcare slots but there’s no housing for the people who need those slots, you’re in trouble.”
Published 7.16.25