2007 Annual Report Executive Summary

Northeast Kingdom REAP Zone

The Northeast Kingdom Collaborative seeks to encourage exchange of information and opportunities through conversations about strategic planning and community action during Collaborative public informational forums in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (comprised of three of the most remote rural counties, located in the northeast corner of Vermont).  With the direction of the Collaborative’s strategic plan, millions of dollars in state, federal, private and non-profit assistance can be induced to flow into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont by:

• Improving economic viability, diversity, and competitiveness of the local economy and enhancing its participation in state, national and global markets

• Enhancing collaboration among organizations and programs

• Increasing communications among stakeholders

• Developing and inspiring initiatives to fill gaps in services

• Sharing and enhancing access to information

• Creating opportunities to work together

• Supporting communities to identify their strengths and goals

• Connecting community organizations to one another

• Building coalitions and networks to address regional priorities

The Collaborative wishes to enhance the health of the communities in the Northeast Kingdom through identification, promotion and support of broad collaborative strategies that respond to the priorities of our communities.

The Collaborative is not a “service provider” but rather a service enabler.  An abundance of local, state and federal providers exist but their efforts are not always coordinated between and among each agency.  State-directed community partnerships also exist but sometimes they, too, do not communicate their strategies and opportunities.  What the Collaborative does best is offer a neutral ground for exploration, expansion and leveraging of ideas.  It provides only the meeting space and facilitates the appreciation of the most important resource we have in the Kingdom: its people.

The total amount of USDA dollars provided to projects in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (since CY2000) funded through the USDA REAP set-aside programs and other Rural Development loans currently exceeds $66 million.  Total Rural Development funding for FY07 was $11,267,855.  Specific funding by program area is as follows:

            $5,205,742      Business and Cooperative Programs

               $614,597      Community Programs

            $5,447,516      Housing Programs

Of significant note, most projects funded through the USDA (including those listed above) also have numerous other matching funding sources.  Matching funding from non-USDA-RD sources and the countless in-kind contributions of money and, most importantly, time from private individuals helped these projects rise off the planning tables and come to fruition.  This is successful leveraging of funds.