Education

HowardCenter Diversity Committee and HowardCenter Developmental Services host a powerful evening of film and panel presentation celebrating the closing of the state institutions that housed people with Developmental Disabilities in Vermont and New Hampshire until the 1990s. The amazing difference that inclusion in the community made for people with Developmental Disability will be highlighted in the presentation

The feature film is Lost in Laconia, a powerful documentary created by Gordon DuBois, about the closing of Laconia State School in New Hampshire in 1991. Vermont closed Brandon Training School soon after and was the first state to achieve complete community integration. The film will be followed by a panel comprised of clients and staff from HowardCenter who lived and worked at the Brandon Training School and film maker Gordon DuBois. Part of HowardCenter Diversity Committee and HowardCenter Developmental Services evening program on the difference that inclusion in the community made for people with Developmental Disability.

Watch the program here.

The 1991 Takeover, along with its 1988 predecessor, were instrumental in forming the University of Vermont's policies and initiatives regarding diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion. Changes that have occurred since the takeovers include, among other things, five Presidential Commissions, the appointment of a Chief Diversity Officer, a six-credit diversity requirement and a student body that is comprised of 10% ALANA students.This panel discussion and other speakers will consider the historical context for the 1991 Waterman Takeover, and examine the changes that have come about at UVM in the past twenty years. Introductory Remarks - Dr. Wanda Heading-Grant '87 G'03, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Vermont  Panel: Afi Ahmadi '93, Attorney, Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C.; member, UVM Alumni Association Board of Directors - Pat Brown G'92, Director of Student Life, University of Vermont - Laura Fishman, retired UVM Sociology professor - Phillip Gonzalez '91, Director of Grant Making, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation; member, UVM Boston Regional Alumni Board - Karl Jagbandhansingh '05, Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator, National Radio Project - Roddy O'Neill Cleary, retired UVM Women's Studies professor and retired minister - T.J. Whittaker '91, Teacher, South Orange/Maplewood School District, New Jersey

Panel Discussion Moderated by: Felicia Kornbluh, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of Vermont
Panelists: Liz Bankowski, Former Vice President of Ben and Jerry’s, Former Chief of Staff, Kunin Administration and Transition of the Governor, Shumlin Administration;
Meaghan Emery, South Burlington City Councilor; Wanda Hines, Director, Social Equity Investment Project, A program of the City of Burlington; Carol Ode, Esq.; 
Honorable Mary Miles Teachout, Superior Court Judge, State of Vermont.  Part of the Ready to Run Campaign Training for Women event at University of Vermont, Dudley H. Davis Center. The event’s primary sponsors are UVM and the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.

Those of us in the trenches of nonprofit work can feel overwhelmed by the double whammy of decreasing funding and increasing demand for services. Sometimes we feel like we are spinning our wheels in isolation. That’s why I am looking forward to seeing all of you at the Vermont Nonprofit Conference 2011 on April 14th!

We’ll be able to get together to learn more about “Measuring, Marketing & Money”. Check out the line up! There will be a fine slate of presenters–including Gretchen Morse (United Way of Chittenden County), Joy Livingston and Donna Reback, Rachel Jolly (Vermont Works for Women) and the folks from Spike Advertising. They will teach us how to tell if we are making a difference so that we can increase our funding and community support.