!!! Montpelier CAN! Please help...
Gwendolyn Hallsmith
The city needs volunteers who are willing to help organize neighborhood associations around the city. We want to conduct an outreach effort to help people prepare for winter - fuel and food prices could cause a lot of hardship if we don't pull together to help each other cope. We are planning a meeting at 7:00 pm on August 25th at City Hall for people who are interested in learning more. Please join us, and please send this message to other people you know who might be willing to be part of it. Below is a press release we just sent out about the project.
City Begins Emergency Planning for Winter Hardship
The City of Montpelier has begun an emergency planning project designed to help the city respond to emergencies that might arise this winter as a result of high food and fuel costs. The city is concerned that residents might not be adequately prepared for winter costs, and will compensate by using dangerous equipment in their homes, or neglecting important family support like child care, health care, and medications, or will take other action that harms themselves or others out of the stress and despair that comes with feeling isolated in hard times.
On Friday, August 1, 2008, the City convened the emergency planning personnel from the Vermont Emergency Management, the Vermont Department of Health, the oil companies, the power companies, and area human service agencies to begin emergency planning. Barbara Farr, the Director of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, and Jeffrey Hunsberger, the Region I Director of the Vermont Department of Health were enthusiastic about Montpelier's approach. "We are in the middle of the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression," Farr said, "Only people who are over 70 years old remember what that was like – the rest of us are unprepared for the times ahead."
In addition to convening the different agencies responsible for emergency services to try and coordinate how they are delivered in the city, the city is organizing neighborhood level teams of volunteers who will try to keep in touch with residents and keep communication open, so people who are having trouble making ends meet will know where to turn for help. The city is seeking volunteers for the neighborhood teams who are interested in talking to their neighbors and serving as a link between the neighborhoods and first responders in the event of an energy or food emergency.
On Monday, August 25th at 7:00 p.m., the city will host a meeting for volunteers who are willing to work in the neighborhood associations. At the meeting, the city will work with the volunteers to prepare a plan for the outreach campaign, identify materials to distribute, and put together a schedule for neighborhood activities. The teams will need people who are willing to coordinate the team and its activities, to collect and distribute information to residents, to stay updated on the resources available to people in need, to conduct neighborhood outreach, and to organize neighborhood events.
The initiative is called Montpelier CAN! (Capital Area Neighborhoods). The goal is to create permanent Neighborhood Associations within the city that can respond to emergencies that go beyond the capacity of local government to respond and also to serve as a link between city government and residents on other issues.
People who are interested in being part of Montpelier CAN! should contact Gwendolyn Hallsmith at ghall...@montpelier-vt.org, at 223-9506.
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Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Director
Department of Planning and Community Development
City Hall
39 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
ghall...@montpelier-vt.org