 Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for being here. I'm pleased to have Susanna Davis, our executive director of racial equity here with me today to talk about a new initiative called Ideal Vermont, which is helping municipalities do more to increase racial equity at the local level. Ideal kicked off last month with 14 communities signing on right out of the gate, including Bennington, Burlington, Brattleboro, Essex, Fairfax, Hartford, Hardwick, Hinesburg, Orange, Richmond, South Burlington, St. Albans, Timmouth, and Winooski. And while we want to see more towns join, this is an impressive start covering 18 or eight counties across the state. As we work to increase equity and make sure Vermont is a welcoming, inclusive state, getting communities directly involved is important. Susanna and her team at the Office of Racial Equity have been essential to our efforts. They've added an equity lens as we've developed new policies. So we make sure we're reducing barriers for everyone and rethinking the tools needed to address existing inequity. But this can't be just about a top-down approach. We need to help at the grassroots level as well, driven by communities themselves. And that's what this initiative aims to do. We want to encourage municipalities to commit to this work and to take action that fits the needs of their community. By signing on to Ideal, towns will learn from each other with the guidance of Susanna's team, as well as trusted partners from the Vermont Declaration of Inclusion, Vermont Community Foundation, Abundant Sun, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the Vermont Council on Rural Development, and experts from across the state and country. Members will share strategies, data, and information to take concrete steps toward a Vermont that is more equitable, more diverse, more welcoming, and ultimately more inclusive. And this local perspective and collaboration is what makes us think this initiative will have a real impact. It will reflect a community level of commitment to these values and bring local leaders with that kind of thinking to the table. So we're all pulling in the same direction. That's why I was proud to propose the funding to help get Ideal off the ground, though I want to thank the Vermont Community Foundation for its investment in the program as well. The fact is, we need to do this work. Because while Vermont is a great place to live with tight-knit communities who care about their neighbors, not everyone has been welcomed, and we have some work to do to make sure they are. We're not only doing this because everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and have the same chance to build a good life, but it's also the right thing to do to put ourselves on better footing with a stronger economy, more workers, the best schools and prosperous communities in every corner of the state. As I've said many times, one of the biggest challenges we face is our demographics, which impacts everything, from our financial stability to our workforce. To reverse these trends, we need to attract more young and diverse families, which will help grow our economy. To achieve this, Vermont must be more welcoming to families from all walks of life, which means we need to respect and celebrate our differences. This is critical to making sure we have the safe, healthy and bright future we want for all of Vermont, and I think ideal can help. So with that, I'll turn over to Susanna to talk more about this program and how to get involved. Susanna. Gracias, Governor. So as the Governor stated, this is an initiative that brings municipalities together to take meaningful action on equity and inclusion at the community level in Vermont. The communities who are member municipalities are being supported by the Office of Racial Equity through an initiative that has several main components. One is convenings. The next is workshops, followed by technical assistance, some data coaching, access to grant funds, and access to other thought leaders and a resource library and online platform. I need to underscore that this initiative is not another exercise in more and more trainings. Recognizing the importance of education and training broadly, we also know that equity work doesn't get solved just through equity and inclusion trainings. It's an important component, absolutely. And yet after the listening and the learning have to come, the leading, right? We have to do after we've listened and learned. And so that's what this initiative is intended to do, to help municipalities and help municipal leaders who may feel either uncertain about their efforts or who feel maybe very confident about their efforts and want to be able to have the support of their peers around the state. We bring them together and offer them opportunities to work with state agencies and with each other to be able to implement their learning. So, for example, our convenings are going to offer member municipalities ways for them to do that reflective and introspective work to commune with one another, discussing what's working, what's not, challenges, aspirations, et cetera. Workshops will be more in-depth and will provide them an opportunity to hear not just from subject matter experts in the state, but also from those outside the state, perhaps national or international thought leaders on related topics. There is technical assistance provided by our sister agencies so that once municipalities understand the menu of options that they have available to them to implement equity at the local level, we have people in the state agencies who can help them actually do it. Concretely, what could that look like as an example? Well, a municipality might say, hey, we want to have a more equitable housing or zoning or land use policy. Well, we have a lot of land use experts in state agencies and in state government and also in places around the country who are able to help you get into the weeds about what does it mean to change a policy, or to update a policy, or to think of something new. Then we also have data coaching, which is going to help municipalities not just understand the value and the importance of data, both qualitative and quantitative, but also helps the state to be able to see more of it. There's only so much that we have access to and we find that building trust in communities means that you're able to get eyes into qualitative and quantitative data sets at different levels. So the data coaching will help us have more visibility into what's happening in Vermont's communities and it also helps Vermont's communities understand and utilize data in a way that makes sense and is actually helpful. We're also providing a web platform for member municipalities to be able to access that is complete with a resource library that offers everything from model policies to templates to reports, other information that they may not otherwise have known where to find. All of that is brought together in a way that's looked at and vetted by us to make sure that it adheres to our overarching mission and principles on equity and centralizes it in one location so that our member municipalities have access to it in a way that is efficient of their time. Finally, the access to grants piece is going to help even the playing field so that for those municipalities for whom equity work would otherwise have been cost prohibitive, we're at least able to offer them some supplemental support to be able to do the work that they otherwise are very passionate about. So we have about 14 members in the cohort, as the governor stated, and they range between a whole host of municipalities who are a little bit more well resourced to those who may not be. We have some cities who are larger in population and we have some who are a lot smaller in population and that's a good thing. That's what we want. Vermont is an eclectic and unique place and we need to see that reflected in our member municipality roster. Ultimately, this is an initiative that creates a bridge not just between municipalities but also between municipalities and the state. There are a lot of things that people look to state government to do and to fix and we're working hard on equity and we're not going to stop working hard on equity and yet there's a lot of built-in injustice in this country that has manifested over the years at the local level, right? Think redlining and zoning, think education policy, think policing and community safety. These are all issues that could in part be addressed at the state and federal levels but that absolutely have to be tackled at the local level as well if we really want to move the needle. And so what we're hoping to do is to work with municipalities to help them accomplish what they uniquely are situated to do. So we're playing a convening and assistive role in that we are going to continue to serve the member municipalities in the cohort and to support them on their journey and to also gain insight and strength from them in ways that we can make our work at the state level more effective. Thank you, Shazana, and we'll open up the questions at this point. I think it is about Vermont that has maybe held us back historically in this work. I mean, you grew up in a community that has very large immigrant population but yet you say that there's more that needs to be done. Why? You know, it's interesting. I do think back about my upbringing growing up in Barrie and I look at other communities as well, be it Rutland, having a very diverse background in all types of immigrants. But we stalled out, it seems. And I don't know if that was part of the economy that we weren't really growing. We had a spurt of growth and a lot of what we see, whether it's in the trades, particularly in Barrie and in Rutland, the stone trades. And that attracted many of the French Canadian population, those from Scotland and other countries as well. But then that, again, plateaued and then took a nosedive in some respects because of globalization. And much of the manufactured stone was done in China and India and it really did undermine the market. So we haven't had the growth that we, I believe that we should. That's why we've been focused on trying to grow the economy and to fill the jobs we already have but also to grow our diversity. So with growth, I believe that there's opportunity and we'll be working to make sure that we bring a more diverse population into Vermont. Can we learn from in this new chapter? I think that learning from our history is valuable. I mean, as a state, we are uniquely situated in between a lot of other places that are significantly more diverse racially. But I do just want to underscore the importance of recognizing that Vermont has a lot of diversity in other forms that may not necessarily be racial, right? There are already tens of thousands of us people of color in the state, but aside from that, you have diversity across the ability spectrum. You have gender and sexual identity diversity. You have a very, very interesting mix of people of different socioeconomic statuses living very close together, political diversity. So the state is already really well versed in understanding how to work together and live together alongside people who are different from you. But in the United States, race has been a particularly bitter factor that has been difficult for people in dominant groups, I think, to get over. And so, yeah, I think learning from our history is going to be important, but truth is we already know everything we need to know to be able to take action on matters of equity and justice. It really just means that we know that we have certain systems that have been set up intentionally to privilege some and disadvantage others. We know what those systems are. It's not a secret. The question is, are we actually brave enough to do something about it? And for people who have been in positions of privilege for a long time, getting to equity feels like something is being taken from them because they're accustomed to outsized privilege. That's really an experiential journey that people have to be able to go on, but we have the answers. It's just about people being willing to actually do what's needed. And does ideal Vermont contemplate those other forms of diversity, gender identity, sexual orientation, et cetera? Or is it more purely racial? Because it's an outgrowth of the Office of Racial Equity, ideal Vermont leads with race. When you correct for a number of other demographic factors, whether it's socioeconomic status, gender, sexual identity, ability, more often than not, race always is a better predictor of a person's outcomes because it is the factor upon which most of the discrimination happens in this country. So we lead with race because we see that as the most critical of these forms of inequities. However, ideal Vermont absolutely does focus on not just race, but other forms of equity as well because you can't talk about something like, I don't know, you can't talk about the fact that people who are trans or nonconforming are subjected to higher rates of attack or murder, especially considering the events of this past weekend, without acknowledging that within that group trans women of color are particularly at high risk, right? So the intersectional identities are important, and we do plan to highlight those wherever they're appropriate. When looking at the work that's being done through ideal, what types of metrics and data do we look for at the local level to show that it's paying off or to measure success of some of this work? Yeah, I don't know the intricacies of the ideal data points, but we do need to measure it so that we know that we're effective and that we're moving forward. Susanna, do you? Yeah. A lot of the metrics that we would use to measure the success of ideal Vermont really have to do with how government functions, particularly at the local level. Some of those are going to include things like staffing, recruitment, and retention in town government itself. Now, again, in some jurisdictions around the state, that's really easy to track because you have larger numbers of staff. In others, you may have three people who work in that office, and it's hard to really gain statistically significant numbers based on that. But either way, it's an important tool, right? Not just how local government is serving people, but who is part of that local government serving people. It also includes looking at things like the diversity and the inclusion of other parts of local government, right? Your boards, your local commissions, your select boards, et cetera. We're also going to pan out a little bit and look at more population level outcomes. Things like what are the justice outcomes having to do with local policing, right? Are they learning anything from this program and adapting their policing practices accordingly? We're going to look at things like home ownership rates, right? Things like approvals or denials of certain kinds of land use petitions based on factors related to equity. Things like policy change. How many unjust policies can we identify that exist at the local level that are being modified and at what rate? We're going to look at things like which municipalities are investing tangibly in equity. And that might mean making sure that local programming or youth programming is inclusive of more people. But it also might mean where are we investing? Big picture. We're going to look at things like school policies. Recognizing that the school system in the state is separate from the distinct municipal leadership system. There's still a lot that we can learn. We do have people in the cohort who do represent the school districts. And so being able to see the learnings from Ideal Vermont trickle into not just local governance, but also local education policy, et cetera, is going to be really important. At the end of the day, a lot of the metrics that we're going to be collecting may not appear to be flashy or exciting, but they're important because the small and everyday ways in which inequity shows up at the local level, that's the needle that we're trying to move. And when it moves, it moves in such small increments that we may not necessarily see it in the big picture. But one of the things that's really unique about Vermont is that there's a big focus on community and on civic engagement at the local level, and so those effects really are felt locally. How much of that money comes from the state of Vermont? How much comes from the community? $220,000 was committed from state of Vermont funds over the course of two years, supplemented by the availability of funds from the Vermont Community Foundation available to the municipalities to advance specific equity projects in their jurisdictions. Do you want to give us an update on where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is at with its duties and what you see ahead as sort of the next step? Truth and Reconciliation Commission. So I am a member of the first of three groups leading up to the formation of the commission. We identified the candidates. We would like to invite to serve on the selection panel, which would then select the members of what will ultimately be the commission. We sent out a number of invitations. We had one-on-one conversations with our prospective selection panel members, and we had secured the correct number of people. We convened them for their first meeting. I think it was last week. And so right now the selection panel is getting up and running and preparing to potentially hire a staff person because that is permitted under statute so that they can have a little bit of administrative support while they work through selecting candidates for the commission seats. And based on your experience with that process today, how are you feeling about, you know, the prospective success of this endeavor? You know, I think that everybody has a really different perspective on truth and reconciliation processes globally, and to say nothing of here in Vermont. And so recognizing that mine is just one opinion. I tend to back load my expectations in this process. That is to say, I think that the greatest marker of our success through the truth and reconciliation process will be with what the state does after the findings are made. I think that truth-seeking and hearing people's stories and having them recount their truths and their histories is extremely important. And I don't want to undercut that. And yet we don't want it to be in vain by asking people to be re-traumatized by recounting painful family histories if we're not going to actually try to remedy it and make it right. So my greatest expectations really are going to be on the back end with what state government does in response to the findings. I said, you're the only person of color in this room, which is probably something that you're accustomed to in this state, which is the reason that ideal is so important. I wonder, when you moved here for this job, and we're so glad you took this job, and you're doing a fantastic job, did you always feel that you were listened to when the state government reflected you? Do you mean by virtue of my race or any other factors? Because I carry a lot of identities. Did I always feel included when I came here? Well, I mean, there are always very few brown people in the room with me, so numerically speaking, no. Although I do think it's important that as the country and the state grows increasingly multicultural that we also keep in mind that sometimes it's hard to know a person's ethnic background. And I have often been surprised in rooms not knowing who else is with me in the room and that there are people in the room who are also people of color. So have I always felt included, like as a professional in my job, by my colleagues, by my bosses? Absolutely. I did feel listened to. I do feel listened to. I think that a small part of that is people being afraid to look like racists, so they're extra, extra nice for reasons they don't need to be. But for the most part, I do think that we're making an impact. And being the lonely only has a lot of challenges to it. And there's actually really fascinating research on the impact of being the lonely only on the allostatic load of a person. But I'm measuring my feeling included by what we're getting done, how easy it is to get it done and to work with colleagues internal and external. And centering not really my experience, but the experience of people of color across the state because I carry a lot of privilege. And so my experience as the lonely only in a room is not the same as the experience of another person, a woman of color in Vermont in the room. So I'm a little bit less concerned about how that's affecting me and more how it's affecting other people who don't have the level of access that I have had. Governor, for you, obviously the idea of starting racial equity inclusion. But the recent shooting of Colorado Springs, I was wondering how you're feeling Vermont is doing with equity inclusion on all groups including LGBT communities and others as well? Well, we can always do better. But we're moving in the right direction, I believe, here in Vermont. And it's taken some time. But again, I think we're ahead of many other states. We always, always have room to grow and more to learn and being more sensitive to the needs of others and being more compassionate, I think, is a big part of that. But listening is the most important thing. And again, being more sensitive to what others are feeling, how they're feeling and making sure that they feel included. And specific initiatives like I-Neal, do you think that's necessary for other groups as well in the state? Well, I think we can learn a lot from what we're doing here, again, just making sure that we're being more accepting, that we are, again, understanding what other people are going through, taking a walk in their shoes and just being more aware. But we'll learn a lot from this. And I do believe that we can utilize this for other initiatives as well. Because it really does have to be a grassroots effort. I mean, you can take a top-down approach, you can proclaim something, you can pass a law, you can pass a resolution, but it's not as meaningful unless it's grown from the grassroots. And everyone then is a part of it. And when you're part of it, you want to be successful. To that question, in the past several days, advocates for the LGBTQ community have said that there is a direct line between language, legislative proposals that minimize or dehumanize, for example, trans people, say that they are not welcome in certain spaces like bathrooms or locker rooms or whatnot with violence. There's a direct line these advocates say. Your reflections on that, especially in the wake of the Colorado violence? Again, yeah, in light of that, but in what we've seen over the last month here in Vermont as well, we just need to step back and tone down the rhetoric and understand what people are going through. And I personally believe that we have the right, the basic right to be whoever we want to be, the basic fundamental human right. And we shall accept that. We celebrate that, and we need to do more to make sure that we practice that. Do you think your own part of national, I mean local parties not here a lot, but nationally, do you think that they need to hear that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think we need to, I think we're doing maybe as well as any other state. We have a long ways to go as well, but we have a huge divide across the country. Did you open an invitation to all the municipalities in Vermont to join? We had, I think it was 80, was that what it was? Almost 80. 80 that we sent the invitation to. 83. 83. And then we had 14 responses. So, but that's okay. We have to prove ourselves. We believe that the 14 we're starting with will pave the way for others to see what can be done and learn from that as well. Because it's, you know, it's difficult for small communities to, from a staffing perspective, just understanding what's available to them. And I think this is an approach with our help to an helping hand from the state can show the way for them to take advantage of this as well. And are they, are these municipalities committing to anything beyond saying they want to initiate this process and go down this road? Are you looking for commitments from them that demonstrate to you they're ready to buy in in a meaningful way? Yes. So one thing that I do want to note is that this initiative is not invite only, it never was. We did send out some proactive invitations to that, to certain municipalities we thought could be a good fit, but it's always been open to all 251. And we hope that we will be pleasantly surprised by hearing from some municipalities who want to step up. But in so doing, they are committing, yes, to more than just saying, yeah, we like equity, we've checked this box, right? We're looking for demonstrable commitment. We're looking for actual action results and, you know, tangible steps. Now, recognizing that one could make one's best efforts at tangible steps and still not get a policy passed. That doesn't mean that you can't be in the initiative. But we're looking for commitment and we're okay with having a smaller cohort of genuinely dedicated members as opposed to a larger cohort of frequent absentees and those who are just, again, there to check the box. So what we're really going to be doing is drilling down deep with them to give them the information and the assistance and potentially the funding they need to make meaningful change at the local level, which means we want to see meaningful change at the local level. And sure, there are lots of low-cost, no-cost ways to do that, but we're looking for people to do the hard work as well. And are there going to be regularly scheduled check-ins, meetings between member municipalities and your office, for example? Yes. Okay. What were some of the main reasons why municipalities didn't want to step up? We didn't actually hear from anyone who said that they didn't want to be part of it. We did have a lot of people who we hadn't heard back from yet. Some of them are still thinking it over, I think. And I think we did hear from one municipality specifically who said we would love to, but we are short on staff, which is extremely understandable. I think some of the hesitation on the part of some municipalities is that they don't know what they're signing up for. They may want to wait and see based on what the current cohort is experiencing. I also recognize that there's a lot of talk around equity and inclusion, and it may be the case that some municipalities want to wait to see if this is worth it. And I get that, too. So we are committed to making it worth it for everyone who does join. But in exchange, we really want to see real effort. Governor, Burlington's racial equity, inclusion, and belonging office has developed an official policy of limiting access to the city-owned Burlington area community gardens to people who will sign a document declaring personal support for diversity, equity, and inclusion. What do you think of diversity programs and policies that, in effect, deny access to public services for people who won't sign statements of agreement? Yeah, I think we need inclusion on all levels. So we want to make this as easy as possible for everyone to be involved. And that means being inclusive to all walks of life. So I don't know about the policy you're speaking of, but I'm just speaking from my standpoint. I think it's important that we are inclusive across the board, because we need people to step up to join this effort in order to be successful. Ms. Davis, are you aware of that policy? I haven't had the privilege of being able to speak to that office directly about the details of it to be able to come down one way or another. I would want to know more about the policy before publicly opining on it. Governor, we are a week out from the election. Now that the dust has settled on some of these statewide and local races, what's been on your mind recently as you've kind of ruminated on the results? Locally, or here in the state? Oh, here in the state. Well, it's, again, unfortunate that I was a bit disappointed in some of the races. I'd hope that we would have and maintain the numbers to have some more balance in this state, but we lost ground. So we're going to have to, again, play the cards we've dealt. I'm sure we'll get a lot done, but we're going to have to make sure that we're all working together in order to do that. You mentioned Republicans lost ground in the House and the only statewide office that one was yours. What does it say about the direction that you're headed for? Well, I don't think it's just right now. I mean, this has been a trend for a number of years, I think, as I reflect. I think it's been almost, it's been over a decade and I've been the only statewide Republican office holder in the state. So this isn't exactly something that's changed, but it isn't getting any better at this point. And I think that some of the national politics we just need to be we need to do better. Again, we have I've been able to be successful from from my days in the Senate. I've always served in the minority. I've never served in the majority and I've always been able to get something done because I've been willing to work across the aisle. Bipartisanship, I think, is important. But as I've said many times, bipartisanship is a great term but it's a two-way street. It can't be a one-way street. So, need bipartisanship on both sides regardless of the numbers. Who would you like to see a certain minority leader in the next biennium? I don't know. Patty has been been leading but I don't know if she's going to continue. I haven't spoken to her. Have you had any conversations with the presumptive speaker or Senate president? Have not, but we will be I think we have something scheduled with speaker next week. But I haven't spoken to the presumptive President Pro Tem yet either. How do you expect that conversation to go? I mean, what's the Hey, have you been or are you going to be looking at a substantive conversation? We obviously disagree on a lot of stuff. What can we do? I think that's the way we approach almost every conversation on both sides. How we can work together. Where are there areas of common interest? Because there are a lot of areas of common interest here in Vermont. We just may not agree on the path to getting there. So we'll have those conversations and again I have a deep amount of respect here and I've worked with the presumptive Pro Tem Senator Baruth in the past. I served with him as well. So it's not as though I don't know the different personalities and different people. Can you anticipate a similar conversation? We've always had a good relationship and I look forward to continuing that. Since this is Thanksgiving last week, what are you thinking before this? Well, I'm again thankful that we no longer have the pandemic over our head that we've moved forward. We've come a long ways in the last two or three years. We've been through a lot together as a state and I look forward to have a lot of opportunity in front of us with things that we're talking about like today with ideal with some of the opportunities in terms of the economy. We're, and we have a lot of federal money that has been appropriated to us. We have an opportunity to really transform the state in a positive way. I look forward to doing the tough work, working together with others who have the same thought process and the same goals and I'm certain that Vermont, I feel very good about the direction of the state if we can work together because we have a lot of opportunity here. Well, as the Indigenous day of mourning approaches, I would say I am grateful for the fact that Vermont's Indigenous community has been welcoming this work and of me and has permitted me into spaces with them so that we can find better ways to create a meaningful meaningful relationship. Part of that is through things like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but a lot of it goes far deeper. It really has to do with day-to-day interactions, not just big splashy policies, so I'm grateful for them for being there for the day-to-day things. Okay, thank you all very much. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.