 Hi, I am Jan Reardon, and I am here proudly representing the Jennifer Reardon Foundation. Jennifer is my sister-in-law, and due to a very tragic occurrence, we lost Jen as far as her physical being, but we do have to say that carrying on her spirit of being kind-loving, caring, and sharing has been quite a gift that she left for us, and we're proud to spread that throughout many communities. As you know, we came back from the Kindness Tour, so we hit the East Coast, and it's nice to be back here in Burlington with someone that I'm going to introduce you to in a minute, just to hear about all the wonderful things that tie into being a kind community and caring for one another at this time, obviously it's more important than ever. So I have the privilege and honor of having Jesse Bridges here with us today. Thank you, Jesse, for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, and Jesse is the CEO of the United Way of Northwest Vermont, which I want to find out a little bit more about the territories and all, but I obviously love the United Way and the work that has happened with the United Way that you obviously have had a great role in given your leadership. And I've always heard wonderful things about you back from Parks and Rec, and here you are now even in a larger capacity doing great things for Vermont. And I want to thank you for that, first of all, but open it up to you, Jesse, and just hear what you have to say about yourself and the mission of the United Way. Sure. Well, I appreciate the opportunity to come in and talk with you. These are really fun interviews. Thank you. I love it. It's so nice. You know, when you can have fun. Exactly, right. And talk about good things. That's right. You know, asset-based is what we talk about a lot the other way. There you go. Love it. You have to understand inequities, you have to understand issues, you have to understand the problems, but you can look towards solutions. Absolutely. So, yeah, a little bit about myself. You mentioned the Parks and Rec, which was a wonderful role for five years. I was the Director of Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront here in the city of Burlington, and got a chance. During a very critical time to you, you made a lot of fabulous changes for the residents. We did some amazing things, and they continue to do. Parks are such a central part of our community. Fabulous. And Burlington is rich with parks. Yes. We have waterfronts, paths, and parks in all of neighborhoods. Exactly. We're so fortunate. And that's really what led me to this job, was, you know, the... That's what I was wondering. Yeah. We did a lot of building capital, human, social, physical capital in parks. Right. You know, renovating the bike path. Exactly. To be accessible. Wonderful projects with the Boys and Girls Club at Roosevelt Park. Oh, yes. Creating this pretty space. Yes. Mary Alice McKenzie and I had a lot of fun doing that project. I can imagine. With Bobby Miller. Oh, yes. You know, it's... Those physical spaces where people can congregate are wonderful things. Just down the road, the Old North End Community Center. Exactly. At the University of Joe School, working with Michael Monti and the Champlain Housing Trust. Yes. ALV, Robbins Nest, the Family Room, Parks and Rec. So many amazing organizations that just love to collaborate. Yes. And, you know, they needed a space to do it. Exactly. People need spaces to have that kind of connection. Right. Oh, more than ever. In the early days of planning for the new Y, it was all about bringing back, you know, we looked at prints from the 1920s, and they had all these gathering spaces. Then that disappeared. And then all of a sudden you realize the need for that, and certainly coming out of the pandemic to be able to have human interaction again, is it warms your heart. It does. And it's so nice to be... I know people will be looking at us on a screen, but it's so nice to sit face to face. Yes, exactly. You know, I've done these interviews and these unboxings. Zoom style. Of course. Right? No. And through that, as a leader in the city, getting to understand what people wanted, really listen, thinking about universal accessibility principles in the built environment, that got me to thinking a lot about social impact. And, you know, the place is one thing. But how do you create the opportunities for the people? Exactly. Exactly. Within that space. Right. And there's a lot of built environment to city jobs. That is, you know, the primary responsibility of city government. I ran a Jane Hodel on my way in here today. Love it. You know, we talk about running a city, and the physical environment is such a key piece to it. Absolutely. And then what we all need to do is color inside the lines, right? We need to bring in that connection and that strive for social capital when this job came open. I thought, what a perfect fit and find a better role, a better opportunity. Oh, so meaningful. And you know, all of those same wonderful partners. Exactly. Girls and Girls Club in King Street. And I still get to work with CHT. So you love Vermont. Yes. But we're working on the, you know, the human center design. Exactly. And that is, it's really exciting. And how would you say, one of my questions that I had a little further down, but it ties in now, how would you say the United Way here northwest Vermont compares to other United Ways? I know, for instance, like with the why, there's why of the USA. And so, there's probably some governance, but do you have a chance to really kind of tweak things based on our community? How does that work? So what's beautiful about United Way is that we're 100% local. Awesome. I didn't realize that. 100% of the funding, the volunteers, the people, it's all local. We have a local board. We have, you know, thousands of local donors. Yes. Thousands of local volunteers. Right. Serving our local community. Northwest Vermont is Franklin, Grand Isle and Chittenden County. Okay. Wonderful colleagues that all run their own non-profit organizations, independent non-profit organizations across the state. Right. So there's a cohort of us throughout the state. We've really enjoyed, we work together so well. What great resources. We share a lot of programs and we can talk about some of the programs we share. And then we do some of our own things based on what our communities need. And the issues that we see, right, the issues we see are very similar. Housing is an issue across the state. Substance misuse is an issue across the state. What would be some of the differences we do? But local solutions. Right. It's local solutions because if you're in a rural environment, you know, we deal with this within our own region, right? If you live in the islands, your access to a grocery store for food, your access to health care or education is different because of where you are. Exactly. It's one of the smallest counties in the state. Yes. Absolutely. Here we are in Burlington, one of the largest, the largest. Again, housing is an issue still. Food insecurity is an issue still. But how you change that, how you access that, how you unlock the assets that we do have, is what evolves and moves around within the local community. And I think the more as a state that we understand that we can share in those assets and resources and think about how we do this holistically, the further those resources will go. Right. Absolutely. So are you familiar with a day of sharing, which is more of a united way? Is that something that happens? I know on September 17th, actually, my brother and his family are from Albuquerque. And the United Way is working with the Jennifer Reardon Foundation and having a day of caring at the Isotopes Ballpark. And this is the first year that they've been involved in that and they're very excited. That's something that happens throughout the year. So we do, for as far as kind of convening on volunteer opportunities, we have kind of year-round engagement. We're working on putting our older adult senior core volunteers in classrooms throughout the school year into child care centers to add to the enrichment of what's happening for the kids and the families. And then for the volunteers, it's that ongoing relationship. Absolutely. Yes. We certainly help recruit for different days of service, right? You know, if a business comes to us and wants to put together a day. Exactly. You're notorious for that. We did this a ton at Parks, right? It was like, you know, I got 150 employees. What can we do? Well, really the only place for that is we'll all go down to the interval or we'll go to one of the big parks and do a project. What an accomplishment. And those are fun and they're good and they're episodic. And that's as much about the volunteer feeling that we get as it is about the task that we're accomplishing. And how many volunteers would you say throughout the year do you have available? We're leveraging over 40,000 volunteer hours over the course of the year. That is remarkable. The value of that volunteer hours is well over a million dollars. Exactly. And then that amplifies and compounds when you look at a bunch of the different places. Of course. So we're seeing, you know, the role of the volunteer has shifted dramatically during COVID. You know, our good partners at Agewell that run Meals on Wheels. First day of the pandemic, they lost 100 volunteers. Food still needed to get to people. We worked with them to recruit 300 new volunteers. But we're still struggling to kind of meet that need as we've come out of the pandemic and people's priorities have shifted. I think what we're seeing, the food shelf next door, there is a role for staff, professional staff to play and not just rely on volunteers. True. One of the other programs we run at United Way is Common Good Vermont, which started here, actually, and is the non-profit sector, education, advocacy, and technical assistance arm. One in seven Vermonters works at a non-profit. That's interesting. I did not know that statistic. We're 20% of the GDP. I mean, it's a huge part of the economy. We have more non-profits per capita than any other state, I believe. Second, we just got passed Wyoming past us. We're going to see we're about to get some new numbers at post-pandemic. We've had a lot of start-ups. So we'll see. Yes, true. But one of the messages I always want to send is we've got to support the people who do the work as much as the work itself. And certainly as a leader, that's something I tried to do at parks. You always used to tell the staff at parks, you're in public service. You're not public servants. You know, when we think about our non-profit sector, that there is a role for the professional aspect of what we're doing. This is part of our team right here, actually. It's great timing. Yes, I love it. There you are. Where are you? We're at Letty Park, actually, in Burlington Park. Of course we are. You're home away from home, right? Home away from home. We've actually, United Way Northwest Vermont's been one of the best places to work. Vermont Business Magazine best places to work. Yes, I saw that. Here's in a row. Congratulations. Because of these great people that do this work out in the community. And so, you know, when we think about what's happening at the food shelf next door and the people that need to kind of work to make that possible, those are people part of our community, too. And it's not just something where we can always just say, oh, well, we'll just have some people volunteer a couple hours here. There's a professionalism and a level that needs to be a part of that. And so, we want to really lift up the sector as a whole and really make sure that we're doing that work on a regular basis. And it shows. It definitely does. What would you say, going into your position, were a couple of your top goals? And maybe they were not accomplished, or maybe they were because you hit the ground running and things come your way as we all know. So, what would you say, though, are a couple of goals you had in mind coming in and how did that vary, perhaps, as you've moved along? The number one goal we just talked about it was the people in the organization. Love it. How do we grow the people? How do we make sure people that are doing this important work feel supported, valued, and put a structure in place that isn't just about the output. It's not just about the external reflection of, did we solve X problem in the community? Do we take care of our own people? I love that philosophy. If every organization does that, we're all gonna be much better off. Right, from a retention point of view as well. Just from a standpoint. And coming out of the pandemic, we talk about things being true. The workforce challenges we're facing are huge. And we're gonna touch more on that, I think, hopefully, as we talk here. So, that was a big priority. And I think we've, I would say, have done well on that. But like every other organization, we've had a lot of turnover in the last couple years. People moving into great, great other roles in the community. We're growing in different ways. And that's been exciting. And so we've got a lot of new people, too. 53% of our staff have been hired in the last two years. And we're a 30 person organization. So, got a lot of new people. You said 30? Yep. Okay, that's what I was curious, how many employees you had. The other piece for us was to fundamentally shift the business model of United Way. So, I think when people think of United Way, they traditionally think of two things. One is the workplace campaign, right? The big workplace campaign. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Every year, roll it out. IBM campaign, roll out the Craig Carter. That's what I think of as IBM. That was always yet the drive. We still do a workplace campaign, but it's different. It's evolved. It's not just about fundraising. And very with Hickok and Boardman the other day. Oh, my goodness. Hickok and Boardman. They do such a wonderful job. Absolutely. They give so much to the community. You know, over the last number of years, they've raised over a million dollars for our community. It's a huge part of what we do. And it's not just raising the dollars. We're out there creating community engagement, education. We're teaching people about what the issues are so that they can volunteer or advocate or give. Yes. But we also needed to look at the number of the dollars we're declining. For 15 plus years, the dollars we're declining within the workplace campaign. Everything was changing in the workforce. Everything was changing. Everybody else is doing their fundraising as nonprofits. There's a lot more competition in the marketplace. There's a lot of other things out there. The other thing we're known for is funding. And we still do funding. It's still, we're still one of the largest discretionary grant makers in the entire state. And how average per year would you say you give? So this year we granted in our overall funding, we're doing about $1.3 million in community funding. And that's from a variety of sources. What an impact. And again, that's something that's evolved on the business side. Because it used to be that we would, there we go and Spectrum and their new drop in center up in St. Albans. $50,000. To Spectrum. And that's community dollars, right? And so I can't write a check to Spectrum for $50,000 as an individual. But as a community, as a collective, we can make that happen. We've had less ability to do that because we've had less of that unrestricted philanthropy. What we've been able to do is find other sources of funding. So we've been able to leverage federal and state dollars. We've been able to make our funding more flexible so that Mark can take that 50 and turn it into something more. It can fill in the hole that a federal grant won't. Exactly. You know, and there were those restrictions exist. And I think that that's the shift we've made. And it's good because it centers equity. It puts trust in our partners. And it makes, maybe we've got the grant sizes aren't as big as they were, but they're going farther. The impact is greater. Yeah, and it's critical important. It'll always be a key strategy of ours, but it's gonna be one of the things that we do in addition to all of these other things. So pre and post pandemic, how did your world change? Well, as we've talked about a lot more Zoom meetings and Teams meetings, not as much in person. Now we're getting back out there and Hickok Campaign is a good example. We're finally able to get everybody together. Exactly. We really were able to accelerate some of this change. When I talk about trust based funding really being able to build on the principles we've always had at United Way. Volunteer led, it's volunteers, dollars, right? That we're then leveraging out to do all these different pieces within the community. What we did during COVID immediately was unrestrict all of the dollars that we were funding to our partners. In those first months in March and we said, we're sending out, we don't know if the checks are gonna keep coming in. Exactly. But we're sending the money out to you because we know you need it right now, whether it's to keep your staff employed or it's to meet the increased need with some of the key strategy issues. That was a turning point. Oh, absolutely, pivotal for the entire in Northwest communities. And I think a lesson to be learned for all of us as individual donors, family foundations, the government, when we think of funding, when we start to put a lot of buckets, boxes, and restrictions around that and tell our community leaders and partners who are out doing this work what we expect them to do with those dollars. Right. We're burdening them in a way that it's actually lessening the impact that those dollars have because it costs money to run the organization. Exactly. And so we've unlocked that with this flexibility and really moving forward with trust-based, philanthropy, trust-based funding. We've been talking about relationships this whole time. Exactly. You know when that money is going to Mark Redmond at Spectrum, he knows what to do with it. Oh, yeah, and he's known that for a long time. And we have the same trust with our donors and we've heard that for years. That's one of United Way's hallmarks. Donors come to us and say, well, we trust you to put the dollars where they're needed most. And that's what we do. And we use these partners in the same way. We want to treat them in the same way. And so instead of us holding them accountable, our relationship holds us accountable. Right. Our community holds us accountable. United Way does the work that no single organization could do on its own. We're there at the intersection of nonprofits, government, business, and community. And in that intersection, we seek to lift up and amplify the work of the collective. Exactly. And it has a tremendous amount of power. It's an uncomfortable space, right? You know, at the intersection of things, it's always uncomfortable. Sure. But that's where change happens. That's it, exactly. That's what I was going to say. Good point. Yeah. So it's been a great journey. And that pivot has enabled us to think differently. We've increased the level of grant funding that we've had. So we shrunk down size-wise during the pandemic. We didn't have as much staff. And definitely donation dollars went down in some places because people weren't working or otherwise. We've come back out of it now with a much more sustainable mix where we've got grant funding coming in. We've got fee-for-service work that we do through our Working Bridges program, which we should definitely talk about. We've got common good on board now. Exactly. And what that's given us ability to do is use the unrestricted philanthropy and much more of that levering and amplifying way so that we can let Mark do what he's doing. Exactly. Rob at the food shelf next door. And Paul Dragan and the team at CVOEO do what they need to do with all this. For the greatest impact, exactly. So let's talk about that program, if you would please. I'd love to hear more about this. Yeah, Working Bridges is a program. It's actually been around for 16 years. Oh. So there's no association between Jesse Bridges and Working Bridges. That was one of your babies. Not my baby. Well, I think of it now as my baby. Working Bridges is a program that puts in partnership with employers, resource coordinators, on-site at workplaces to help employees navigate the issues that keep them from maintaining or being successful at work. And this is a program, again, it started as this idea around there are a lot of barriers. Just getting a job is not the end of a path to sustainability. Correct. Yes. One of our key strategies that we're trying to unlock is achieving financial stability. And this is one of our resource coordinators on site here, working with an employee to help them navigate a myriad of different issues. And it's all of the issues that we're also working on in other places. So this helps us address all of our other key strategies. When you think of meeting basic needs, what we talk about with meeting basic needs are food, housing, and transportation. So unlocking the tremendous resources that we have in our community, whether it be government resources or our nonprofit partners, but we're doing that at the workplace. So we're able to meet employees where they're at. They're already got to work. We're not asking them to make an appointment in the evening or come back on Saturday. And this is where employees benefit, because those employees. Convenience of this. It's convenient. And the employer benefits because the employee shows up. Exactly. They're more productive. We're addressing those issues. And how has that changed over the last couple of years? Are you still seeing strong numbers in that with getting employees to places for the training when we can't seem to hire enough people to do so many different things these days? So retaining employees from the employer perspective has to be one of the top priorities that we have. Absolutely. We got to get good people. So many reasons. You don't want lack of child care or housing barriers to keep that great employee from showing up day in and day out. Or they're there, but they're distracted. Two of our other key strategies, mental health and substance abuse. Our resource coordinators are trained recovery coaches. So they help work. And then when needed, they can partner with Turning Point of Chittester or Frank-O'Connor County. Sure, exactly. They get peer recovery supports out in the community. And that keeps people employed. That keeps them moving forward. Helps address some of the benefit cliff gaps. What we've seen is wages have risen. Yes. Well, what that's done to some families is it's shot them over the benefits cliff. So it means before you were getting assistance for food, maybe you were getting housing assistance. You're getting help with your heating oil. You get a raise, a couple of dollars an hour. All of a sudden, you're not accessing those benefits anymore. You're actually taking home less money. And so we have to navigate those. And so one of the things we do is we help employees navigate that. And then at the same time, advocate for and create innovative solutions to make that not be a problem down the road. So they're not involved in the system anymore. They're able to really, I mean, they're working hard. And how good does it feel when you're able to do those things for yourself? And here they've, obviously with your help, been able to prove themselves, which is just beautiful. I didn't realize the depth of that program. That is amazing. We work on income advance loans with our partners at like North Country Federal Credit Union. So an employee has a car repair they need to do. $400 car repair. Well, maybe, you know, a few percentage of remonters can't do that. We're taking kindness here, right? Right on the ground. And then we're connecting them to that. Well, they gain credit. They can fix the car. So many benefits. And then they can get a better car down the road. All of those things, it is simple. And you see that to get to see that come full circle has to be so rewarding. It takes people that are trained and where are these resources. And then they unlock them. And think of how much that amplifies in terms of impact throughout the community. And we've got 16 employer partners in Northwest Vermont. We've got another 10 with Green Mountain Unitedway in the Northeast Kingdom, Central Vermont, all over the state. We're with CCV. We're with the hospitals. We're with manufacturing sites. And it's just another way where Unitedway, again, is existing at that intersection. Yes. And is seeking to amplify the change that's happening. And when you look back over the years and different scenarios that have not gone well in the United States, it's typically for lack of those resources. Doing that East Coast tour, when you talk with people like yourself that put those programs in place and the people in place and the support and recognition and care and love and kindness, caring, sharing, and everything in place. And the outcome is all that you could hope for and more. One, it's dealing with mental illness for people that otherwise would be home and collecting different services that they're not proud of collecting because they know they could go to work, but nobody's there to support them. So when you get an organization like Unitedway to open that path up, it's really like I'm sure a whole new world and a miracle for these people. It has a real direct impact. And sometimes you don't always get the fortune of seeing it. Depending on what positions you're in. I've told that we've had a couple of fundraisers retire over the last couple of years. And I just say to them, I say, you have no idea. The thousands and thousands of people that you've impacted their lives directly. For life, life altering. They don't always get to see it. They don't always get to see it. And I think the mental health piece you just mentioned is such a, it's an issue across the country. More than ever. Vermont has a massive mental health crisis right now. In January of this year, we launched our mental health initiative. So who do you team up with for that program? We are teaming up with, so the UVA Medical Center has provided the initial funding for us to get it going using a collective impact model, which means we've brought together, we are serving as a backbone organization. We're holding the table for conversation and change. And we're bringing together everybody from Howard Center and Northwestern Counseling and Support Services, the designated mental health agencies, the spectrums of the world, NAMI and suicide prevention groups to bring them together to say what's working and what's not working. And we've identified three key areas that we really need to focus in on as a community as we move forward. One of those being the workforce challenge that we talked about. There are not enough mental health care providers in the state. And that's leading to, you know, kids waiting for days in the ED to get seen. That's leading to some of the issues that we've seen very kind of outwardly displayed in the city of Burlington, in our parks, right? Yes, yes. That's the end result of not having the resources and not just crisis response. It's not just about having crisis response embedded in the police department. Yes, and we've gotta have a continuum. Exactly. All of us have felt the impacts of mental health over the last couple of years. And we're talking about it more, which is a key part of the statement. Yes, that, in an odd way, feels good. It just feels so good to address that and to let people know that this is what we wanna talk about and make it better. You know, there's so many things that people are aware of now versus before as to why somebody may act a certain way. And it's just, again, coming from a good place and understanding that that person just needs some help. Yeah, clear as kind, right? We wanna be clear about what these issues, we can't just sweep it under the rug because if we do that, well, we're not giving credence to the people that are suffering. Number one. We're not giving credence to ourselves. Mental health care is health care. Our brain is a part of our body. And everybody's, everybody, every brain, it's unacceptable. And how has that changed, Jesse, over the last few years? I'm getting better. No, I'm sure it isn't. It's not getting better because people feel more isolated, they feel more alone. What does it take? One person to prevent suicide, really. And so if we increase our overall understanding, kinder community, more empathetic community. Exactly. People know where the resources are. And then the third area is youth mental health. The impact to our kids over the last couple of years with what's happened with schools and childcare settings, the impact to the people working in those environments, it's just, we can't ignore it. And we have to address it now, or those implications and those impacts will go. Come back to haunt us, all of us, right? We have to wrap this up, which I can't believe because I thought it was about 10 minutes, I know. But thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to talk again and see what else we can do to get involved and do a little bit more for this wonderful community that is here and you've played such an integral part of. So thank you very much, Jesse. Thank you for spreading kindness. You betcha. I love it. Thank you. Bye now. Bye.