 Hi, I'm Jan Reardon, and I am here representing the Jennifer Reardon Foundation. I am a very honored board member of the Foundation for My Sister-in-Law, which was created by my brother and really focuses in on four pillars, the first being women's empowerment, which we get to speak about today, and I'm very excited about that, and then community vitality, financial literacy, and early childhood education. So I've had the pleasure of meeting with people over the last year and a half, close to two years now, from the community that are working very hard and very diligently and committed to one of those, in many cases, actually overlapping a few of those pillars. So today I have the absolute pleasure of having a guest here who is the Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women. Her name is Ronnie, and… Basta. Basta. Basta. I was just so afraid I was going to… Basta. I know I was going to mispronounce it. But anyway, Ronnie is here with me, and we have a lot to discuss and talk about the organization that she so proudly represents. So here we are, and welcome Ronnie. Thank you. I really appreciate you being here. I am excited. This is wonderful. And I do know a little bit about Vermont Works for Women, because I had mentioned to you when I was with the Y, we were a few doors down over in Winooski, which we both agreed Winooski is the place to be. Just love it. Even though I'm very familiar with the organization, there's so much that I'm just not familiar with that I would love to be able to share, obviously, with our community, because what you're doing on so many levels is fabulous. So if we could begin by having you tell us basically what the mission or the vision is of your organization, that would be a great place to start. Absolutely. Thank you. I would love to. And so Vermont Works for Women, we really seek to promote economic justice by advancing gender equity and supporting both women and youth at any and all stages of their career journeys. So that really starts from building curiosity and confidence in our youth to explore career opportunities that are out there, really making sure that women have the access and the motivation and the opportunities to be trained or upskilled or to navigate conversations in their workplace and to essentially build environments, both learning and work environments that are motivating, that are challenging, but that are supportive of anybody that would want to work or thrive in those environments. Well, thank you, because I didn't realize that you were actually catering to youth as well. But presenting it that way, obviously, that's the key is, you know, when you can do that, that much better, correct? True, yes. So how young would somebody be, perhaps, that would begin coming over and talking with somebody on your staff? Absolutely. So our youth programs start in middle school. Wonderful. And say they really began at that critical time in middle school where youth are exploring what are those careers out there? What are those pathways? What are the education needed to get into those fields? And it's also a really critical age where confidence, especially in females, starts to take a head. Absolutely. And so we really try to run what we call empowerment programming and power skills programming, one, to highlight the different career opportunities. So you may not see women in construction or in electrical work or in plumbing, but there's opportunities there for you and they're motivated. Great opportunities and the trades are in such need. Yes. So the trades are in such high need. And so it's these really exciting opportunities where we try to partner either with tech centers or local businesses and expose girls and youth to those programs. Wonderful. But we also put, you know, tools in their hands and really give them the desire to want to advance those skills. Right. And so starting in middle school, we run high school programming. We run post-secondary and then all the way up through, you know, our programs really span the spectrum of women to really make sure that whether it's at the beginning of your career, the middle or even towards the end, there's opportunity. Right. I was wondering about that, you know, with the pandemic. Did you see, you know, more people perhaps it's like, where did everybody go? You know, some of the jobs that, you know, now we still haven't been able to fill, there's nobody there. So where did these people go? So did you find an influx at that point? We 100% did. Love it. The first six months of, you know, the pandemic, we saw a massive demand in our programming and really a massive demand from all different walks of life. You know, women that were really established in their career, recognizing, I don't want to drive 45 minutes, where this isn't motivating. Right, right. My passion is not that. You know, it could be this great position. Exactly. And we also found a lot of women, you know, during the pandemic and pre-pandemic, 81% of Vermont's tipped wage workers. So really our lowest waged workers were women. And so when the pandemic hit and those restaurant and hospitality jobs were impacted first, that is where women really needed something. 81%, which is I think also why we still don't see many of those positions being filled again. It's a lot of those workers really recognized they needed a better pathway to economic security or to job security. And so we've had a lot of women coming to want to learn new skills. So we do, you know, trade certification training, but we also do basic employment. So whatever you're really interested in learning more about or want to navigate, we want to be a part of that journey. So what would an example be of someone, as you said, even perhaps during their career, they decide to make a shift? How old, you know, so if we go from middle school, how far up are we going? You can go as far as you want. So I'll give an example. One of our programs. I might be knocking on your door. I love you. You do. We highlight those. We always love new skills, right? Yes. And part of it, one program I'll highlight is our Trailblazers program. So this program is focused on trades training. So it's a seven-week cohort program. It's run on nights and then Saturdays to help accommodate full-time workers. Right. It's free for any woman who wants to. Unbelievable. There's no general requirements you need. But we will certify you in basic construction, plumbing, and electrical, heat pump install, weatherization. I love it. And you can learn these skills to take to a new career. Or you can just learn them in a picture on home. I know, especially now because, as we said, there's such a shortage, you can't wait six months to get somebody to come over. Absolutely. And so those cohorts, they run every seven weeks. They run all across the state of Vermont. We average anywhere between 12 and 20 women per cohort. And they're anywhere between 18 and 65. And so it's an incredibly diverse group of women that really just come to learn new skills. And it's incredibly transformative to see the day one start where people are a little quieter. I can only imagine. Not sure. And then by the end, they have the power tools and ready to go. And not only are they ready to tackle maybe more skills, but they're just confident in what they know. Like you say, the empowerment that comes with that. It's huge. Knowing that you could fix anything in your home and really navigate it. There's a lot to be said for that. And there's a lot of need in Vermont. Right now, Vermont has a massive labor shortage. Absolutely. And we need to meet that. And I think recognizing that 50% of our state has really been untapped when it comes to motivating and recognizing potential, that this is a good opportunity, especially post-pandemic, to really help our communities thrive. Right. So as far as looking at Vermont and everything, typically is sort of more tuned into Chittenden County. But do you find that you get many people from surrounding counties then? Yes, absolutely. Throughout Vermont. We're all over. So both our youth and women's programs are across the state. So right now, Trailblazers is in Rutland. It goes to Bratoboro and Newport next. We are in Sufferington. So you find a location. You have a venue there. We partner with either local employers or local spaces. So a lot of maker spaces or our tech centers are great partners for us. We have a lot of businesses that really help support this work as well. And so it's great that in the community, we kind of ingrain ourselves there during these cohorts, really build up the community. And then it becomes a more sustainable model. Absolutely. Because then there's really investment in the work as well. Right. And it's so many different levels. And just the awareness in the community too. And again, going to people that the idea going out to people that may not have even considered that because they didn't know there was a resource. And then to find out just how elaborate this is is just fabulous. And we also really try to make it accessible. The one thing we all know as Vermonters is it's rural. It can be difficult. While we have a lot of amazing opportunities across our state to support people, they're not always easy to access. Or you just don't know about them. And so going to the community and bringing it there is great. We also try to remove barriers. We know historically for women that barriers have just been stacked up against them, making it challenging. So the programs are not only free, but if you participate in the work experience, it's paid. You receive a stipend and you receive new work boots. And we really want to make it as accessible as possible. And that's so important in anything we do. And I mean tools in the sense of power drills. But just the tools that you need being there for you gives you such a good jump on being able to feel as though you have the ability to master this. Yeah. And you also then have the backing of this incredible support network of not only alumni that have gone through the program, but the Vermont Works for Women staff and supporters who really get behind each of these programs in a big way and want to see the success of each individual woman and participant that goes through. So you say alumni. So do many people come back through and then actually work there to help out? Yes. So we just graduated a trailblazers cohort out in Hartford and that graduated our 132nd woman in the program, which is incredible. And so we have many of our alumni that come back and help run our mentor nights, connecting with new participants. Oh, very nice. We have many of the women who have gone into the trades and into different businesses that also really help bring women in for recruitment. And then we're also, which is really exciting for the first time, seeing a lot of alumni come back but want to figure out how to teach the cohort. How do I become an instructor for trailblazers and do this? Which the skill set for that is fabulous for so many other applications as well. It's so transferable. And it just provides women more options, which is great. And it also fills a critical need for Vermont. Exactly. Definitely twofold. It is, yes. So I know there must be so many different success stories that come to mind for you, but would you be able to just tell us perhaps like one or two of the ones that just seem to pop out time and time again? Yeah, so one of my favorite kind of days and experiences within the program is it's a conference we run for high school girls. It's called Women Can Do. And it's a full day and we run it over at Vermont State University in Randolph. And it's 400 high school girls that come out for this from sending schools across the state. I think this year we had 11 out of 14 counties participate, which was incredible. And it's all different businesses. So they're driving excavators, they're welding, they're doing flight simulators, they're cutting down trees, they're changing tires, they're working with medical equipment. So it's a very hands-on day that youth can just go around and explore, test it out, talk to people in the industry, learn more. But you're a little kid and you touch the fire truck. Well, and the fire truck's there and they love it. And one of my favorite things is we get students that walk in and they're kind of hiding behind their hair or they're sticking by their friends. And it's fun, it's a field trip, they know it's exciting. But then you get some of them that really walk out of there being like, I loved them. Change their mind, like life altering. Like absolutely life altering. And we had one student, this was last year, who just welding was just unbelievably excited by, had never done it, had never picked it up. An opportunity. Huge opportunity. And you could just see, you know, literal sparks flying. Yeah. You could also just see the excitement. And, you know, when we followed up in surveys and followed up with her educators, you know, she wants to be an underwater welder right now, which is such a unique career. There must be like huge demands. Exactly, it's probably not that many people that are that specific with their skill set. But she now has this pathway that she's excited and motivated by. Of course. And not only that, it's going to provide so much opportunity for her. And so it's just a really unique way that we get to see the power of just those simple experiences. Another one that I really love is through the Trailblazers program that I had talked about. But one of the nights we do, it's called a mentor night. And this is where we bring trades women who are in the industries all across different fields. And we bring them in one night for our participants just to ask questions. And it starts very simple of, you know, how did you get into it? And, you know, tell me about a difficult day. But then it gets specific. And it's more, you know, as being a woman, how do I find equipment that fits me properly in this? Or how do I navigate this conversation? Or we're on a site and there's no bathrooms and there's all men. And the questions that normally would maybe prevent somebody from going into that field. Or prevent somebody from saying. Been a barrier in your mind even, you know. I don't even have a conversation. Exactly. And so being able to ask those and see how just getting that question answered makes the difference. And it seems so small, but those simple things are really what's going to help. It could be detrimental. It could be detrimental. And it's going to help change the, you know, the diversity within our industries. And so I love, I really love those nights. And I love that over 90 minutes, by the end of 90 minutes, you can't get them to stop asking questions. And it's just my favorite part. And the trades women who are in there are so eager to get more women. Spread the word. And they're just so excited. And we have some, you know, mentors who have been trades women for decades. You know, they have been doing this long before there was ever an organization to promote it. And they just come out and they're, I wish I had this when, you know. I knew so many women that left. And what a great resource they are for just that reason where they remember that they didn't have anything. And so now to think of all that's being provided and they can be a part of that is, you know. It's incredible. And so those are really my favorite parts of being, you know, a piece of the organization is that you get to see what seems like a small moment is really transformative in a bigger game. And, you know, for all of us women and those families, we know how integral a successful woman can be to a family structure, you know, really the strength and independence of a woman can really build families and communities. And so it's incredible to see that kind of move forward. Definitely. So it was in 1987, is that when you began? So 1987, the organization actually was started by three trades women here in Vermont and it was called Northern New England Trades Women. Oh, okay. And where were they located? So they were here in Vermont. Yep, same space and really not Winooski. It was kind of a different office, but in Burlington. But they started it really to help recruit and retain more women. So kind of as an avenue, let's do trainings, let's do empowerment. Which is brilliant in itself to have started that. Well, especially in 1987, it was... So funny, you know, everybody's like, oh my God, 1987, I'm thinking like that was yesterday. But that's a long time ago, right? Well, and especially when it wasn't a conversation then to recruit women. Not even a consideration. Absolutely not. And so it's just incredible to know that we have this great history behind the organization but that the principle of why it was started is still there. You know, the motivating factor. Right, that foundation is what has been built upon and remains solid. But it remains, the organization remains flexible enough to also adapt to the changing needs of society since 1987. And so it's been really great that we've been able to build and grow in ways that we've needed to to be there. Definitely. Let me just see what else I don't wanna miss out on any of the questions we had chatted about earlier. Let's see. How about, you know when you say these programs are free which that I did not know that there were not fees to like the Trailblazer program. So where do the donations come from? And with that then how can people donate? Yes, well thank you. We love this question of the nonprofit. But we're very thankful to have very generous individual supporters. You know, you can always individually support the programs and those dollars really grow, really go to removing the barriers. We never wanna put program fees as a barrier to accessing any of this. So we try to keep all of our youth programs are very luckily for the past few years have been able to be free. All of our women's programs are free. It's really any of our services, you know our gender equity workshops that have a fee. And so we have individual supporters that help support that grants and foundations are incredibly helpful at making sure that we can remove those barriers. We have been very fortunate to have great partnerships with other organizations and state agencies that have allowed us to kind of build workforce collaborations and invest in people in this way knowing it was a high need. But you can always go to our website and donate. Could you give us your website address please? Yes, so it's www.vtworksforwomen.org. Perfect and women as in plural. Yes, women as in plural, all of them. Yes, all of them. Exactly. Let's see here, as far as I was just thinking of other things that you may have already done to have more people get involved in the program. But would like, do you have to work with guidance counselors because there's children in school, they don't know what their path is going to be. They wouldn't even, as you say, even to this day, some people would not know that's an option. So is that a common relationship? Yes, and that's such a great question too because one of the things is it's the schools. Students are there eight hours a day. One thing is we wanna provide resource and opportunities that enhance their school learning and make it easy for schools to navigate. Schools have a lot going on all across. That's a good way to explain that because then I'm thinking, well maybe then math would make sense. Like they'd say, now I know I need to learn this because this is what I wanna do in the construction world perhaps. But it ties everything together in ways that other fields may not. You're taking subjects and you're not thinking it's ever going to really pertain to you and here's a way to show that all of those subjects truly matter. Yeah, absolutely. So we provide a lot of after-school programming. We do break camps. During the pandemic, we actually did kits that we could drop off that everything you needed to teach these lessons around building a birdhouse or engaging in a power skill, whatever it might be. We're in these kits and so it made it really accessible for youth to engage but guidance counselors are critical in those conversations. So yes, we do a lot of work in our gender equity team. They really focus on, let's break down gendered stereotypes or let's talk about the barriers that have historically existed. And a lot of times when we have these workshops we talk about barriers for women or girls specifically. A lot of it is just, you don't know what you don't know. That's right. And so bringing it into light and having these direct conversations, it makes it easier to make small changes. It's not drastic. It's not overhauling the whole system but it's making changes to make environments more inclusive and motivating. Right, and that comfort level. Yes. You know that it could be that it's not as though something is being kept from you but the fact that it's just not out there makes you feel as though I guess I'm not included in being able to do something with that. Yes. So along those lines, like what do you think has been the biggest change? You've been with the organization four years. So over the last four years, what would you say has been a significant change or two? Well, really the pandemic helped launched us to fully go statewide. You know, we had always had programming that was here and there across the state and it was always a big mission to go across the state and the pandemic just allowed us to do that. A lot of our programs quickly moved online. You know, we just quickly learned to adapt to a much more remote kind of statewide environment. And I think that's been the most exciting thing to see in the organization is the impact of taking, you know, our values and our history and being able to bring that across to different parts of Vermont. Definitely, to impact that many more people. Yes, and to really connect, you know, employers to communities and school systems to employers and to really be, you know, where we can be a help and provide an impact to really help make those connections. And I think that's really impactful. And, you know, when we started our youth programming, we have a lot of conversations about, you know, how you can continue to be involved or continue to build on your curiosity. And so that's been even more of an exciting role to play is to see this pathway that youth take into women, that take into careers. And that continuity too, where so many people are invested in that way is beautiful. It is, and then, you know, as we do that, we kind of, we have great spokespeople all over the state for us, which has been really wonderful. Exactly, right. That's been really nice to hear, you know, it was great, I was down in Rutland the other day and I ran into somebody and they were like, I've heard of your organization, I ran into such, and it was just so nice. So heartwarming, exactly, right? Cause for years, I'm sure, you know, for your time there, people, you know, I can't imagine that that many people were aware. And then now that there's even that much more to be aware of too. So how many people would you say, you know, over the last couple of years have gone through the organization? I know that particular program was 197, but overall, in just coming through the doors and doing some aspect of the training. Yes, that is a hard number to put on. I mean, I would have to say there's at least 1,500 to 2,000 women throughout the year impacted. Right. You know, youth programming is across the state in many different avenues, camps after school camps. We run, you know, career challenge days and then again the big high school conference. We have our trades training program for women and then we also really heavily support justice-involved women. So we do work within the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility for women. We provide employment empowerment programming in there and then we also help with reentry. So once they are released, really helping them into supportive employment and supportive community environments. Oh, that's fabulous. And then we also have, you know, again a department that's really exploded ever since the pandemic exploded in a good way is our Employment and Career Services. And so that's job skills, resume help, interview skills, navigating difficult conversations, increasing maybe your computer literacy to be more viable. So that's been a really exciting one. And then another growing department which I think is a lot of factors of the pandemic and maybe the Me Too movement is our Gender Equity Services. We have a lot of businesses and learning environments coming to us and saying we want to better recruit and retain women and we have not. What do we do? And the retaining piece I think is the key. Sometimes a person could go into an organization and think that perhaps, you know, in their mind this is how they'll be treated and then they're not and that has to be something that obviously everybody's comfortable with is there's a difference, you know, with every person, you know? I mean, even it could be, you know, men, women, and how you treat each person, those are just great skills to be able to understand and stand up for yourself and not feel as though you have to accept that type of treatment when you're at work. So that's just beautiful. It is. It's been really nice and it also, it meets multiple needs. So one thing, this is another just really quick success story, but we had a Trailblazers participant that just really got into electrical work and was like, yep, I want to be an electrician. And she came from a very small town in Vermont that had a kind of small kind of mom and pop but just pop electrical outfit. And it was just him and one other gentleman that worked there and he agreed to, you know, sponsor her as an apprentice and it was great. But, you know, he had always employed males and he had always been a small and he had a great guy that worked for him but he knew he was gonna probably go make bigger money somewhere else. And so this gentleman really didn't have a succession plan for this business. He didn't know what he was gonna do. Well, now he had this great apprentice who was motivated but all of a sudden he's like, I need to do an maternity leave policy in case, and I need, I need to create it, but it was good, he was excited by it. He was like, I now see the vision of what this business will be and I'm investing in her and she's investing in the business. Right. And I love that, just that mentality obviously speaks in my mind, I think Vermont is such a great place for that feeling of being able to have each person obviously really truly matter and make a difference in our community and that's just the support that you can find so many different places which is fabulous. Let's see, there's something when you were saying that about the program that I wanted to ask you about. So when you go into the correctional center, is it set up where there's, what's the ratio in a case like, how many women do you typically have involved in something that might be more of a skill training session? So we're in the facility full week, full day. So we're there all the time, we have a team of staff that work in there. So it's great. And they run a program that's called Build Your Skills which is really meeting women where they're at in skill development. And so it could be computer skills, reading skills, interview skills, actual technical skills. And then we also try to the best of our ability within that setting to run actual training skills. So we've done culinary skills that women can then translate outside. We've done some trades training before in a limited capacity but we really try, it's a difficult environment and it has a lot of challenges but we really try to make women excited for what that success can look like. Employment is such a critical success factor in anybody being able to live independently and live healthy. And so we really want them to be motivated by work. And so starting that when you're in the facility and really having that support system of our team and knowing that we want to help you navigate that after, it's been really great. And so at any given time, the classes can range but we average probably about 50 to 75 women depending on how many you're in. That's fabulous, yes. And then do you actually follow them in the sense of metrics to see when they do get out? If in fact they do have employment and they stay as a person in the community that is being supportive of being a member of society. Yes, I would say to the best of our ability, that is our goal to do it right now. Outside of what our control is, housing is a massive issue in Vermont. And so unfortunately, as much as we try to navigate it, we face that challenge. But we are running a really specific pilot program right now to kind of better build a foundation and structure. But we actually have supported housing down in Middlebury and we've partnered with Middlebury College where women can immediately come out and have a job there and find a support system there and kind of really navigate finding success. And so that's a very structured model where we can better track outcomes and really can better track individual success. But yes, our team, our staff is just phenomenal. I could go on for days about them, but they do a great job of trying really hard to stay connected to all women. Those relationships are so important. And I mean, psychologically for the women that are incarcerated to know that there's hope, you know? And even if they're not going to jump on it right away, that they realize that it's there and it kind of creates a new culture of being more positive. And that there's people out there that want them to succeed. That's right, exactly, which they may be never had before. It's great on so many levels, but how many people in your organization are volunteers? So we have quite a few volunteers in different capacities. So we do a lot of career mentors that really help navigate with conversations or support. We have volunteers for all of our youth programs that help, but we do have a large 17 full-time staff that really manage all of the programs. And so volunteers are really brought in to support any and all of our programs. Are you in need of volunteers or do you have a manageable group? And I mean, it's just something that we're always, you know, when I'm here talking with people, it's a good way to be able to say if people knowing now what the organization is about have an interest in that and a passion for something in all of those different aspects that they could get involved on a volunteer level. Yes, and please do. Our website, if you go there, there's a whole page on volunteering. And it breaks down where the different opportunities are, what that could look like, how you could utilize your skillset for our work too. So yes, we encourage anyone to reach out. There's a volunteer interest forum that can connect you directly with the program as well. So definitely check it out or just reach out for questions. We love to answer them. Okay, well, we are about to wrap it up here. I think I was able to cover everything. I know I feel very informed and I'm sure people listening will, I can't thank you enough for all of your information. And more importantly, what you are doing day to day, it's remarkable that's just a fabulous non-profit that you're in charge of and I thank you for your service. Well, thank you. We appreciate the opportunity to share more and really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you so very much. You have a great weekend coming up. You too. Enjoy the sun. Yes, thank you.