Our Goals & Objectives
Goals:
We align with the USDA-requested priorities to establish the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships that will dedicate resources to researching the causes and conditions of challenges facing rural areas and develop community partnerships to address such challenges.
Key Objectives:
Our objectives are designed to help achieve our goal of successfully meeting the challenges of our rural economy:
Facilitate & fund high-quality partnerships.
Identify key partners to advance solution-oriented ideas related to the rural community and economic development
- Collaborate with other IFRP sites in Wisconsin and Alabama to share strategies, opportunities for collaboration, successful program outcomes, and to collectively publicize the importance of understanding and promoting higher ed/rural community partnerships in the U.S.;
- Fund collaborative, use-inspired research between UVM researchers and rural communities, nonprofits focused on rural economic and social development, and early stage for profit companies working to produce products that will have a positive impact on rural communities.
Foster meaningful connections.
Connect UVM with organizations in Vermont and initiate engagement through student internships, service learning, and collaborative rural and economic advancements
- Serve as a convening space for the understanding of issues and opportunities facing rural communities in Vermont and the Northeast Region;
- Incubate emerging collaborations between UVM and these same partners to help ensure success of the resulting initiatives, programs, and companies, or which may already exist or arise through other means;
- Support an internship program across the region to help counter the "brain drain" that affects many communities in Vermont, and rural communities across the U.S.
Make a positive impact.
Identify quantifiable progress in key areas to improve agriculture, education, transportation, housing, healthcare, communications systems, work, natural resources, and policy and governance sectors.
- Share progress through monthly impact reports to measure success;
- Re-evaluate partnership programs and projected impact against goals and timeline regularly to stay on track.