Help us honor women from Newport to Bennington, from nurses to welders, from all communities and careers – and join our efforts to expose girls, young women, and adult women to a wide array of people, professions, and options.  Nominate this woman today to be included in Vermont Works for Women’s Labor of Love exhibit, a celebration of working women’s lives through photographs and recorded interviews.

As part of our upcoming 25^th anniversary, VWW will honor women who are passionate about their work, who are an inspiration to others, and who exemplify excellence in their field.  Vermont Works for Women’s Labor of Love exhibit will highlight working women from a wide variety of careers and communities across the state, recognizing the vital role women play in the organizations and communities where they work.  Twenty-five women representing a diversity of vocations will be selected through a statewide nomination process.   

Labor of Love is being created in collaboration with the Vermont Folklife Center and made possible by support from the Vermont Women’s Fund and FairPoint Communications.

Applications – in both electronic and PDF format – are available at www.vtworksforwomen.org/nominate.  Nominations are due by February 14, 2012. 

Watch the “Miss Representation” Trailer

After the film, panelists Donna McAllister of the Vermont Department of Education, Bethany Pombar of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and Kelly Walsh of Vermont Works for Women will discuss the portrayal of women and girls in the media, what this means here in Vermont, and positive steps each person can take to combat these messages.

Tuesday – January 17

6:30-9:30 PM

Savoy Theater

26 Main Street, Montpelier

 FREE and open to the public.
Parents and middle school and high school aged
youth encouraged to attend.

This program is designed for beginner to intermediate skiers who want to take their skills to the next level, and into the backcountry.  Some experience on skis is necessary (but backcountry experience is not).

Price: $195 (proceeds benefit our girls’ programs!)

Price Includes:

• Alpine and Nordic area passes on Saturday
• Nordic area pass on Sunday
• 2 days of instruction
• Coffee/tea & light breakfast in the mornings
• Saturday apres ski wine & cheese

February 4 & 5, 2012 at Bolton Valley Resort
8:00 – 4:00 Saturday (followed by Apres Ski wine & cheese)
9:00 – 3:00 Sunday

Day 1 focuses on basic skills to help improve your skiing and prepare you for backcountry travel. Utilizing the open trails at Bolton Valley you will practice different climbing, descending, turning, kick and glide, and stopping techniques. Additionally we’ll discuss using skins and wax, choosing proper equipment and clothing, what to pack in your backpack, and other tips for being comfortable in the backcountry. Day 1 ends with an apres’ ski get together complete with wine and cheer.

Day 2 puts the skills learned on Day 1 to use as we head “off-piste” (off trail) on Bolton’s Backcountry Trails for a day long tour. Day 2 will focus on traveling comfortably in varied terrain, making turns off the groomed trail, and having fun. We’ll touch on map reading and route finding for those who are interested.

Contact Nadine Budbill at 802.622.0400, ext. 151 for more information or to register.

City Market’s “Change for Local Non-Profits” program raised $1,041.65 for our programs during the month of November. The program, which incentivizes patrons of Burlington’s downtown food co-op to reuse their shopping bags, sets aside 5 cents for every bag reused to donate to a different non-profit each month. Customers can also donate additional amounts directly to the chosen organization each month at any register. During the month of November, shoppers reused over 20,700 shopping bags, all for the benefit of VWW.

“We can’t stress enough the value we see in VWW’s work,” notes Allison Weinhagen, Director of Member Services at City Market. “Rosie’s Girls and Step Up programs are doing great things for a wide range of women. FRESH Food program offers the chance for women to learn skills in the field of food service. They’re using local foods and healthy recipes which ties in nicely with the Co-op’s mission.”

We are grateful to City Market for their commitment to community partners like us!  Be sure to continue to support their “Change” efforts – this month all proceeds benefit the Peace and Justice Center.  Keep reusing those bags – good for people, good for the planet, and good for non-profits!

Participants were performance artist Laurie Anderson, Champlain College president David F. Finney, Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jostein Solheim, and executive director of Vermont Works for Women Tiffany Bluemle.   It was presented by the Flynn Center and moderated by VPR’s Jane Lindholm.

To prepare for a recent panel discussion, Tiff  approached colleagues and mentors about the role that imagination plays in VWW’s work.  She discovered that it’s not something many of us have thought much about, though all that we do at VWW is contingent upon it.  

“It seems to me,” reflected program coordinator Erin Galloway, “that our work is not just driven by imagination but is deeply founded on it.  How would the women we work with approach us with their uncertainty and frustration if there weren’t some piece of them, however small, that imagined that their lives could be different?  Einstein said you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.  You have to imagine it.  Our work imagines a day where we can stop saying women can do…and just do.”

We salute the transformative power of imagination – that of our staff, our program participants, and all of our partners.

You can view the imagination panel here or listen to it here.

“Collaboration is something every nonprofit relies on and our organizations are proving how productive collaboration can be,” states Michael Muzzy, program director of Good News Garage.

The collaboration is actually three sided. Vermont Works for Women operates a culinary training program called FRESH Food that feeds hungry customers, local childcare centers need healthy meals for their children, and Good News Garage runs a transportation program, Ready To Go, that provides rides to work, daycare, and school for low-income families.

“We have our drivers pick up the meals at VWW’s kitchen every morning,” states Muzzy. “The chefs-in-training load up the food and deliver the lunches at five daycare centers and Head Start programs by noon.”

”Each program is doing what they do best while fulfilling a community need,” says Muzzy. “This is a win-win for everyone involved.”

During the school year, FRESH Food prepares an average of 100 meals daily for four Champlain Valley Head Start Daycare Centers in Burlington, two Howard Center groups operated out of the O’Brien Community Center in Winooski, as well as the Teen Center and After School Program run by the City of Winooski. This past summer, FRESH Food operated a second kitchen out of Winooski High School and served 275 meals a day for the City’s Summer Food Program.

One VWW trainee says of her experience: “On top of the job training I had at FRESH Food, I have taken lessons in nutrition and portion sizes from the kitchen and applied them to my meals at home, making them healthier and making them my own.”

Good News Garage, a program of Lutheran Social Services, repairs donated cars and provides them to low-income families who need affordable and reliable transportation. For more information about GNG or to donate a car, call toll-free 877.GIVE.AUTO (448.3288) or visit on-line: www.GoodNewsGarage.org.

Kick off Halloween with a 5k running race through the streets of downtown Montpelier—in costume! All ages and abilities welcome. Costumes encouraged, but not required. Strollers and kids who can run a whole 5k are welcome, too. Prize awarded for best costume, as well as prizes for overall men’s and women’s finishers, kids’ category, and a tricks-and-treats raffle for all participants. Some highlights from last year’s costumes included Elvis, Thing 1 and Thing 2, a duck, and lots of folks dressed as runners!

Registration day-of-race only, opens at 8:45am in the Onion River Sports parking lot.
Registration: $15 for all ages (kids in strollers free), all proceeds go to our girls’ programs!

Little House in the Big House takes us inside the Vermont state women’s prison, where 45 women build a single-family home from start to finish. Under the instruction of Vermont Works for Women, these women find the tools necessary to build a house and a sustainable future for themselves.

Vermont artists and sisters Kim Brittenham and Tiffany Rhynard produced the film under their production company, Sisters Unite. Vermont songwriters and performers Anais Mitchell and Steph Pappas contribute to the soundtrack in addition to musicians Cara Hagan and Karma Mayet Johnson.

See the trailer for the Little House in the Big House.

Join us at the Vermont Independent Film Festival for the premier of “Little House in the Big House”.
Sunday, October 23rd, 7:00 PM
FREE
10 Fayette Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403

Orientation to the Mentoring Program: October 5th, 5:30 – 7:30
Training session with Kim Bushey: October 12th, 5:30 – 7:30
Training session with Jill Evans: October 19th, 5:30 – 7:30
Training session with Kelly Mangan: October 26th, 5:30 – 7:30

Please contact Leigh Steele for more information.