“Watch me break the rules!” Alissa exclaims as she lists her many skills and interests, including welding and martial arts. Alissa Kenwood The ‘rules’ she’s referring to are the rules that society defines for women and girls about what they can and can’t do, and Alissa has… Read More

Enrichment Night is a monthly event Vermont Works for Women hosts at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF). The event allows participants to hear from a professional about their work, to learn about barriers and challenges presenters faced along their path, and to consider any tools or strategies that helped… Read More

Hello!I am honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to follow in Jen’s footsteps and serve as the new Executive Director of Vermont Works for Women. From the moment I learned of VWW, I was ignited by the ambitious mission, successful programs, and the leading role VWW plays… Read More

When Vermont Works for Women was awarded a WANTO (Women in Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Occupations) grant from the Department of Labor one year ago, we were excited to get back to our roots and train women for jobs in the construction trades. What we didn’t anticipate was how excited Vermont… Read More

Kristen* first reached out to Vermont Works for Women in 2013 when she was just 22 years old, a single mother of a 6 year old, recovering from alcohol addiction, with recent criminal justice involvement. At the time, she saw herself as a community college dropout who had very little… Read More

For our 21st annual Women Can Do conference on October 17, 2019, the local weather forecast called for a Nor’easter with 100% chance of heavy rain, and 35 mph winds. However, the tents were up, permission slips collected, buses scheduled, and food ordered. Nothing was going to stop… Read More

By Nell Carpenter, Rosie’s Girls Coordinator Campers working together to build a picnic table This past summer, I received a text from a Rosie’s Girls instructor one Thursday morning asking, “Where’s the hardware for the picnic table? We’re doing it!” The picnic table she was referring to was, last… Read More

Every Friday, Heather Newcomb, Work Readiness Program Manager at VWW, leads skill-building classes for women who are incarcerated at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility (CRCF). Last week, participants learned about Mike Bayer’s #BestSelfChallenge, a fun and easy exercise in which you define your Best Self (all of the positive attributes and qualities that make up the core of who you are; i.e.- compassionate, brave, loyal, loving, creative) and your Anti Self (your inner critic, that provokes you and that gets in the way of your Best Self by focusing on negative qualities; i.e.- fearful, doubtful, anxious, angry), in a side-by-side drawing. Read More

By Elise Greaves, WANTO Program Coordinator In 2019, Vermont Works for Women launched Vermont’s first-ever networking platform for women and gender non-conforming individuals in the trades. The group, called Vermont Tradeswomen, offers a place for women and gender non-conforming trades professionals (and those who support them) to connect, ask… Read More

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of Vermont Works for Women's Rosie's Girls camp. To celebrate, we asked former and current campers, supporters, friends, and staff to tell us about their Rosie's Girls experience by completing our fun new Camp Lib. Check out some of their responses! Read More