Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO)
Room 32 City Hall / 149 Church Street / Burlington, VT 05401
802-865-7144 / cedofd@burlingtonvt.gov
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The Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) is a department of the City of Burlington. Our mission is to engage our community to build a vibrant, healthy, and equitable City.
WHAT'S NEW
Mayor Weinberger Announces Winners of 2nd Annual Mayor's Prize for Entrepreneurship
l-r: Brooke Gillman, Lazarus Manrique, Mayor Weinberger, Chris Thompson (Executive Director-Generator), Gwen Pokalo (Director -CWE), Gillian Nanton, Assistant Director, CEDO, Lisa Falcone (Executive Director - Mercy Connections) and Lisa Wood (Director - Mercy Connections)
Mayor Weinberger today awarded $100,000 in grants to Generator, Center for Women & Enterprise and Women's Small Business Program (WSBP) -Mercy Connections to help entrepreneurs start and grow more businesses in Burlington. Fully funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and first launched in October 2017, the Mayor's Prize looks at areas that strengthen resources for entrepreneurial growth.
Generator, $50,000 grant
Generator, Burlington's largest makerspace, provides the tools, training, community and workspace to help makers test, evolve, prototype and bring their best concepts to market. Generator will seek to expand its JumpStart program which provides high quality founder education and support for early stage entrepreneurs. In particular, Generator will add a summer incubator to help college students launch businesses in Vermont, as well as a new business bootcamp for artist entrepreneurs next fall.
Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE), $25,000 grant
Center for Women and Enterprise, building on the success of its Power Forward four-month accelerator designed to support high growth women-owned firms, will expand this program to the food and retail industries. Additionally, CWE will launch a new initiative, Retail Boot Camp designed to help entrepreneurs who have a strong retail business concept, prepare to open a brick and mortar business.
WSBP - Mercy Connections, $25,000 grant
Women's Small Business Program - Mercy Connections, serving aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs, will undertake innovative program enhancements focusing on energizing their extensive alumnae and business network and offering advanced training to business founders. Specifically, peer-to-peer exchanges will be facilitated, a mentoring network created and Mercy Marketplace expanded.
Memorial Auditorium Public Workshop #2, Thursday, October 11th from 5:30-7:00pm, Contois Auditorium, City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington
Workshop #2 focused on a brief review of what's been done, and a discussion of 3 different potential models for a renovated Memorial Auditorium. These models came from the city-wide survey and top uses from Workshop #1. See the presentation from Workshop #2 here.
The Chittenden County Homeless Alliance is a coalition of individuals, organizations, and government who support our vision of a safe, decent, affordable, stable home for every person and family in Chittenden County. Our mission is to end homelessness in Chittenden County by being a forum for gathering information, building consensus, coordinating efforts, and advocating the end of homelessness through prevention, early intervention, and remediation.
The City's Community & Economic Development Office is currently the Collaborative Applicant with the local Continuum of Care (Homeless Alliance) and administers the annual Notice of Funding Availability Application for the Continuum. HUD recently released the Notice of Funding Availability and for more information you can read the notice here.
The Chittenden County Homeless Alliance is one of two CoC’s in Vermont.The Chittenden County Homeless Alliance Steering Committee is the primary decision-making body for the CCHA and the Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) acts as the Collaborative Applicant to submit the Consolidated Application on behalf of the CoC, the CoC Planning application, and a priority Listing of all projects ranked in the Chittenden CoC.
Chittenden County Homeless Alliance has posted the following draft documents as part of their Consolidated Application. This includes the CoC application and attachments and the Priority Listing of all reviewed and ranked projects. No projects were rejected. The Consolidated application will be due on September 18. Public comments are accepted through September 17 at 9 AM and may be submitted to mesbjerg@burlingtonvt.gov.
The City of Burlington is submitting its Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report on the expenditure of Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnership Act funds for the program year ending June 30, 2018 to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.
A draft Report is available beginning September 12, 2018, at the Community & Economic Development Office, 149 Church Street, Room 32, City Hall, Burlington, online and the Fletcher Free Library. The public is encouraged to review the Report and to comment through September 27, 2018. A Public Hearing on the Report will be held at the City Council meeting of Monday, September 24, 2018, in Contois Auditorium, City Hall at 7PM. Comments will be heard at the Hearing on the Report and on housing and community development needs. Written comments can also be submitted directly to the Community & Economic Development Office at the above address or by e-mail to mesbjerg@burlingtonvt.gov. For more information, or information on alternative access, contact Marcy Esbjerg, Community & Economic Development Office, at 865-7171.
Memorial Auditorium Public Workshop #1, Thursday, August 30th, Contois Auditorium, City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington
Memorial Workshop #1 focused on building on the survey results by further developing and narrowing the potential uses for Memorial Auditorium, including rehabilitation options. See presentation here: Workshop #1 Presentation
Memorial Auditorium – Survey Results
On Thursday, August 23, from 5:30-7:30pm, The Center for Research & Public Policy (CRPP) of Waterbury, VT, presented the following survey results: CRPP Survey Results Presentation - 8.23.2018
Memorial Auditorium – Public Meetings
Thank you to the Burlington community for taking the survey, providing honest input, and being invested in our future. It’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience and we are going to continue to build on this momentum. Please join us for these next two Memorial Auditorium public events!
Thursday, August 23, 5:30-7:30pm Presentation on Memorial Auditorium Survey Results, Contois Auditorium, City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington
The results are in! Dave Hartnett and the City’s Park, Arts and Culture Committee (PACC), invites you to join us for a public presentation of the Memorial Survey results.
The Center for Research & Public Policy (CRPP) of Waterbury, VT, will be presenting the results at this meeting. CRPP was instrumental in developing the Memorial Auditorium survey. For more information on CRPP, please visit their website: https://www.crpp.com/
Please see below for an agenda:
AGENDA:
-Memorial Overview (time 5:30-6:00)
-CRPP Presents Survey Results (6:00-7:00)
-Questions and Answers 7:00- 7:30)
Thursday, August 30, 5:30-7:30pm Memorial Auditorium Public Workshop, Contois Auditorium, City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington
We want to hear from you… in person! Workshop #1 will be a city-wide community dialogue. We will focus on building on the survey results by further developing and narrowing the potential uses for Memorial Auditorium, including rehabilitation options. This workshop will be hosted by the Community and Economic Development Office, Planning and Zoning, Burlington City Arts and other City departments. Please join us!
For more information and history about Memorial Auditorium please visit this website: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/CEDO/Memorial-Auditorium
Special accommodation requests please call CEDO 802-865-7144.
Congratulations! First Cohort of Graduates Proudly Display Certificates in Construction & Safety Training
CEDO, in partnership with ReSOURCE, has teamed up to train approximately 20 persons in construction and safety training over a one-year period. On Wednesday evening, the first set of cohorts celebrated their successful graduation from the program, which ReSOURCE is delivering at The South End Joinery on Pine Street. The 10-week intensive program kicked off on June 4, with the first six weeks dedicated to training in construction math, carpentry, tool usage and other construction related courses, followed by two weeks of personal and professional development. Trainees spent the final two weeks getting hands-on experience on construction sites leading to permanent jobs.
The program aims to prepare targeted populations, including low income, young adults, at-risk youths, ex-offenders and New Americans so they're qualified for the hundreds of skilled entry level and high-skill, high wage construction jobs, as a result of several major development projects coming on line or already ongoing in Burlington.
The second cohort of trainees will begin their training at ReSOURCE on September 24, 2018.
For more information on this construction jobs training program, please call Gillian Nanton, Assistant Director, CEDO at # 802-865-7179 or email: gnanton@burlingtonvt.gov.
Burlington Lead Program
As #btv property owner Eric Lafayette tells it, working with the Burlington Lead Program "is a no-brainer." By enrolling with us, this building also qualified for the Healthy Homes program. As a result, this property is getting new windows, interior and exterior paint jobs, new flooring and more! Thanks Eric, for taking part in the Burlington Lead Program and for sharing your story. #btvlead burlingtonleadprogram.org
CEDO's programs are available to all people regardless of political or religious affiliation, race, color, national origin, place of birth, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, veteran status, HIV positive status or genetic information. For information on the accessibility of CEDO's programs, contact us at 802-865-7144 / cedofd@burlingtonvt.gov.
