Southern Vermont CEDS
A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for Bennington and Windham Regions
The Executive Summary provides a snapshot of the work completed, a condensed version of the Objectives and Strategies, and an Implementation Guide.
The full document contains the Executive Summary, the expanded CEDS, and all the attachments.
The development of the SoVermont Zone CEDS was sponsored in part by the US Department of Commerce (DOC), via a grant with the Economic Development Administration (EDA) award #ED24PHI0G0048. The content of this website, and the SoVermont Zone CEDS, do not necessarily reflect the views of the EDA or the US DOC.
FAQ
What's so important about a CEDS?
A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy is federally-approved planning and action tool for strengthening Southern Vermont's economy. It relies on a broad array of participants to set realistic goals and, later on, to deliver measurable results.
Why is "Southern Vermont" the area?
Two reasons: relevance and recognition. First, the challenges and assets found in communities across Bennington and Windham counties are quite similar. Working at the Southern Vermont scale allows communities and organizations to take advantage of lessons learned on both sides of the mountain.
Second, there is significant state and federal support for working at this scale: Vermont's General Assembly created the Southern Vermont Economic Development Zone in 2015, including all of Bennington County, Windham County, and the Town of Weston, and the federal Economic Development Administration provided a substantial grant in 2017 to help create the Southern Vermont CEDS.
In an era of scarce resources, rural areas need to work together! Southern Vermont is a good bit larger than the state of Rhode Island by area, but it has less than 1/10th of the population.