Kevin Chu, Executive Director

Vermont isn’t just shrinking in population, its aging.  The state has 30,000 fewer working age citizens between 25-40 then it did 25 years ago.  This, while modest population gains during the Covid-19 pandemic has reversed.

For those of us at the Innova802 Crew, we see the effects every day.  Many citizens on fixed incomes, who represent a larger share of the population, cannot afford increases to taxes for education, infrastructure and public healthcare subsidies.

For many, the gut reaction is to say, no new Vermont citizens, no new Vermont students, no new Vermont employers intaking public dollars.  While this may seem intuitively correct, it is in fact the path to a downward economic cycle that becomes very challenging to reverse, especially for rural states.

We hosted Kevin Chu, Executive Director of the Vermont Futures Project during season eight of the Are We Here Yet? podcast.  One year later, the Innova802 crew had him back to talk about the effort to get all Vermonters on the same page, writing a book of growth in order to create a more livable Vermont bursting at the seams with opportunity and the right balance between caring for our neighbors and having the ability to pay for it.

Read the op ed recently published by the Vermont Futures Project.

This Are We Here Yet? podcast is in association with the Innova802 podcast.

This conversation on rural development is so important, we’re hosting it on The Housers Podcast, too!