About The Collaborative
With the guiding vision that everyone is a part of a healthy, safe, and supportive community and a mission to empower healthy youth, families, and communities, The Collaborative has been operating as a 501c3 nonprofit serving Windham, Windsor, and Bennington counties in Vermont since 1999.
Building a Community of Preventionists
The Collaborative's energetic team works with diverse communities and partners to achieve shared health and substance misuse prevention goals locally and at the Vermont State level. We bring together traditional and nontraditional groups to ensure that any community member can have a seat at the table to actively engaging in the promotion of prevention in our communities.
Recognized by Vermont State, regional, and local partners as experts in our field, The Collaborative is one of the largest substance misuse prevention organizations and mentoring fiscal agents in Vermont. Our work provides a model for how youth, families, communities, and organizations "do" sustainable and data-driven substance misuse prevention.
Everyday, our efforts are actively guided by our Mission, Vision, and Belief statements to help us build partnerships, support health policy creation locally and at the State level, and be the catalyst that brings together youth, families, and communities to engage in prevention.
Our Fiscal Partner Agencies
We are currently the acting fiscal agent for three other nonprofit organizations: ACT Bennington, BRACC, and PW!VT. The Collaborative helps its partner agencies focus on their core mission by managing financial and administrative functions on their behalf. We provide their organizations with risk management support, organizational oversight, grant management, technical assistance, and prevention expertise. Our team of 11 staff works closely with the teams of our fiscal partners, building prevention capacity across three counties and collaborating every step of the way. By aligning our projects that have similar mission and values, we augment each other’s work in the community to connect and support healthy communities through substance misuse prevention. We hope you will visit their websites to find out more about the impact they're making in Vermont to support healthy communities and prevent substance misuse.
Alliance for Community Transformation
Black River Area Community Coalition
Prevention Works!VT
Our Vision
Everyone is part of a healthy, safe, and supportive community.
Our Mission
Empowering healthy youth, families, and communities
Acceptance ∗ Resilience ∗ Engagement
Our Belief Statement
- All children are inherently good.
- All children, teens and adults may make unhealthy decisions, but will be given the opportunity to make healthy choices with the advocacy and support of The Collaborative.
- At heart, all parents seek to promote the best interests of their children.
- When youth and adults are provided enough information and cultural support, they will make healthy decisions to avoid the onset of substance abuse.
- Positive proactive substance use prevention throughout the entire community will facilitate the development of healthy independent teens.
- In our communities, each member, organization and system plays an integral role in conveying to youth the clear and consistent message that youth are expected to be substance free and rewarded for their commitment.
- Our services and public resources are available to all families and individuals.
The Collaborative is a long-standing and active member of the Green Peak Alliance. Green Peak Alliance is a regional network that promotes healthy communities. Together,we bring federal and state resources to local areas through our work with schools and service organizations. Through research, education, and outreach, we create conditions to positively influence the public by increasing youth assets and reducing risks. For more information, visit www.greenpeakalliance.org.
The Collaborative is heavily involved in supporting the Bennington County Regional Prevention Partnership's goals and activities. The Bennington County Regional Prevention Partnership is a community health organization that pursues a public health planning process, fostering community action and collaboration to reduce and prevent underage and binge drinking, prescription drug misuse and marijuana misuse at the regional level.
Vermont Region 4 Prevention Lead
Led by The Collaborative, the PL4 is organized under a grant from the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), Division of Substance Use Programs. The PL4 is empowering local decision-making at the community level, allowing more flexibility to leverage existing resources according to need and impact. We currently have 16 funded organizations working within the PL4 region across the four health districts of Bennington, Brattleboro, Springfield, and White River Junction. Each district is covered by a VDH Prevention Consultant and a PL4 Community Liaison helping to guide evidence-based prevention efforts across the region.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Statement
The Collaborative is committed to creating a welcoming, diverse and inclusive environment for everyone to thrive, honoring all within our organization and the communities we serve. Our belief is simple and actionable: The Collaborative is better when we embrace each other with open hearts and minds, confront our biases, and take a stand for equity and inclusion. We are mindful that diversity strengthens the community and our workplace and enhances dialogue. The Collaborative will provide diversity education and training to all, and actively build trust where all belong.
Land Acknowledgment
We want to honor the legacy of Vermont’s Indigenous people, the Abenaki People of the Dawn, who have cared for this land for generations and continue to do so. We recognize that colonialism and the oppression of Native peoples are a current and ongoing process, and we commit to building our awareness of our present participation. We pay our respects to the elders past and present. We honor with deep gratitude this land and all it gives us. We also honor the histories of BIPOC people and acknowledge both the painful history of enslavement and that this country was built on the backs of Black and Brown people.
Interested in volunteering with us?
There are plenty of ways to give back to your community and help lead the way in empowering healthy youth, families, and communities! Apply today to volunteer with The Collaborative!