Empowering Connections and Growing Happiness

Our Vision is...

A Vermont where ALL people have opportunities to feel safe, connected, and experience compassionate belonging.

 

Our Mission is...

To equitably and sustainably harmonize resources, knowledge, and experiences throughout Vermont, increasing our collective impact in working to prevent and heal chronic loneliness.

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Who We Are

We are people from all over the state of Vermont who have grown from an incredible diversity of experiences. We invite individuals just like you to participate. People who want to make a difference with the knowledge they've gained through their life experiences - who want to make our communities and our systems work well for all people. We are individuals, statewide community organizations, companies, and government organizations, all working to increase equity so that all people in Vermont have an opportunity to feel less alone and to thrive.

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Our Work So Far...

​We are currently in the planning phase of this coalition. We have a small but mighty team of people from all across the state with various lived experiences informing how this coalition will function to be impactful and regenerative for many generations to come.

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Why Did We Create This?

Social Tinkering began shaping the idea for this statewide coalition following our Rutland Belonging Collective's representation of the Rutland Health District in the VT Community Health Equity Partnership in 2022-23. This is one of the ways we match action to our All Are Welcome Here Visibility Campaign that began in 2021.

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1.  Changemaking can be lonely-making. Why not come together to support each other so we feel less alone with the weight of the task? Building belonging can't be done alone.

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2.  A lot of people are wanting to learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion but don't know where to turn, feel shame around not knowing, and aren't sure who to ask for help. We build bridges to coordinate learning and resources, and create spaces of connection where mistakes are part of the process of growing and doing better.

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3.  If we are going to learn and grow and change in a sustainable way, we need to listen to the people who have faced the most bias and discrimination. Those of us who are privileged to have not experienced a lot of bias and inequity, need to be aware of our impact on folks who are often marginalized and underserved. We need to do the work necessary to understand each other and make things better for all people. As we all try to figure out how to do better when we know better, we need to be mindful that we're not asking people with deeply lived experiences of bias and discrimination to guide us all without compensation and recognition of their incredible effort and emotional toll.

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4.  Lastly, the All Are Welcome Here visibility initiative isn't 100% true - there is still a lot of work we can do to get there. We will do this work while increasing visibility through this campaign. Learn how you can help us increase visibility!

 

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Interested in learning more?

Contact us at info@socialtinkering.org or call 802-342-5811 to set up a conversation to connect and get creative!