Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: You're alive. Okay, you're back with Sand Transportation and we're here for Common Good Vermont Day and we have Jordan Posner, the Executive Director of CIDR. So if you want to

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: tell us a little bit about what Yeah, absolutely. We need to Sure.

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: Thank you to the committee for having us. It is nonprofit legislative day, so you'll see us around the State House all day. As mentioned, my name is Jordan Postman. Am the Executive Director of Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources or CIDAR for short. We are a South Hero based organization. Senator Brennan is our representative here in Montpelier and we serve as the public transit provider of Grand Isle County. We are not a direct recipient of state or federal funds. We receive pass through funds through beginning January 1. RCT is our transit provider of Grand Isle County. Beyond this transportation, we do everything. In the islands, we have built over 200 accessibility ramps at individuals' homes, serve over 1,100 meals a month, and have a wellness program that offers up to four wellness programming classes a month. Those that know the small but mighty communities of Grand Isle County are fully aware of the spirit of resiliency and self reliance. It's long been the mantra in the islands that we're in an island in and of ourselves and that nobody's coming to help us, and that we really need to help ourselves. Out of that spirit, were founded in 1993 in the basement of the Congregational Church where we still serve our meals today on South Street in South Europe. But today, we are the only transit provider in Vermont to win the Community Transportation Association of America's Transit System of the Year. That was in 2005, and a myriad other state awards. I come before the committee today, highlight not just the role we play in public transit public transit providers as a whole throughout the state, but the role nonprofits play in general in the provision of services for our neighbors. Nonprofits like CIDR are the lifeblood for our community. We provide services in an efficient and cost effective manner while also being able to respond to communities in a way that the state government often can't or are unwilling to do so. We can serve our communities in ways that are intended or in the ways that they are intended without the bureaucracy and burdens that often conflict with local and municipal governments. It has long been a sense of pride for me, the cider board and our members that we have staffed to comprise almost exclusively Grand Isle County residents, which means that our money is able to save in Grand Isle County. We are proud to employ over 25 hardworking Grand Isleers who are community driven neighbors who are able to go above and beyond for their communities every time. But like so many you've heard over the past year, the cost of doing business just keeps increasing And the positive money that is used to fund programs like the O and D program keep getting swallowed. And we're having to fight harder for less. From CIDR's perspective, in just the match component of the O and D program, CIDR has seen an increase of over 1500% since 2024 with a 0% increase in federal funding. That's coupled with an 182% increase in costs and 117% increase in ridership. So we've doubled ridership and we've nearly tripled cost federal dollars of platinum. As Cider continues to do what it thinks is best for its neighbors, we're increasingly doing it with less and competing with others for more in a shrinking pot of funds. But this is not just a problem for transportation. It's something that we see throughout the sector. And that's why Common Good is here today. Common Good is a fantastic membership organization that advocates on behalf of all of Vermont's nonprofits that employ one in five Vermonters, and is still in need and asking the state to allocate funds for technical assistance, grant making, and capacity building. If nonprofits like Sider are unable to continue to make ends meet, the people of Grand Isle County, as well as others throughout the state, will be left without any backup. Cider rates, the only transportation option, the only wellness entity, and the majority provider of Meals on Wheels in our little community. And far too often, the voices of the 7,500, pardoned, trained olives are drowned out by the voices in our neighbors and unfortunately larger Franklin And Chicano Counties, and thus local nonprofits like CIDR are vital to ensure that they are not left behind, and Grand Isle Counties wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Well, great job. That was a wonderful presentation and short. That was really, I assume your Senator probably has some questions, but.

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: No, was just, you didn't mention

[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: in there with the services you keep providing,

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: you're still providing with less. Correct. You said that's our 1500% increase in local match. Right. How we stretch the grant is tapping into our own dollars to keep that grant alive.

[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: That's where I was gonna have you go. Yeah. Like the deficit that you have to run to provide

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: So we budgeted $20 for local maps this year. We are running closer to 80. And you get

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: that from individuals or towns or both?

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: No. We collect zero from local and state government. We do this all through fundraising and all through the provision of service. We are fortunate that we've been able to essentially have a raised even budget this year, but every dollar that we put towards transportation is a dollar we can't put elsewhere. And we've often relied on transportation to pay for itself because it is a service that is intended to do so.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Did you get access to the MTI grant program?

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: We've had access to MTI Did you grant

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: get microtransit? Absolutely.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Not even kind that you are.

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: Yep, we are microtransit. We've had MTI dollars in the past. We offer Medicaid transportation, O and E transportation, and school district transportation is our newest and largest program nowadays. When I took over in 2022, the Grand Isle Supervisory Union was contracting with taxes off of Grand Isle County. Taxes to provide students to schools. So we stepped in and operated a service that is lower than the taxis while keeping the money in Grand Isle County. It was a win win for everybody involved.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Wow, I did not know

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: that story. We, in fact, Senator Perchlik on the floor yesterday was, your exact point was on the cost of transportation for schools.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Thank you for that service.

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: And as I mentioned, we're here all day. So if anybody had any questions, we'll be in the car park.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. And so your presentation or what you just read, did you get a chance to send it to our committee as

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: I sure did.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Okay, great. So we'll see that on our webpage. Thank you. Did anyone have any questions or can invite

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: our next up Allison if you want to join us?

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: Thank you.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: You're in the card room?

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: We are in the card room in various places.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: You picture all over. Good morning. Hi, my name is Alison Lamoille and I'm the executive director of the United Ways of Vermont We are the designated agency in the state for the Vermont two eleven service. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come in and talk with you this morning, and thanks to Common Good for getting this arranged. I'll share a little bit about Vermont two eleven. I also have some specific data on the transportation needs that you hear about at two eleven, but I'll start with just sort of an overview of who we are and what we do. Vermont two eleven's mission is to promote the health and well-being of all of Vermonters through a statewide information and referral system that streamlines access to community resources. So we really serve as a critical state infrastructure that's kind of the front door for Vermonters to all health and human services, resources and services that are available across the state. We are a nationally accredited information referral service, and we provide confidential, nonjudgmental and barrier free access to accurate and up to date information about essential resources. Vermonters can reach us through phone, text, or an online searchable database, and we connect them with what they need the most, regardless of income, geography, language, or circumstances. Vermonters call 211 in times of need, you hear that around the state when there's a crisis or a specific change to call 211 for information. So that can be around transportation needs. It can be around, for example, the threats to SNAP benefits, extreme weather, shelters, natural disasters, and policy changes. And demand does continue to rise as federal shifts and funding cuts impact our communities. As families, state agencies, service providers face increasing strain, the state relies on two eleven's infrastructure to meet that demand and respond quickly. Our call volume continues to grow year over year. We've had a 44.5% increase in contacts overall since 2021. And last year in 2025, we handled more than 61,000 contacts from providers around the state. We operate seven days a week, including weekends and holidays, and our database is searchable online 20 fourseven. We help people navigate the complex systems they have to get through to find help. And at the same time, we serve to reduce pressure on community organizations, town offices and emergency services. We're also an integral partner in disaster response and recovery, supporting communities during Irene, COVID and the recent flooding events. Let's see. From a transportation perspective, Vermont two eleven plays an important role in helping Vermonters access care and services. So in 2025, we made three forty five referrals for transportation resources. And already this year, we have made 60 in the first two months of 2026. That's January and February. The vast majority of our requests are for non emergency medical transportation. At the same time, transportation remains a significant unmet need. So in 2025, we documented 139 unmet transportation needs. Most commonly, those were related to gas assistance and help with vehicle payments. I did send some data and information over, so you may be able to check that out later if you're interested to see more of the details. And the data that I sent includes a breakdown by county.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Is it the unmet needs or the transfer?

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Both. So one document that shows the transportation referrals that we made by county and breaks it down to very specific requests and asks that folks had. And then I think that document also shows a graph of unmet need, of what percent of the needs were unmet. And then it also shows the top zip codes that reached out for assistance for transportation. And then there's a second document that goes into the unmet needs further.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: This is real I'm sorry, now that you pointed out the handout, now I went immediately to Windsor County to try to identify the needs of our community. It looks like,

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: oh shoot, just scrolled to the

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: bottom there. It looks like the majority of our referral services that we had in my area were for non emergency medical transportation. And

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: that's the vast majority of most of the transportation requests that we are getting that we're seeing at two eleven.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: So would this include we've had a lot of discussions about this on our committee, but would this be funded through Medicare? Like are those Medicare eligible rides?

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: That's something I'm not sure of how those services are funded on their own. So, what we did was we Okay,

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: so you were just referring to an organization that can provide that service, so you wouldn't know flagged if it gets funded or not. Correct.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: And so what we do flag is if we can't find a resource for the individual that gets flagged as an unmet need.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, that was already surprising to see that the medical transportation, about six percent of your calls have an unmet need for that. But for automobile assistance, 49%.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: So half

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: of the folks that are calling in with automobile assistance needs are just, that means it's not getting resolved. Right. There aren't

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: a lot of resources to help them with whether it's a car repair or a car, you know, to be able to afford a vehicle.

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: They said they just need gas money. There's no

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: way Right. Go for

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Do you what is when are the resources you're connected to, does that include like Good Neighbor Garage or Good News Garage? Yes. So that would if someone got handed off to them then we can send that to them. Yes. Okay. Mhmm. Interesting.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Yeah. Yeah. I

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: I do have a lot of questions.

[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: When you're referring someone, let's take I'm looking at Grand Isle, and you have one request for non emergency medical transportation. Is that because, the reason you only have one is that because that person didn't know those services were available through another entity or I mean, that's more of

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: a question to Jordan. Typically, that's how Because you do They call 211, they figure out.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Yeah. And maybe they were referred to site.

[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: That's what I'm guessing. Yeah.

[Jordan Postman (Executive Director, Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources - CIDER)]: Yeah. I think that's a problem in the pipeline. Okay.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Let's see. And I'm sure you are all well aware that the unmet needs we see, they're not just transportation issues, they're barriers to accessing different services downstream like healthcare, employment, and basic needs. I also want to acknowledge the reason that we're here today as part of the Common Good event. The United Ways of Iran is an independent five zero one(three) nonprofit and we work in very close partnership with the state, as you know. We provide that infrastructure for the health and human services. We also support the emergency housing program through the Economic Services Division, our disaster work, and our work to fill the gaps during evenings, weekends and holidays when the state does not have staffing available. So like many of our nonprofit partners around the state, we are helping the state to meet demand without having to build their own capacity internally. And we serve as a flexible, partner that can adapt quickly during a change. So today, Common Goods Day at the legislature is an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of Vermont's nonprofit sector and to raise awareness. Our main source of funding is through a contract with the state. And so we want to raise awareness for the needs for government financing contracts that fairly compensate and support nonprofits, especially as uncertainty at the federal level is creating more and more challenges. And we also advocate and support common goods initiative for the technical assistance program that they're building to provide critical support for nonprofits so that we can coordinate, adapt and inspire the essential resources and services within the state. I wanted to note that Vermont two eleven, it's essential that we are fully funded to keep information and referral system strong. The governor did propose a reduction to our funding this year, but the House has restored that. And so this is really essential funding to help us continue connecting to Vermonters when they need help the most. So just in closing, ask the committee to please support both two eleven's full level funding and common goods initiatives today. That's all I have. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate the opportunity. And if you have any other further questions, happy to answer those. Thank you, Allison. I would

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: just say, you've got two PROPES members here. So this was a good use of time. Thank you and it's great to hear that the House did your full funding because I certainly have constituents who use two eleven and have already gotten emails from folks requesting that it'd be supported because that is the barrier between 09:11 sometimes. Yeah.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Yeah.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: So looking at your statistical report around unmet needs for last year, it looks like you do have one Medicaid transportation that was some unmet need. Is that like a special mean, it's only one. So I

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Okay. I agree.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: With that. Is that maybe a recovery transport? Or Unfortunately,

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: I don't know the details of that specific contact that came in. I could probably dig a little further and find out what county or region that was in, and that might help shed some light on whether there's nothing available there. So I can follow-up if you'd

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: like on that. Cool. And then I I'm really appreciative of you just breaking out, like, gas money and then automobile payment assistance and then automobile insurance payment assistance. Like it's interesting. I get small numbers, but it is helpful because I've certainly heard from constituents an increase in their ability to- a decrease in their ability to afford monthly lease payments for cars. There's an increase in folks defaulting and either having their vehicle taken away or having to do all sorts of complex financial willy and dealing to afford it. If you So do have a trend or anything over time, is there like any It would be great to well, it would be probably depressing to see, but it would be an interesting data point to see of your unmet needs and the gas money piece in particular,

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: where does that rank over the last few years? I'm sure we can pull something like that up for you. And I'll point you to our website as well. If you go to vermont211.org, under the Resources tab at the very bottom, it says Statistical Reports, and you can look at our calls by need, by region, you can look at statewide numbers. Then there's also a link to VT counts, or sorry, two eleven counts, which is We're part of the National two eleven system and they look at data across the nation, but they can highlight for each state what their state numbers were. So every year we submit a report to them with our data and they have really interesting maps and just visual representation of the data. So you can play around on there as well to look at. You can click on different regions. You can click on a number and it will break it out and show you what that includes. Oh, awesome. Yeah, so you can try that. But I'll try to get some follow-up for you.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, that's great to know that you have that level of detail. Yeah.

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: And can I ask on the house funding? Did they fund it the way you wanted it, or did they, like, want you to do the twenty four hours?

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: They so they didn't I think the wording says something about supporting the evening time, but what we were asking for is to be fiscally responsible with the funds the state is giving us and utilize those to have the best service we can during the busiest times. And so there has been some controversy over our overnight hours, and our data shows that between 12AM and 8AM just don't really receive a lot of calls, and that is a time when we pay contractor to be on the phones. But between 4PM and 10PM, we are overwhelmed. We have so many calls during those hours that we don't have adequate staffing to meet that need.

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: And where's that staffing? Like, where's your call center for those calls?

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: It's New England call center, it's based on New Hampshire. So they also cover weekends and holidays for us. And so I think it's important to understand that our full level funding is for our full operations. It's not for a particular set of hours. Have technology systems, we have staffing, we still are available seven days a week, three sixty five days a year. Those are expensive Services, our costs go up year after year, and we were not requesting an increase this year. With level funding, we can be responsible with the dollars and put them where we see the highest need to respond and also be prepared for the next disaster. The expectation is we can scale up and be able to be nimble in that way and with a reduction, it significantly jeopardizes our ability to be able to do that and to meet the rising needs that we see.

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: Is there no call center business in Vermont? I've got our knowledge.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: There's there's not any other call center business in Vermont besides two one one to my knowledge. In fact, the state No.

[Sen. Wendy Harrison (Clerk)]: Don't if that would be with contractors because you're contracting the. There isn't a Vermont. No. Right.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: And in fact, Economic Services does contract with another call center during the day because they don't have the staffing to get over the call at the very the day and it's an out of state call center.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: I've heard about this, yes.

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: Yeah, we are interested in exploring a partnership with another two eleven. We used to have a partnership with another two eleven to do this and that seems to be what a lot of small two eleven's do, is they partner with another two eleven in another state because they know our work, they know human services, they know how to respond to the community. And in times of disaster, it actually is beneficial to have a partner that's not in an impacted region. So we're looking at that. But currently, we have worked with New England. They're they're a good partner. Their systems aren't the same as ours. So for example, if you care about long wait times or callbacks, it's usually on the weekends because our phone system actually connects you with a human within ninety seconds or voice mail, but that's usually only 8% of the time do our calls go to voicemail. And I also just wanted to I'll take a moment to just correct another misconception I've heard from an agency testimony, someone from the agency of Human Services testimony recently. We provide information and referral services during all operational hours. After 04:30PM, we also support the emergency housing program, but we don't stop doing information and referral services at that time. So we're doing that around the clock as well.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Well, you for the info.

[Sen. Andrew Perchlik (Member)]: I got one quick one. Yes. I know we gotta go. On the bus fares, unmet need, you had eight, you had a lot more requests that you obviously did fill. How did, when you refer it's to the busing agency in that particular area, in that We

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: will look at any service in their, the region or the area where the caller tells us that they reside or where they're looking for the service that could potentially meet that need. So it might be the public transportation, but there could be a community action agency that might have funds to help with bus fares or things like that. It could be a secondary service of another organization or agency. So we look at all of those and give the caller all the information or the best information that we can to meet their needs.

[Sen. Rebecca “Becca” White (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, like those special programs for new parents or something Our a breed or

[Alison Lamoille (Executive Director, United Ways of Vermont)]: calls are confidential, we don't take individual identifiers, but we do ask where they live and if there are services that have certain demographics that they serve, we get that information so we can