Our Mission
The Valley Futures Network is a grassroots, citizen effort focusing on building a healthy and sustainable 21st century future for our Mad River Valley communities. The initial goal of the Valley Futures Network is to build enthusiasm and support across the Valley around a common vision of our future. This vision includes certain critical success factors that are necessary in order to achieve health and sustainability: bolstering healthy local food; designing for energy conservation and independence; supporting a strong, resilient business community; crafting affordable housing for our workforce and young families; and preserving our land for conservation, wildlife and recreation.
Call To Collaboration
While the Valley Futures Network has created an initial vision for a healthy and sustainable Mad River Valley community and watershed, it will be an evolving vision in which the whole Mad River Valley community can participate - with comments, suggestions, support, and collaborative work to help achieve the vision.
Supporting Pilot Projects
A second major objective of the Valley Futures Network is to help launch and publicize tangible projects that will move the Valley’s vision from idea to reality. The new group will make available small grants as “seed” capital to facilitate demonstration projects or to test new ideas. The Valley Futures Network supports and builds on, rather than duplicates or replaces, the efforts of other individuals and organizations already working towards the health of the Valley. The MRVPD Executive Director and the MRVPD Steering Committee will work closely with the Valley Futures Network to coordinate and implement projects that move us towards our goals.
Promoting An Open Forum
The Valley Futures Network’s third objective is to foster better communication for citizens across the Valley, as well as between public and private efforts. This coordination role will utilize the Valley Futures Network website, public forums, various leadership building initiatives, newspaper articles and other means to energize discussions about the Valley’s future. The Valley Futures Network is an open forum to explore, discuss and implement our valley’s best ideas for a healthy and more sustainable future - one available for anyone and everyone to use. We hope that everyone in the Mad River Valley will feel welcome to participate.
