Annual Meeting Perspectives
April 19, 2025
Dear CVRAN Community,
April 15th was not only tax day. It was also the day of the Central Vermont Refugee Action Network annual meeting. 67 people were able to make the occasion at the Unitarian Church, not only our annual meeting but also our 10th birthday, ten years since our founding in the same church basement. The event did indeed feel like a celebration in so many ways: a quick business meeting and a Powerpoint about the year. What did we all notice?
First, and most clearly, there is a healthy and exciting transition happening alongside those 10 balloons festooned around the room. Our first-ever executive director, Ali Zenie, was able to introduce herself. An exciting new slate of board members and officers was elected. New volunteers are also moving in to run the March Arts Marathon and the email list. Our fundraising has been amazingly successful. Many New Vermonters were present. The momentum is there for CVRAN not only to continue, but to thrive.
CVRAN has worked hard for this success. Starting at this time last year, the board and other stakeholders met over multiple strategic planning sessions to set 3 main goals: new leadership, an executive director, and a first-ever fundraising campaign – and all have borne amazing fruit. Our organization feels strong. Our purpose was honed by a new vision statement also crafted at this time: Our vision is to build, in partnership with others, a vibrant, inclusive global community in Central Vermont, where refugees and asylum seekers find hope, engagement, empowerment, and a strong sense of belonging.
Second, CVRAN has become bigger. We can no longer say we are a small under-the-radar non-profit. Not only are we strong enough to draw in new leadership and many donations, sheer statistics show our continued growth. Over the last year, for instance, so many volunteer hours were put in that they added up to an equivalent of 14 full-time paid staff! The number of volunteers, donors, and similarly our Facebook and website and email lists and March Arts Marathon fundraiser have all grown by leaps and bounds, and our budget and income more than doubled. We began this year with a celebration of refurbishing a large Downstreet property for one family, we are ending this year with a 2nd Downstreet property almost ready for 4 smaller families, thanks to a great deal of time and effort from the Affordable Housing Committee. That makes 3 properties in which CVRAN has had a significant part of readying for our families. Most importantly the number of people we are serving has continued to grow.
More invisibly, our sphere of influence has also grown. We are a known entity with places like the Hunger Mountain Coop and Red Hen Bakery, radio stations and newspapers are reaching out to us. Also, together with other like organizations in this state and New Hampshire, we are part of a consortium that helps lobby for bills benefiting immigrants, has started a website to aid asylum seekers across the 2 states, and helped fund a widely attended conference at the Vermont law school about policy for asylum seekers. We are in dialogue with many other groups about immigrant needs.
Third, the presidential election in November has created a new urgency to our work. We who are long-time citizens feel fear, despair, and anger over the executive orders on immigration that are changing our understanding of our own country. We who are immigrants feel fear and despair and instability even more harshly. What used to be a safe and legal pathway is no longer an assured one. What used to be normalcy is now dicey. Some CVRAN partners have had scary brushes with ICE, including detention, topics well covered in the Vermont press. In reaction to proposed mandates, the CVRAN board early felt impelled to attempt taking on 9 or 10 more newcomers before avenues of immigration were closed down. You, the CVRAN community, have responded with offers to volunteer or contribute money or temporary housing. So far CVRAN has actually taken on 12 new people, though many others we wanted to help were blocked. Because we do not depend on federal funding, we have not experienced the same forced down-sizing as some other Vermont immigrant organizations.
What will come this next year? We will await another annual meeting to hear the whole of it in 2026. Already there are pilot translation projects, a new paid direct service coordinator position being advertised, and possible office space sought. Meanwhile, stay tuned for a larger summer celebration of our first 10 years, and great and wise strides by our new CVRAN leaders and you!
Rachel Cogbill
Exiting CVRAN President