Alas dear friends, December 31, will be the last official day of work at the FHP/Thriving Communities campaign for the wonderfully talented, informative, and entertaining Blogger and journalistic seeker of truth, Tim Johnson. Tim is one of a kind and is an irreplaceable human resource. We offer Tim our deepest felt thanks and all best wishes. Of course Tim will be missed greatly, both his personal presence in our office and his many professional  contributions to the cause of promoting Thriving Inclusive Communities in Vermont and as far and wide as our campaign is reaching beyond the state.

Our loss of funding from HUD, compounded by no forthcoming funding commitment from the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development, is forcing CVOEO to eliminate not only Tim’s position but to substantially reduce the funded hours for my position as director at the Fair Housing Project. However, all is by no means gloom for the New Year ahead!

The hopeful part comes from the following:

• The Thriving Communities: Building a Vibrant Inclusive Vermont campaign will continue with current, and perhaps new partner organization in the future!
• The Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, lead organization for the Campaign will continue albeit with reduced staffing/capacity.
• We are receiving some private and organizational contributions to the project budget and continue to welcome such generosity.
• More people continue to be interested and involved in our Campaign’s variety of social media outreach and we will build upon that.
• We will be planning and working toward another successful art and education oriented celebration of April – Fair Housing Month in 2016.

What you can do to help continue to build our campaign:

• Read, write comments, and engage in discussion on this Blog page.
• Write a guest blog for us to post!
• Contribute money to the Campaign and suggest possible foundation or other sources of funding for us to pursue.
• Get involved in every way possible helping promote inclusive, thriving communities, affordable housing and funding/public policies that make more affordable and better located housing possible.

Finally – HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!