Vermont Releaf Collective

At A Glance

Location: 

Montpelier, Vermont

Primary Issue Area:

  • Living Economies
  • Food
  • Land & Water
  • Climate Change & Energy
  • Environmental Health

Active since:

2020

Core volunteers:

8

  • Two people tapping popsicles in an outdoor setting.  They are smiling and laughing.  Behind them is a big, red barn and other people smiling.
  • A group of people in an open garage, all focusing on a teacher explaining the use of a tool.

Our Purpose

The Vermont Releaf Collective cultivates connection, shares resources, and amplifies the voices of people of color in Vermont within our focus areas of Land, Environment, Agriculture, and Foodways. We are a collaborative ecosystem for growing power and community for our members.                                              Releaf’s primary motivator and approach is rooted in connection, community, and healing rather than battleground advocacy. We have chosen to focus on the Releaf community first - members’ vision, needs, talents and energy before establishing an external presence or managing relationships with white-led institutions. In the normative mold for nonprofit organizations Mission, Vision and Values often describe quantifiable goals and specific practices. The Vermont Releaf Collective instead aims to be a collaborative, fluid, and intentional organization that focuses first and always on the depth and potential of our internal work.  Our values center around:  Collective Care + Liberation - our solidarity, kinship, and accountability are all intertwined, including those of the lands we steward and the beings on them - and Radical Re-Imagination - our commitment to being open to new possibilities as individuals, a collective, and within our greater society.