On the Road with Veterans, First Responders, Health Care Workers, and Young People

Dear Fellow Vermonter,

Tuesday, June 27 was a busy day as I headed south to Windham County to hold a roundtable on health care with Brattleboro-area veterans, speak with high school students taking part in summer programming through the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, and visit the fire and police cadet academies. I also visited the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital to announce $4.2 million in federal funding to expand primary care and dental services at North Star Health – the community health center that provides care to thousands of Vermonters in the southern part of our state.

Every time I am out on the road, I am not only inspired by my fellow Vermonters, but I learn a great deal. It is these conversations that help me better fight for our communities in Washington.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with me and for everything you do each and every day for your communities.

Sincerely,

I spoke with students on the campus of Landmark College in Putney who are participating in the Global Issues & Youth Action Institute, a program led by the Governor's Institutes of Vermont. These young people come from all over the state and were joined by ten young people from Ireland.

In their questions and comments, these young people raised very important issues – from climate change to economic inequality, money in politics, gun violence, mental health, and health care. I very much enjoyed speaking with them. Their intelligence and decency gives me hope for the future.

Vermont is helping to lead the country in terms of patient participation in community health centers. Today, we have 11 FQHCs at 66 locations throughout the state. In Brattleboro, I announced a major grant which will establish a community health center site in Windham County.

At the Brattleboro event, I was pleased to be joined by health care leaders in the community who are working together to make this community health care center a success.

From left to right is: Carmen Derby, Executive Director, Windham County Dental,
George Karabakakis, CEO, Health Care & Rehab Services,
Linda Rossi, Interim CEO, Brattleboro Retreat,
Senator Bernie Sanders,
Josh Dufresne, CEO of North Star Health (formerly Springfield Health Center), and
Christopher Dougherty, CEO, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.

As a longtime member of the Veterans Committee, I was delighted to meet with staff and patients at the VA outreach clinic in Brattleboro which we helped establish some years ago. Here I am meeting with VA physician Dr. Jo Henderson-Frost.

At the VA outreach clinic, I enjoyed meeting with a group of veteran community leaders who had high praise for VA health care, but also provided new ideas on how to improve the system.

In late afternoon, I met with leaders and training officers at the Vermont Police Academy and the Vermont Fire Academy to discuss how we can improve recruitment and training of Vermont's first responders.

A major problem in our rural communities is the struggle to properly staff our volunteer fire departments. In that regard, I was proud to recently secure federal funds that will help the Vermont Fire Academy train more new cadets at no cost. I learned a lot speaking with Public Safety Commissioner Jen Morrison, Chief of Training Michael Skaza, Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Dan Batsie, and Training Coordinator William Jones about this funding and how we can better recruit and train more firefighters across Vermont.