Brattleboro economic initiative seeks next generation
By Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer, March 5, 2026
BRATTLEBORO — Community leaders are rallying behind an economic initiative to attract and retain the next generation.
“I’m seeing quite a legacy in this room of people who have been working on economics and quality of life in Brattleboro for decades,” Town Manager John Potter said at an event at Retreat Farm on Wednesday night, where more than 150 community members, civic leaders, non-profit executives, and business owners gathered. “We hope to turn a new chapter for Brattleboro.”
Potter announced plans for the initiative, Next Generation Brattleboro, which involves the phrase “802 by 2032” as its focus on attracting or retaining that number of early career adults from the Gen Alpha group. The generation is made up of those born between 2010 and 2025.
“Those folks will be coming of age between 2030 and 2045,” Potter said. “And the question is: what if we intentionally tried to create the conditions in Brattleboro that would make that generation want to stay here, move here or come back after they leave Brattleboro and to make this their home? The question is: how do we create critical mass of possibility?”
Drew Richards, financial planner and former co-owner of the Brooks House, urged collaboration for an approximately $1.4 million plan that involves “personnel capacity growth, waterfront project acceleration, downtown placemaking investment, and communications and storytelling.”
“We’re not in some sad state of emergency,” Richards said. “The number is 802, not 911.”
State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, who grew up in Brattleboro, called for building a community that is “affordable, attractive and vibrant.” Economic development, he said, requires a shared vision, resources and accountability.
Brattleboro needs more median paying and export jobs, said engineer Bob Stevens of Stevens & Associates, a former co-owner of the Brooks House. He has worked for years with Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies.
Community support has been strong in Brattleboro for more than 100 years, Stevens said.
“People have faith that something’s going to go well in this town,” he said. “I’ve worked in a lot of other towns. I don’t see that everywhere I go.”
Nancy Wiese, director of Windham Regional Career Center, said the goal at the career center is to build “sticky employees,” or “people who work really hard when they are at work but they strike that work/life balance that is so important for people to have in order to meet the needs of the community.”
“Vermonters have a long history of being or attracting people who are strong, self-employed people,” she said. “They bring amazing assets. We have a growing number of remote workers and we’re producing or building an increasing number of tech based opportunities for rural employment.”
Wiese described the community having a “diverse employment base,” with different types of jobs available.
“The town planning office is a great partner for those of us working on housing development,” said Chloe Learey, executive director of the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development.
The Village at Winston Prouty, new plans for Melrose Terrace and a townhouse project on Guilford and Maple streets were highlighted as examples of housing coming to town.
Learey, who also serves as interim board chairwoman at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, called BMH “a cornerstone of a healthy community.” She assures that the hospital will survive its current financial challenges.
“Health care is a failed market at best,” she said. “We have the resources and team locally … to really get through this crisis. It’s an opportunity.”
Learey also touted the state’s recent investments in child care, which she said provides families with the ability to work and gives their kids the tools needed for success.
Nearly 100 non-profit arts and cultures are counted among its ranks. And the new Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures, a huge success that brought in visitors and media attention during the holiday season, will be returning this year.
Buzz Schmidt, former president of Retreat Farm’s Board of Directors, said community spaces and human interactions are “especially important” as social media, artificial intelligence, online commerce and political polarization pull people away from one another. Expansion plans are underway at Retreat Farm and Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
Four businesses are in the pipeline for Main Street in the coming months, said Downtown Brattleboro Alliance Executive Director Kate Trzaskos.
“Brattleboro really is the place where you can be the fullest expression of yourself,” she said, “and that is so uniquely Brattleboro.”
Trzaskos said community members are trying to learn from examples of success in St. Albans, Portsmouth, N.H., and Waterville, Maine.
A “waterfront vision,” near the new bridge and Amtrak station, is being planned to include culture landmarks and the Brattleboro Words Trail in front of the museum, a Bridge Street corridor by Island Park and Mount Wantastiquet, and an extension of the West River Trail.
Community leaders met in November to discuss Brattleboro’s future. Afterwards, Potter said, “a bunch of folks came up to me and said, ‘There’s energy around this. There’s energy about Brattleboro in the moment.'”
Potter said the group looked at reports and data, other towns and best practices.
“They began to build a framework, something we can use to unite ourselves,” he said.
Refugee resettlement, “values-based relocations” and BDCC’s career pathways programming are credited with bringing new people in or retaining young professionals.
Cassandra Holloway, executive director of Building A Positive Community, who was sitting with a member of the local Youth Council, asked how young people’s input would be incorporated into the plans. Getting youth engaged in the process is “a critical piece,” Potter said, and they can “help be our ambassadors not just to people outside the area but to their peers.”
Structures will need to be built to keep the project going and resources coming in, Potter said. An investment or community fund is envisioned.
“We’re planning a much bigger public meting in the late spring or early summer to pull people into a process around aligning our economic development and aligning our story we have in Brattleboro,” Potter said.