Vermont Women’s Fund Supports Benefits Cliff Work

Green Mountain United Way is proud to be one of the recipients of the 2024 annual grant round funding from the Vermont Women’s Fund at Vermont Community Foundation. GMUW received $10,000 in support of the development of an interactive educational tool on benefits cliff.

Benefits cliff is a complex societal and systemic problem with many contributing factors, one of which is the knowledge base of employers and managers. Solving the benefits cliff is not as simple as increased pay, and it will take employers who can think outside of the box of increased wages to create innovative solutions to help bridge the gap for their low- and moderate-income employees. 

GMUW is developing a training tool on benefits cliff to bring to employer groups so that they can better understand the unique economic challenges faced by their workers. The goal is to build empathy among managers, supervisors, and human resources professionals, so that they can support their employees as whole people, while also creating forward thinking initiatives that stabilize the employee, support career advancement, and ensure equity in access to basic needs. Further, the goal of the training is to support that empathy-building with a toolbox of tried-and-true strategies for employers to use to help support lower-income workers to help traverse benefits cliffs – so that we can think of them more as canyons, with a bridge across to the other side.    

The Vermont Women’s Fund 2024 grant recipients are:

·        Building a Better Brattleboro/Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, Brattleboro, $5,000

·        Center for Women & Enterprise, Burlington/Boston, $5,000

·        Champlain College, Burlington, $5,000

·        COVER Home Repair, White River Junction, $7,500

·        Dismas of Vermont, Hyde Park, $15,000

·        Downtown Rutland Partnership, Rutland, $5,000

·        Education Justice Coalition of Vermont, Burlington, $10,000

·        Epsilon Spires, Brattleboro, $15,000

·        Ethiopian Community Development Council, Bennington, $15,000

·        Girls Empowered, Motivated, Strengthened (G.E.M.S.), Randolph, $10,000

·        Girls in STEM, Williston, $2,000

·        Governor's Institutes of Vermont, Winooski, $5,000

·        Greater Burlington YMCA, Burlington, $5,000

·        Green Mountain Camp for Girls, Dummerston, $5,000

·        Green Mountain United Way, Barre, $10,000

·        Hannah's House, Waitsfield, $5,000

·        Ishtar Collective, Montpelier, $10,000

·        Janet S. Munt Family Room, Burlington, $7,500

·        Jenna's Promise, Johnson, $15,000

·        Johnson Health Center, Johnson, $15,000

·        Milk with Dignity Standards Council, Burlington, $10,000

·        Milton Family Community Center, Milton, $11,000

·        The MINT, Rutland, $5,000

·        NewStory Center, Rutland, $10,000

·        Orange County Parent Child Center, Tunbridge, $10,000

·        Project Against Violent Encounters, Bennington, $15,000

·        Root Social Justice Center, Brattleboro, $10,000

·        Safety Team, South Burlington, $15,000

·        Steps to End Domestic Violence, Burlington, $15,000

·        Sunrise Family Resource Center, Bennington, $15,000

·        SUSU commUNITY Farm, Brattleboro, $15,000

·        Umbrella of St. Johnsbury, St. Johnsbury, $5,000

·        United Immigrant & Refugee Communities (UIRC) of Vermont, Burlington, $15,000

·        Vermont Afghan Alliance, Burlington, $12,180

·        Vermont Works for Women, Winooski, $15,000

·        Yestermorrow, Waitsfield, $15,000

The Vermont Women’s Fund Council members are:

·        Norka Chamorro

·        Margae Diamond

·        Katarina Lisaius

·        Sujata Moorti, Co-Chair

·        Karen Moran

·        Kim Rupe

·        Kelly Scannell

·        Corinne Taney

·        Helena Van Voorst

·        Candice White, Co-Chair

·        Alison Whritenour

·        Laurie Wood

·        Eva Zaret

To learn more about the Vermont Women’s Fund, visit vermontwomensfund.org.