Vermont nonprofit leaders urge clearer contracting and shared systems to keep services running

Leah Brener, a staff attorney with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, told the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee that better coordination and shared systems would allow nonprofits to serve Vermonters faster and more equitably. "If we can really support nonprofits to do their work, do it well and do it efficiently, then we all thrive," Brener said.

Brener described VAP's development of a statewide intake form for immigration legal services and said the system helped reduce duplicated effort across providers. She said that in 2025 about 800 people detained by ICE in Vermont were identified and that VAP and its legal partners reached roughly 150 of those individuals for direct legal services. "That success reflects strong nonprofit coordination but also highlights the gap," Brener told the committee.

Why it matters: nonprofit-delivered services form a large part of Vermont's social-safety net, Brener said, and problems in referral, intake and contracting can leave people without timely help. She cited VAP's rapid staffing growth—VAP said it grew to about a dozen staff from a board-only startup—and said that building intake infrastructure consumed lawyers' time that otherwise would have been spent on cases.

Jesse Bridges, chief executive officer of United Way of Northwest Vermont and a leader of Common Good Vermont, expanded the argument to state contracting. Bridges said productive conversations are underway with the Secretary of Administration's office to clarify timelines, indirect-cost treatment and reporting requirements for grants and contracts. He urged the state to formalize partnerships with community responders such as Vermont 211 and to avoid relying solely on charities' goodwill. "We need time to do the planning. We need to invest in the infrastructure," Bridges said.

Bridges also referred to an administrative item transcribed as "Bolton 5," saying updates to that guidance could make grant and contracting processes clearer for nonprofits; the transcript did not provide a full statutory or regulatory citation.

The presenters stressed that coordination reduces duplication: Brener gave the example of multiple attorneys starting work on the same client because intake referrals were not centralized, which wastes limited staff hours and delays help. Both speakers said improvements to intake, reporting and contracting would lower the burden on state staff who administer grants and on nonprofit staff who deliver services.

The committee did not take formal action during the presentations; members reserved time for questions later in the hearing.