History

VIA was founded in 2004 by clergy and lay leaders from several faith communities in Burlington whose goal was to create a grassroots, statewide organization that would have the power to bring about systemic change in institutions that affect the lives of working families.

Key leaders received training in the basic building block of our community organizing model - conducting one-to-one conversations with those in their congregations to discover what issues concerned them the most about their community.

After 900 of these conversations were completed, the following issues emerged:

• increasing the supply of affordable housing
• reducing barriers to affordable health care
• improving public education and other opportunities for youth

This issue focus was presented at VIA's Founding Convention in June 2005 - an exciting gathering attended by over 950 people, including Vermont's governor, speaker of the house, and senate president, as well as Burlington's mayor and school superintendent.