SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – It’s long been lore in the town of Springfield, Vt., that it was number seven on the list of the top U.S. sites Hitler wanted to bomb during World War II.
There’s some question about the origins of this list, or even whether it really existed. But there’s no question about the claim at the heart of the story: this small town and its thriving machine tool industry were vital to the war effort.
Today, that industry is gone from Springfield, and there’s been long fallout from the loss of jobs and identity. For instance, the percentage of households receiving public assistance is nearly double the state average, according to Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corporation.
But Flint also pointed to the $9 million already spent to clean up former factory sites in this town of 9,000, and the $5 million more that’s committed. The remediation is seen as a critical step toward commercial redevelopment at the sites.
“We’ve kind of picked ourselves up,” Flint said. “We’ve been very resilient.”
The town’s efforts to reset include participating in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Places initiative. On Thursday, Oct. 10, Boston Fed President Susan M. Collins visited Springfield during a Vermont trip that also took her to a Rutland manufacturing site and a meeting with business leaders in South Burlington.
In Springfield, Collins told the Working Places team she knows “there’s a lot of focus on the big cities like Boston.”
“But a lot of people and a lot of our economy is outside of those cities,” she said. “It’s in towns, it’s in rural areas, it’s in smaller cities. And those are really important for a vibrant economy.”
One overarching goal of the initiative is to increase workforce participation. Working Places brings different community sectors together to address longstanding problems, and Springfield was selected to be part of the initiative’s Working Communities Challenge (WCC) in 2020. An overarching goal for the WCC team is increasing local workforce participation, which Flint’s agency estimates at 56%, well below September’s U.S. labor force participation rate of 62.7%.
Flint told Collins that to do that, it’s important that social services and the private sector find a “common language,” so both sides understand they share many goals and concerns. He also emphasized a “no wrong door” approach, meaning everyone who comes for help is routed to someone who can give it.
Team members said specific steps they’ve taken include advocating for employers to better understand and meet various challenges employees face – everything from addiction, to difficulties finding child care and transportation.
They’re also working to take advantage of the area’s exceptionally fast connectivity speeds to draw business. And the WCC launched a free laptop program during the pandemic, to provide access to technology and help teach its fundamentals.
WCC team member Sue Graff, Vermont’s field services director, said people must have hope that good things are ahead.
“Connecting the partners and players through Working Communities is really the way we’re going to do that, help people re-envision their future here,” she said.
Written by Jay Lindsay, provided courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.