About SEVCA

SEVCA was founded on the belief that poverty need not be a permanent condition, that:
• people can be empowered to rise out of poverty, and
• the strength of our communities is measured by the quality of life of everyone within them.

Guided by those values, SEVCA has served low-income people in this area for the past 43 years. During that time, the problems facing that population have been diverse, complex, and constantly changing; consequently, the agency has had to develop a broad and multi-faceted approach that reflected the breadth and depth of the problems and enabled SEVCA to be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs and conditions.

The result is a wide array of programs and initiatives addressing the comparably wide range of poverty-related needs, in the areas of crisis intervention, affordable housing / homelessness prevention, home energy costs, business startup and support, education and skills training, early childhood development, family support, parenting, food and nutrition, affordable clothing / household needs, income budgeting / savings, information & referral, and service coordination.

SEVCA’s major programs are:

Family and Community Services – provides crisis resolution services for housing, fuel, clothing and food; housing stabilization, Food Stamp outreach and nutrition education; budget counseling; information & referral; and case management services.

Head Start – provides a full spectrum of comprehensive early child development and family support services for pre-school children and their families, with the goal of enhancing the social competence, school readiness, and later academic success of disadvantaged low-income children.

Micro-Business / Asset Development – provides training and technical assistance for start-up, retention and expansion of small businesses for low-to-moderate income entrepreneurs; business counseling and mentoring to foster economic self-sufficiency through self-employment; Individual Development Accounts, providing matched asset building accounts enabling low-income individuals to achieve financial goals such as homeownership, education, and business start-up and expansion; and Tax Preparation Assistance, helping low-to-moderate income residents obtain income tax refunds and Earned Income Tax Credits.

“Good Buy” Thrift Stores – provide clothing, furniture, and household goods at affordable prices or at no cost through the use of vouchers for those who are unable to pay, as referred by SEVCA’s Family Services Program and other programs and agencies.

Weatherization – provides home energy audits, heating system repairs and replacements, and a full spectrum of energy conservation improvements at no cost to low-to-moderate income households, and at a reasonable price to higher-income households on a fee-for-service basis.
 

Inspired by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C., SEVCA commissioned mural painter Kim Ray of Londonderry, Vermont to create a version of “The Depression Breadline” at its main office in Westminster, Vermont. The mural is dedicated to all those who suffer from financial crisis and to all the compassionate and generous people who share their abundance to help provide for those who have too little. In light of today’s economic crisis, many elements of which have been compared to the Great Depression, this visual expression of empathy for people experiencing the extreme hardships of poverty could not be more timely and appropriate.

SEVCA's “The Depression Breadline” Mural

"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.  It is not in despair that I paint you that picture.  I paint it for you in hope - because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposed to paint it out.  We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country's interest and concern:  and we will never regard any faithful, law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous."

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt