Multicultural Community Center of Southern Vermont

06/10/2026

Southern Vermont is such a special place full of incredible outdoor recreation, arts, culture, and community events that make this region unique. From hiking trails and swimming holes to farmers markets, live music, festivals, and community gatherings, there is no shortage of opportunities to connect, explore, and belong.

Yet not everyone knows about the things that make where we live so dynamic. The difference between simply living somewhere and truly belonging often comes down to knowing where to go, what to do, and how to get involved.

For many New Vermonters, discovering the activities, traditions, and spaces that bring people together can be just as important to feeling at home as finding housing or employment.

So, we'd love to hear from you!

👇 What are your favorite things to do in Southern Vermont?

Share a favorite trail, swimming hole, community event, cultural experience, volunteer opportunity, family activity, local tradition, or hidden gem. Tell us what makes it special and why others should check it out.

Let's create a community-generated guide to all the things that help make Southern Vermont feel like home.

05/19/2026

There is something incredibly special about watching artistry take root and flourish in community. 🎶

Many in Brattleboro already know and love the members of Sammy and Brothers—not only as neighbors and friends, but as talented musicians carrying rich musical traditions, creativity, and joy into our town. We are so excited to celebrate and support their commitment to their craft as they raise funds to record their first album!

Get ready fir an afternoon of uplifting and infectious music blending African traditions with inspiring original compositions.

📍 6 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT
📅 Saturday, May 23
⏰ Concert at 2:00 PM
🍽 Reception at Sages Pub at 4:30 PM

🎟 Sliding scale tickets:
• Concert: starting at $15
• Concert + Reception: starting at $30
• Kids 10 and under are free with an adult

Come celebrate music, community, and the many gifts New Vermonters bring to our region. ❤️

For more information or to donate to the recording fundraiser, contact Julianne Kaplan at [email protected].

05/12/2026

To mother in a new country is an act of extraordinary endurance and love.

It means navigating systems that are unfamiliar while caring for children who are adapting even faster than you are. It means learning new customs while trying to preserve the ones that shaped you. It means wanting your children to thrive in their new home while also hoping they do not lose the language, stories, and traditions that connect them to where they came from.

Current pediatric and child development guidance strongly supports maintaining a child’s home language while they learn English. Multilingualism is not harmful to development; in fact, it offers social, emotional, cognitive, and cultural benefits.

Please keep singing the songs.

Keep telling the stories.

Keep speaking your language at home.

Your language is not holding them back. It is helping them belong to themselves.

05/06/2026

Yesterday, we were honored to welcome U.S. Representative Becca Balint(Rep. Becca Balint) to our ECDC Bennington office to spend time with New Vermonters and hear directly from our community.

Her presence, care, and commitment remind us how fortunate we are to live in a state where our elected leaders show up, listen, and advocate.

This isn’t the reality everywhere.

As Representative Balint shared during her visit, meaningful change requires people across the aisle to come together. Without that, we simply can’t move the needle.

That’s where all of us come in. If we want to see movement in Congress, it starts with people being willing to talk, honestly and across differences.

If you have relationships with friends, family, or colleagues in states where refugee resettlement and immigrant support are less understood, consider starting a conversation. Share what you’ve seen. Share why it matters. These conversations, while sometimes uncomfortable, are essential to building broader understanding and momentum.

04/29/2026

When you walk into the MCC right now, you’re greeted by something powerful: a wall of canvases created by New Vermonters in the River Gallery School supported youth art classes.

What began as a logo project became something much bigger. These canvasses are expressions of belonging, love, and place.

This is what a living community hub looks like.

The MCC is where New Vermonters and local community members learn side by side- English, job skills, communication across difference, and most importantly, how to build relationships that didn’t exist before.

What happens here doesn’t stay here. It stretches into workplaces, schools, homes, and neighborhoods.

But none of this happens by accident. It only exists because this space is consistently held, resourced, and supported.

If you believe in spaces like this, consider donating today. Your support keeps this hub alive and growing.

If you believe in this kind of space, consider donating today. Your support keeps it alive. https://givebutter.com/UxlxSF

04/21/2026

A big win for community health 💙

Thanks to the leadership of the Vermont Department of Health, a free dental clinic was open to everyone and designed with inclusion in mind.

By going the extra mile to provide interpretation and culturally responsive care, the Department of Health ensured that New Vermonters could fully access services that are often out of reach.

The result? Over 30 individuals received essential dental care in a setting that was respectful, welcoming, and equitable.

This is what it looks like when partners don’t just open doors, they make sure everyone can walk through them.

We’re deeply grateful for this kind of leadership and collaboration.

04/14/2026

Just weeks after opening, Saffron Restaurant, a new, immigrant-owned Middle Eastern restaurant on Putney Road, has been forced to close due to circumstances completely outside of their control.

This is heartbreaking, especially for a business that poured everything into opening its doors. Saffron’s owners invested their savings, took on loans, gave opportunities to New Vermonters, and brought the flavors of their homeland to Brattleboro with so much care and pride. The community showed up in full force to celebrate them just weeks ago.

And now, they need us again.

They are determined to reopen in a new location, but they need support to get there.

👉 Donate here: https://gofund.me/b09678be7
👉 Share widely to help spread the word

This is a moment for Brattleboro to show what it means to be a welcoming, supportive community not just in celebration, but in challenge.

If you’re able, please consider giving. And even if you can’t, sharing this message can make a real difference.

Let’s help Saffron reopen their doors. 💛

💔 Saffron Restaurant needs your help, Brattleboro.

Saffron Restaurant needs your help, Brattleboro area residents and friends from near and far

Saffron Restaurant was forced to close—not because of anything we, the owners, or the employees, did wrong, but because of a dispute between the landlord and Green Mountain Power.
Without notice to any of its occupants, including our restaurant, GMP cut power to the entire Colonial Motel and Pool complex. Then the water supply was cut off. Without water and electricity, we cannot run our business. Our hardworking employees are now without income. Our doors are closed on Putney Road.
But we are NOT giving up. We simply need some help with relocating and reopening.
We are a small, immigrant-owned Middle Eastern restaurant. We scrimped and saved to open Saffron Restaurant. We invested everything — over $100,000 of our savings, loans from friends, essentially everything we had — into bringing the flavors of our Afghan homeland to Brattleboro. We signed contracts in good faith.
We are going to reopen in another location as soon as possible. We just need the Brattleboro area’s friends to help us to get there.

👉 Please donate to our GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b09678be7
👉 Please SHARE this post — it means everything.

Please SHARE this post — it means everything.
Every dollar goes toward supporting our staff and rebuilding our restaurant. If you’ve ever enjoyed a meal with us, or believe small businesses deserve a fair chance — please stand with us today. 🙏

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04/13/2026

There is so much happening right now in the national conversation around immigration and refugee resettlement: shifts in policy, funding uncertainty, and growing fear.

And while those conversations matter, they are not the whole story.

Because resettlement doesn’t happen in Washington. It happens here. In our towns, our schools, and our communities.

So the question becomes: what can we do?

We see four powerful ways to show up:

🤝 Be a good neighbor— connection and belonging start with simple, human moments
🌱 Create opportunities— share skills, mentor, and help spark small businesses and new ideas
💛 Give— every dollar helps sustain critical services for families rebuilding their lives
🏘️ Stay local— advocate for the kind of community we want to be: accessible, inclusive, and vibrant

If we want our communities to be places where New Vermonters not only arrive, but feel at home, we all have a role to play.

A truly welcoming community isn’t just one that includes people. It’s one that is transformed by them.

04/09/2026

🌟 Save the Date! Community Potluck 🌟

We’re excited to invite you to a Community Potluck, co-organized by the Ready Response Team, The Root's ARC Program, The Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP), and ECDC!

📅 Date: April 26th
📍 Location & Details: Please contact us for time and location.

This gathering is a celebration of connection, collaboration, and solidarity across our immigrant, refugee, and local communities. Come share food, stories, and strengthen the bonds that make our community resilient.

💡 Tonight: Free Webinar on Cross-Movement Solidarity

In the spirit of building collective power and fostering justice, don’t miss this webinar happening tonight:

“Cross-Movement Solidarity: Building Coalitions for a Stronger and United America”
🗓 Apr 9, 2026 | ⏰ 5:00 PM ET

The workshop explores how immigrant and refugee leaders can collaborate with other justice movements—like climate, labor, racial, and gender justice—to create shared power and collective victories. Learn practical strategies for coalition-building, shared leadership, and long-term impact.

🔗https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_r6gABfbPTGyy5W3jEpHqXQ #/registration

04/01/2026

This past weekend, an ECDC volunteer organized a small welcoming gathering for Afrikaner newcomers.

No big agenda, just people coming together to meet, share food, and say hello.

It felt like an important reminder: in this corner of the world, we don’t wait for politics, optics, or policy to tell us how to treat people. When someone arrives looking for safety, for community, for a fresh start, we show up.

This is what welcome looks like. Not perfect, not performative, just human.

Grateful to the folks who quietly make this place what it is.