Improving small-town life: How Radically Rural brings communities together to share ideas

The popular Radically Rural summit grew out of a desire to connect people who are passionate about small-town life with those who are pioneering interesting solutions to common problems. The summit — held every year in Keene — returns Sept. 24, with a new slate of sessions and solutions. Here to discuss what’s in store for this year's conference is Radically Rural Director Julianna Dodson.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Julianna, can you give us a brief history of Radically Rural, how it came to be, and who is the summit for?

Julianna Dodson:

Whether you're in a rural or urban setting, or somewhere in-between, how people, culture and a society evolve is typically a whole tapestry of things. So you might have one person that starts an initiative, another person who carries it forward, someone who kind of iterates or evolves it, and before long you kind of just completely lose track of the threads and where they started and where they stopped.

Radically Rural was kind of like that, where it was this natural evolution of so many different efforts that had evolved over time, starting with the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship back in 1997, where our founder and executive director, Marianne Christensen, started a marketplace for locally made goods and locally grown goods, because there wasn't anything like that around here at the time. And over time, we just kind of kept encountering new challenges and found creative ways to solve them. So as the marketplace was being run, we realized we needed business skills, our makers and growers need business skills. Let's start some programming to help them. As we go along, we realized we need to advocate for the needs of small businesses. We need to advocate for the needs of rural communities. It just kind of kept going and kept going.

We have an amazing relationship with our local newspaper, The Keene Sentinel, and in 2017 we had been running an annual event called Connect, which brought people from all over the region together to shape and share ideas. That was going so well for us, and we thought, “Can we do that on a national scale?” 

So here comes another thread. We have a company in our region called Badger, which makes skincare products that was started right here in Gilsum, and the owner, Bill Whyte, uses a particular method of developing ideas. So the Sentinel, Hannah Grimes, and Bill got together, and they kind of figured out how they could take these seeds of ideas to something real. That's when Radically Rural was born. 

Melanie Plenda:

What do you think makes Radically Rural unique? 

Julianna Dodson:

What I think makes it unique is that I don’t know of another summit in America that focuses on rural issues that is not also more specifically focused on one particular sector or one particular area or one political party constituency. So what I love about Radically Rural is that we are free to be responsive. We are free to meet the needs of our national rural community because we aren't kind of restricted to any one of those things.

I was actually just writing my opening comments to the summit today and really just inspiring myself while I did it. I was just kind of describing how we all in our lives have the things that we think, “If everyone could just blank” or “if the world would just blank” — everything would be better. We all have our things right? Whether it's local news and local media or whether it's education or health, or whatever it might be. We all have that thing that we think is the key to thriving communities. And that's the point — that we need all of it. 

These are all puzzle pieces that come together and fit together. So what I think makes Radically Rural unique is that we are a place, a primary place, where rural communities can bring these puzzle pieces together and fit them together. When we do that, we really weave a beautiful tapestry. I think what that does is it helps us to serve our local communities better when we can do that.

As an example, I was just speaking to one of our local Rotary Clubs, and I was describing how this platform can benefit our local region, even though we have people from all over North America who come. One of our local business owners came up to me afterward, and he said, “We really should use this platform to bring some people together who have gone through a big infrastructure overhaul in their downtown, because Keene is about to embark on a three-year infrastructure project, and the downtown businesses are nervous about being able to stay in business during that time.”

This is what this platform is for. We can put it out there to our national network and say, who's gone through something like this before. What did you do? Bring all your ideas. We don't need to re-create the wheel. We can pull those ideas and resources and connections together to then be a part of the solution, because everything that we're doing well in our region, we can share. 

Melanie Plenda:

How has Radically Rural grown over the years? And what do you attribute that growth to? 

Julianna Dodson:

It has grown to some extent, in numbers, although we've stayed pretty consistently between 500 and 600 attendees every year. It's grown in the sense that the number of states represented each year and the length that people are traveling to get here. But, in my opinion, the growth that we're aiming for — because we're really not aiming for exponential growth in numbers — is the growth in how the event is cultivated, the intention that's put into it, the quality of the programming, the quality of the outcomes and the impacts that this makes in our world. That’s the growth that’s most important to me, and in that way, our growth is off the charts, because every single year we hear more about what this is doing for folks and their communities, and it's getting to the point where it's impossible to even trace the threads and find out how it's impacted. 

We have a lot of folks that have made connections that have really benefited their work. They've gotten ideas that have started entire initiatives in their regions, including our region too. We have, for example, hosted several social practice artists in our region because of a session that was done on social practice art. And this year, in one of our art sessions, we are literally making a quilt together and talking about social practice art. So that quilt is sort of going to be a representation of our theme this year, which is “reweaving the social fabric.” The more we can find ways to bridge, the more we can find ways to come together, the better off we all are. 

Melanie Plenda:

Can you tell us about some of the highlights of the different tracks? Who are your speakers and what will they be talking about?

Julianna Dodson:

It is very difficult for me to just pick a couple of things.

One is a shameless plug, one that Hannah Grimes is going to be leading, and it is in the entrepreneurship track called “Can You Create a New Economic Sector? Lessons Learned from Trying.” Essentially, in the evolution of Radically Rural, we've continued to add different aspects of our programming. We've launched something called “Radically Rural Biotech.” It comes from that same natural evolution that I mentioned at the beginning of this call, where we decide, “This is bothering us. What can we do about it?” And what was kind of bothering us was like, rural communities don't exist only to be extracted from. They are generative. We have brilliant people living in our communities that can create, that can grow new things, so we started thinking about it, and because of some connections we had in our world, we realized that rural areas are actually perfect places to host biotech. And biotech is such a sector that is needed for now and for our future. But what we're discovering as we've tried to cultivate that sector locally is there are some missing pieces of the puzzle. There's funding gaps. Yes, there’s wealth in rural communities, but how are we going to get those investors comfortable with investing in something like biotech?

It's not just about biotech. It's about an experiment of whether this model can work for other things too. One of our sessions is about that, and I think it's going to be really, really interesting and highly relevant to every rural community or small community. 

I guess another one I will pull out that's been really popular is we have one in our Main Street track about attracting, retaining and engaging young people in your community. We have a wild number of people wanting to attend that session because that’s so important for small communities. The goal isn’t just “to grow up and just get out.” There is such a high level of value to a rural place, and what can we do to cultivate and engage young people in a way that causes them to want to stay or maybe move back some day. It’s sort of  a bit of changing the narrative that you’re not failing if you stay.

Melanie Plenda:

Julianna, to sum everything up — why should people go to Radically Rural? What can they get from it?

Julianna Dodson:

I think everyone would have their own answer to that. Mine would be how people feel when they leave is one of the most important things. For all of us, no matter what industry we're working in, no matter what our jobs are, the pace can be relentless in modern-day life. I think a lot of people are really burned out, and they're like,” I just can't fit one more thing in my schedule, like that just seems impossible.” To me, Radically Rural when you go, when you experience it beginning to end, how you feel when you leave is inspired, joyful, hopeful, connected. You have tools and resources at your disposal, and I really feel like it's so much wind in your sails so that you can do whatever you're doing better.

I'd say anyone in the state of New Hampshire should come really. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to just be given an injection of new ideas, new energy, inspiration and joy.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you for joining us Radically Rural Director Julianna Dodson and good luck with the summit.

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

Audit of N.H. school voucher program to begin, but key information will be off limits

‘Most documents pertaining’ to Education Freedom Accounts won’t be available during process

By Susan Geier, Granite State News Collaborative

Sometime next spring, the public will get to see a performance audit of the N.H. Department of Education’s oversight of the Education Freedom Account program, which gives millions of tax dollars to eligible families to spend on private, parochial and home school expenses. 

But the audit will be missing “most documents pertaining to the EFA program” due to the “lack of access to primary program data and information,” according to the Office of the Legislative Budget Assistant, which is responsible for conducting the audit.

The scope of the audit was approved with noted limitations at the Aug. 27 meeting of the Joint Legislative Performance Audit and Oversight Committee, which oversees the LBA. What can be included in the audit has been subject to months of meetings and disagreement among the LBA, committee members, the education department, and the N.H. Department of Justice over who owns the Education Freedom Account program information.

House Bill 1135, which was signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu in July 2022, requires the LBA to complete a performance audit of the N.H. Department of Education’s operation of the program, which a third party runs through a contract signed with the department.

Under the bill, which went into effect in October 2023, the audit is supposed to include a review of the eligibility of participants, expenditures of the program and identification and recovery of possible ineligible reimbursements. Also to be audited would be the “procedures and controls” involved in disbursing the funds to the Children’s Scholarship Fund as well as demographic and geographic data about students taking part in the program in the 2020-21 school year. The New York-based Children’s Scholarship Fund (CSF) is the third-party contractor that administers the EFA.

In its audit scope statement, the LBA wrote, “most documents pertaining to the EFA program are solely in the possession of (the Children’s Scholarship Fund). For example, NHED does not currently possess policies, procedures, internal memoranda, or internal guidance developed by CSF to implement the program … or documents associated with initial EFA applications, documents used for determining eligibility for differentiated aid or annually verifying residency, or specific items purchased by each student with EFA funds.”

The Education Freedom Account has been subject to a partisan divide since a sole-source contract  (see PDF attached) to manage the program and distribute the money was awarded to the Children’s Scholarship Fund. Democrats and others say it diverts essential public school funds, while Republicans and program supporters say it gives parents education choice.

Since its inception in 2021, the taxpayer-funded voucher-like program has distributed almost $45 million to families sending their children to private schools and other alternatives to their local public schools.

Debate over access

Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut — backed by Christopher Bond, general counsel for the state Department of Justice — said the state isn’t compelled to ask for those documents, and asking the Children’s Scholarship Fund for the items violates the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. Edelblut also admonished the LBA for reaching out directly to the scholarship fund for information. 

State Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, a member of the committee, said the separation of powers argument makes no sense.

“The Legislative Budget Assistant audits executive branch actions. That’s what they do,” she said. “The purpose of the LBA is to ensure the executive branch is carrying out its duties in accordance with statues.”

The education department said chapter laws only give the LBA the authority to audit the department’s oversight of the program, and not the documents and other materials it says are the property of the Children’s Scholarship Fund — not the state. 

In its scope statement, the LBA also noted the education department and justice department interpretation of the state’s standard contract — which is required to be used by all state agencies when contracting for services — does not consider data collected or generated by the contractor to be the property of the state.

But Weber and other Democratic committee members remain unconvinced.

State Sen. Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) has criticized the decision to limit auditor access to Education Freedom Account information, saying that, despite Department of Education claims, the program ‘is not unique.’ (Courtesy photo)

State Sen. Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) has criticized the decision to limit auditor access to Education Freedom Account information, saying that, despite Department of Education claims, the program ‘is not unique.’ (Courtesy photo)

The committee’s chair, state Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said every state contract with another entity uses the same “boilerplate” property ownership/disclosure language that’s in the Children’s Scholarship Fund contract. 

“Look at the Medicaid program,” Rosenwald said at the August meeting. “The state really owns all the data even though most of Medicaid is managed by private entities. This is not unique.”

The property ownership/disclosure provision, for example, is in the sole-source contracts the N.H. Department of Energy has with the five community action agencies, which operate and deliver weatherization services across the state. The program helps low-income households reduce energy costs and is funded through grants from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services. 

In its 2023 performance audit of the weatherization program, the LBA interviewed the state program manager, other department management and staff, and community action weatherization representatives. 

Additionally, auditors viewed documentation for each of the agencies generated from the five on-site monitoring visits. They looked at a variety of program documents, including monthly expenditure, status and production reports that were submitted by the community action agencies to the state. The status reports, for example, include program highlights, problems, production issues, and deviations from the work plan. The monthly expenditure reports contain year-to-date expenditures, budgeted amounts, and details like job cost sheets.

But state Rep. Kenneth Erf, R-Weare, a committee member, said in an interview that program audits may not always be consistent in how they are handled. In an interview, a fellow committee member, Rep. Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston, agreed with Erf: “I’ve been reading audits for 30 years. None of these things are straightforward and none of these things are easy to do.”

Rep. Kenneth Weyler (R-Kingston) defended the limited Education Freedom Account audit. ‘I’ve been reading audits for 30 years. None of these things are straightforward and none of these things are easy to do,’ he said. (Screenshot)

Both men, however, said questions about the ownership of documents and the Education Freedom Account program are just more partisan attacks by Democrats trying to kill education choice. Democrats on the committee, such as Weber and Rosenwald, also agreed the situation is political, but they charge the education department is trying to obscure how the program is being run.

A matter of interpretation

At the August meeting, Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, did ask if the LBA had ever run into this issue before. 

 “I don’t recall ever running into an issue of this magnitude,” Christine Young, LBA’s director of audits, testified. “This is a little different, with the program being established in the chapter law and directing us to do an audit through the chapter law versus this committee directing us to do an audit.”

Jay Henry, LBA’s audit supervisor, specifically mentioned auditing other contractors, adding it’s possible those contracts have different or stronger language that allow access to program data. 

“To me, it's an interpretation of the state contract,” Henry testified. “We're abiding by their interpretation of how the contract and the law is. I think we’re still going to get a good audit out of it. It just won't be as thorough as it normally would have.”

The original contract with the Children’s Scholarship Fund was approved by the Executive Council Aug. 4, 2021. Councilor Cinde Warmington, D-Concord, cast the lone dissenting vote. She expressed concern that taxpayer money would be used to pay for private schools and that families don’t have to prove they meet the income eligibility criteria after the first year. 

To qualify for Education Freedom Account money, a family household income may not exceed 300 percent of the poverty level. In 2021, that was $79,500 for a family of four, and now it is $93,600. 

Once a family has been means-tested, it doesn't have to prove income while the child is in school up to age 20.

At that 2021 meeting, Gov. Chris Sununu said that it would be disruptive if a family had to change schools because of a change in income and that students in the public education system aren’t means-tested. The focus of the Education Freedom Account, he said, is providing another educational pathway for New Hampshire students.

In an email statement about the EFA audit, Young wrote, “We know in some cases the data and related materials were regularly collected by the state agency and were therefore easily accessed by us for audit purposes,” adding LBA staff have interviewed representatives of contractors to help them understand how a state program is performing. 

Bond, the Department of Justice counsel, said at the March 18 committee meeting and reiterated in an email to the Granite State News Collaborative that the chapter law around the Education Freedom Account doesn’t mean the state could never look at the contested information, and there could be other avenues, “including a direct audit of the scholarship organization.”

“The ultimate issue could be the language of the law, which focuses the audit process on the Department of Education but not on the scholarship organization itself,” Bond testified. 

He added:  "I don't think the program is un-auditable, but we don't think this chapter law gets to the scholarship organization through the vehicle of this vendor contract.”

These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.

Post-primary push: Anna Brown discusses the road to the November general election

The 2024 primary election in the Granite State is over, but candidates are already stumping for the November general election. On this episode of “The State We’re In,” Melanie Plenda discusses vetting candidates and the New Hampshire political scene with Anna Brown, director of Citizens Count, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating voters about the political process. 

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity. 

Melanie Plenda:

What’s your take on what happened in the primary? Any surprises in the wins or losses? 

Anna Brown:

In most cases, the better-funded candidate did end up winning the day. For example, Kelly Ayotte, an early favorite among Republicans, handily won over Chuck Morse, so she'll be moving on to the race for governor. Maggie Goodlander, who came in with a very impressive national network of fundraisers, defeated Colin Van Ostern in the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary. 

On the 1st Congressional District side, it was an open field of Republicans, and it seemed like it was anyone's race, but ultimately, Russell Prescott did have the edge, and he also had, once again, the money edge. The 2nd Congressional District Republican primary was the exception — it was a little bit of a surprise. Lily Tong Williams raised less than both Bill Hamlin and Vikram Mansharamani, the other Republican candidates there, but was able to win the primary thanks in large part to a really good ground game. 

I did notice that this was a different story than in 2022. In 2022, a lot of the primaries, more of those farther-right, liberty-leaning Republicans, maybe Trump-oriented Republicans, had a lot of success in the primaries, but this time, at the federal and trickling down to the state level, I saw more of those institutional, maybe more moderate Republicans carry the day.

Melanie Plenda:

Before the primary, Citizens Count surveyed the candidates and posted that information for voters. Can you tell us a bit about those surveys? What did they entail? 

Anna Brown:

We survey the roughly 900 candidates for state and federal office in New Hampshire — state representative on up. We email, snail-mail, and follow up with phone calls.

The questions we asked are based on interviews with groups on both sides of the aisle, different advocacy groups. We also research campaign and party platforms, look at the biggest bills and solicit public input as well. So we come up with a list of about 20 questions, and we're looking for candidates to say are they for or against? Are they undecided? Do they have some other position that they'd like to share? 

I think that it's a really great resource for voters, because a lot of these state representative candidates, in particular — the public have no idea who they are. They might not have a website. Yes, they're local races, so maybe you do know their name from the PTA or just running into them at school sports or at the grocery store or the gas station. But it's really important to learn where these candidates stand, especially when they differ from their party, which happens a fair amount when you go down to that really local level.

Melanie Plenda:

What trends did you see in the survey data? 

Anna Brown: 

One thing that's interesting is there's not really consensus in the Republican Party right now about where they want to go on abortion policy.

Based on our research and survey results, about one-fourth of Republicans that are running for the state Legislature favor a first trimester ban on abortion, over one-third favor a second trimester ban, and a third also favor guaranteeing the right to abortion before 24 weeks. A lot of the survey responses we've gotten have also just said they’re not taking a stand on any particular theoretical ban, but just saying “I'm not looking to change the law, I want it to stand as it is now.” So there's not a majority of Republicans that would come in, it seems, looking to add new abortion laws. But it is interesting that the party as a whole doesn't seem to have one clear message on abortion. 

Also interesting, there's a certain percentage of Republicans, around 16%, based on our research and surveys, that are open to expanding net metering. That's a bit of a niche issue, but basically think of it as larger solar panel projects could get some benefits that would allow them to develop and move forward. So I think that there might be room for bipartisan agreement on that in the coming legislative session. 

Lastly — kind of interesting — over half of Democrats are open to some form of a capital gains tax. Now, over half of Democrats is still not enough to be a majority in the Legislature, because you'd need the Democrats to get a majority, and then you'd need most of them to be on board. So I'm not saying a capital gains tax is likely to come next year, but I do think it's an interesting change over time, because we are entering what is probably going to be a tough budget year. The federal money is going to be gone, so we're losing out on interest on that. The [interest and dividends] tax will have been phased out by then. There are big lawsuits coming related to school funding and the Sununu Youth Services Center. So I think that Democrats are looking at, OK, what other revenue source can we have? I've got some interesting survey responses too, saying, how about a capital gains tax on second homes that you sell, or something like that? So there may be some interesting tax ideas that come up next year.

Melanie Plenda:

What about voters? What issues are on their minds? 

Anna Brown:

Hate to be a broken record — abortion. We'll just throw that one out there and move on. 

One thing that we noticed when we were putting together our survey, immigration is definitely an issue that comes up a lot in national debates, but when we were asking voters for their input on the state level, it wasn't necessarily bubbling up as something that was really driving their vote. I think that's because most of New Hampshire — you’re not really seeing the impacts of immigration. We're very far away from the southern border, and while the northern border is a debate, I wouldn't say that we're experiencing anything close to what happens on the southern border. I think that's a pretty fair statement, regardless of how you feel about the exact numbers and what's coming in. So I wonder if Republicans are going to keep sort of trying that with voters, or if at the state level they might sort of move on. 

Then there's the issue of Trump. Quite frankly, Trump is just the one name that is absolutely on a lot of voters' minds. A lot of Republican challengers, I noticed in the primary, were saying, “I am a Trump candidate, I am aligned with Trump, and that didn't play as well in 2024 as it did in 2022. For example, even in the Congressional race in district 1, Joe Kelly Levasseur really branded himself as “I'm the only Trump candidate,” and he did not succeed. Whereas Karoline Leavitt really rode that to victory in 2022.

I think it'll be a similar tricky navigation. Voters care about it ,but is it a pro or a con? At this point, it definitely seems like in New Hampshire  anyway, you have to be careful about getting branded as too, dare I say, “Trumpy.”

Melanie Plenda:

During the general election, things can be simpler, in terms of fewer candidates. But it can still be challenging, especially in local races, to find out who to vote for. Do you have any tips or tricks for quickly and easily researching candidates? 

Anna Brown:

Shameless plug here for the Citizens Count website citizenscount.org. As I said, we survey all of these candidates, put any responses, they give us up on our website, and we will research those candidates who don't respond, looking at voting records and website statements, other media interviews and so on. 

But there are other places — you can go check out your local newspapers. Those are often great for those local races and local events as well. Events are a great time to meet these people and talk to them, because I think it's also true that the temperament of a person when you meet them can really come across differently than if you're just reading statements online.

Candidates do have websites, by the way. You can always go to a candidate's website, but be careful — there's a lot of really general statements in there, such as, “I support veterans” or “I support children.” What does that really mean? It's almost, I think, becoming coded for partisan signals, which at that point just look at the “R” or “D” next to their name. So I encourage voters to look deeper, especially on issues like marijuana legalization, which might not necessarily fall on party lines exactly.

Melanie Plenda:

For voting newbies here in the Granite State, what should they bring to the polls, and what can’t they bring into the voting booth? 

Anna Brown:

If you are 18 years old, you're a U.S. citizen, and you live in New Hampshire, you're allowed to vote. Now, if you show up without any documentation, there is going to be more paperwork for you, so if you don't want to fill out the extra paperwork and go through that, you're going to need proof of your identity, proof that you live in New Hampshire, and proof of your U.S. citizenship. So in a lot of cases, you're thinking about bringing your driver's license and your birth certificate or a passport.  You can also use, for example, leases and utility bills. If you're a student, some student IDs can also prove your identity, but keep in mind it does need to have an expiration date on it. So this is information we have on our website. It's also information you can find on the Secretary of State's website, and that's for people who are registering to vote.

If you are already registered, you should bring an ID. They do ask to see your ID. Once again, you will have options. If you don't have an ID, it will require more paperwork and follow up, but it's easiest to bring your ID, and for most people, that's probably a driver's license, although there are other options. 

In terms of what you bring into the voting booth, there are restrictions on quote, unquote electioneering. So basically, you can't walk into a polling place and then start handing out flyers for your favorite candidates. It has to stay neutral, but if you want to bring in a cheat sheet of who you want to vote for, that is totally fine. You can also open up your phone while you're in there and go to the Citizens Count website or whatever you want to do to help you make those decisions.

Melanie Plenda:

And finally, I’m sure you watched the recent presidential debate. What did you think? What were your takeaways? 

Anna Brown:

I think that Kamala Harris did a very good job with sticking to her message of “we're not going back.” And saying, “this is what I am going to do going forward” and talking about specific policy proposals. And I think Donald Trump was responding a lot to what she said, instead of offering his specific policy proposals, talking a lot about “we had the greatest economy,” so once again, that's sort of looking back.

I think that that's going to be a challenge for his campaign going forward, because realistically, Kamala Harris has positioned herself as “I'm the younger candidate, I'm more vital, I'm exciting, I'm going to do new, fresh things. We don't want to go back to chaos.” She was very clear on that message, even when you looked at their closing statements. Donald Trump had a lot of criticism. 

It certainly wasn't like the debate we saw for Trump versus Biden. Trump is a little bit rambly, if we'll be honest — I think that's his style. He sort of interrupts himself a lot and will go down a little tangent. But there wasn't any sort of sign that we saw with Biden where, I think, people are going to react and say, “He's just too old to do this.” But I do think, as I said, that Kamala Harris did come across as a little more collected in this debate.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you for joining us Anna Brown, director of Citizens Count and executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law.

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

The legacy and impact of Nashua's The Youth Council

The nonprofit closed after 50 years as a source of support and guidance for area youth, but others have stepped in to fill the gap

By Elaina Bedio-Granite State News Collaborative

Editor’s note: This is another installment in our Nashua Nonprofit Spotlight Series highlighting some of  the Greater Nashua area’s approximately 365 nonprofit organizations and the meaningful work and crucial services they provide. Each article in this series features a different Nashua nonprofit.

On June 30, The Youth Council of Nashua permanently closed its doors after 50 years of serving as a resource for school-aged minors, with programs focused on youth guidance, counseling and intervention.

The nonprofit organization placed student assistance program counselors in Nashua's middle schools and high schools as well as at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua and Merrimack High School – six area schools in total. The goal was to ensure that students had access to mental health resources and professional counseling. Additionally, its Project Succeed program provided behavioral health and counseling services for students who were either suspended or facing suspension.

The other important service of the organization was its juvenile court diversion program, one of 18 similar accredited programs in the state. These programs offer minors an alternative to formal court proceedings for minor offenses through a program of services. Research shows that juveniles who have successfully completed a diversion program have decreased rates of recidivism.

“The agency has been longstanding and has had a significant impact on the community in a variety of programs,” said Casey Caster, former executive director of The Youth Council.  “But we faced a lot of financial sustainability issues, which have also led to staffing capacity issues.” By that point, the writing seemed to be on the wall and the difficult decision was made to develop a strategy for the organization's closing. 

Caster said it was decided that ending operations at the end of June would make the most sense. “The majority of the work that we do is tied to the schools, within the school year. We looked at planning, giving ourselves time to transition programs into, hopefully, other schools, other locations. We really wanted to make sure that we were able to do that and have our programs last through the end of the school year,” she said.

Contination of crucial services

The Youth Council is moving through the necessary administrative requirements to dissolve the agency. However, a major point of focus for organizational leadership was to ensure that the crucial services it provided did not simply disappear. To them, it was imperative that the area's youth would continue to have access to these programs, said Caster.

“The board and I really looked at what was most important and it was very clear that continuing the programs was the top priority. Our hope in doing this in a proactive way was to look closely at who in the community might be able to take on these programs,” she said.

State grant funding will allow the Nashua and Merrimack school districts to hire the Youth Council's student assistance program counselors as school district staff. This means that students previously receiving The Youth Council's counseling services in school, will not experience any significant change in those services. But, due to a lack of funding, the Project Succeed program, which was only in its second year, will no longer be available.

The Youth Council has been supporting area young people for 50 years, and in that time it has had a significant impact on the community, says Casey Caster, former executive director of the organization. (Courtesy photo)

The Youth Council has been supporting area young people for 50 years, and in that time it has had a significant impact on the community, says Casey Caster, former executive director of the organization. (Courtesy photo)

The court diversion program, however, will continue to operate under a new organization, the Nashua Police Athletic League.

At the time the decision to close was made, said Caster, “we immediately met with the director of the Juvenile Court Diversion Network, which is a statewide network that accredits all the programs, and talked through some options. Then we approached a few community organizations to discuss whether or not it would be a good fit for them to take it on after we close, and the Nashua PAL stepped up. It took over operations on July 1.” The program is “based out of their agency and with our staff,” Caster added. “We have one full-time staff member who runs that program, and she'll be able to go right to that agency and it will still be supported by all of the grant funding that we've had in the past.”

And Caster herself continues to serve and advocate for the state's youth in her new role as director of resource development at the Bedford-based Granite State Children's Alliance.

The Youth Council's sustainability issue is by no means unique. Nonprofits are struggling across the board. The fate of The Youth Council should serve as an example as to why it is important to support local charities that provide much-needed services in the community. They cannot survive on service fees and grants alone. 

The Youth Council's leadership showed how to handle a most unfortunate circumstance. They sought guidance, spoke to their employees before the decision was made public, and secured new homes for the services they provided so as not to leave a gap in resource availability. For 50 years, they put people and mission first and the fact that the programs will continue to benefit the area's youth in the absence of the organization itself is The Youth Council's legacy. 

Even with The Youth Council gone, there are several Nashua organizations that continue to support at-risk youth and intervention in the area. Besides Nashua PAL, there are the YMCA of Greater Nashua, Waypoint, Girls Inc. and Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua.

This article was produced in partnership with Nashua Digital and Nashua Ink Link and is being shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

The power of youth: Will Gen Z voters have an impact on the 2024 elections?

A new wave of young voters will enter the electorate this fall. In this year’s presidential election, over 40 million members of Gen Z — the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s — will be eligible to vote. These voters could have a large impact on what happens at the ballot box. It’s no wonder candidates are courting this influential segment of society. Here to discuss how Gen Z’s influence may shape the 2024 election is Dante Scala, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire.

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

This article has been edited for length and clarity.

Melanie Plenda:

Dante, your research, published in January by UNH’s Carsey School of Public Policy, discussed the large pool of new voters entering the New Hampshire electorate. More than one-fifth of potential voters in the 2024 New Hampshire primary were new, either because they moved from elsewhere or because they reached voting age. Is that a typical number of new potential voters? How could that change things?

Dante Scala:

It is typical. My colleagues Ken Johnson, Andrew Smith and I have been running these numbers dating back now about 15 to 20 years, and reliably every four years the number of people new to the New Hampshire electorate is in that range of 15 to 20%, so we're talking one out of five, one out of six voters who are new to New Hampshire elections. Now, of that slice of the electorate, that new slice, most of those people are, in fact, not necessarily young, but they're migrants to the state, right? They've moved to the state over the last several years, and now they're getting ready to vote for the first time. The smaller slice are those younger voters. For instance, in 2024 we found 22% were new since 2020; 16% of those were migrants, and the other 6% were young people.

Melanie Plenda:

How uniform are the political beliefs of these young voters? Do they differ from older voters?

Dante Scala:

They do seem to be more liberal and less conservative. But it's interesting — I was watching the Democratic convention and looking at Barack Obama and thinking to myself, “I haven’t aged, but Obama's aged a bit.” You think back to that time period and his appeal to younger voters, and it was relatively uniform — roughly equal percentages of young men and young women were supportive of Obama. 

Nowadays, you see a good amount of division among young voters — especially the gender gap is quite clear between young women, who are definitely trending Democratic, and young men who have more conservative beliefs. So there's that split going on. But even among those young people who describe themselves as Democrats, they're what the Pew Research Center calls “outside left voters.” So they don't like Republicans very much, but they're a little suspicious, and they're not very patient with conventional establishment Democrats. 

Melanie Plenda:

Every new generation entering the electorate brings its own unique concerns. What are some of the key issues for Gen Z voters in this election cycle?

Dante Scala:

I would start with concerns that are not unique and kind of general to the population, which is the economy and inflation, which affects young people in all sorts of ways. College tuition, housing — young people are trying to get their first apartment, moving out of their parents homes. There are bread-and-butter issues, like the economy, health care, housing and the job market, which has been good until lately, but we've seen signs of it slowing down that could affect young people. 

Beyond that, this is a generation that's been raised and educated about climate change. They're quite ready to believe that we are in the midst of not just climate change, but a climate crisis. So that gets beyond traditional economic issues.

Abortion is clearly, for many young women, a front-burner issue, and I think that will certainly persist, especially in this presidential election, where Kamala Harris really has grounded herself and is very clear, sharp and to the point on reproductive rights, especially compared to Joe Biden, who, even though he was pro choice in his language, would express some ambivalence. That really dates back to the earlier parts of his political career and his own Catholicism. So you've got a candidate who kind of meets the moment with young female voters on an issue that has taken on such importance with the overturn of Roe.

Melanie Plenda:

After replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee, Harris has been seen front and center in the social media feeds of young voters through memes and edits featuring her speeches. Donald Trump also saw a surge of social media buzz after the assassination attempt. How will candidates’ social media content influence young voters' decisions to go to the polls in November?

Dante Scala:

I think the amount of time that young people spend on TikTok is a key point, and the ability to keep them engaged from minute to minute — just the amount of time young people, all of us, really, spend on their phones. I'm curious to see over the next nine to 10 weeks, what the novelty is on both sides to keep the ball rolling, so to speak, for these younger people. 

Debates – are they going to watch for 90 minutes? I don't think so. Are they going to watch for 30 seconds? It used to be that you could rely on people watching maybe debate clips of four or five minutes on the news. Now we're going to be taking those 90 minutes of debate and perhaps slicing it into 10 to 15 seconds. And we see this happening around the world, how politicians, even older politicians, are trying to learn to use TikTok to present images of themselves that appeal to younger people.

Melanie Plenda:

As the presidential election approaches, Democrats and Republicans will be making the final push to secure the support of young voters. What do you think both candidates will need to do to win the youth vote?

Dante Scala:

Social media is all well and good for engagement, attraction and so forth, but I still think you need people on the ground where young people are. Physically on the ground, — on college campuses, such as University of New Hampshire, St. Anselm College, Franklin Pierce and so on — that will engage with people, get them enrolled and get them to the polls. Sure, that some of that can be done via social media, no question. But it's the ability to create networks, social networks of engagement, that are going to be the key test, I think, for how these campaigns blend social media with kind of old-fashioned getting people to sign up for things.

Melanie Plenda:

Finally, to sum up, what kind of an impact do you think Gen Z voters will have in this election cycle? 

Dante Scala:

I really think it is interesting to watch, kind of mind the gaps among young people. I mean, we talked about the gender gap, we talked about possible enthusiasm gaps, identity gaps. Kamala Harris as a black South Asian woman will become a role model, a leader in particular for certain groups of voters. So I'm kind of watching for not just overall turnout, but the enthusiasm gaps — the young people getting to the polls, and will that happen evenly, or will, for young, say more conservative male voters, will Trump be seen as a figure of the past? That doesn't necessarily mean they'll go and vote for Harris, but will they show up for Donald Trump, or will they start to see him as kind of a figure who is receding from the present and someone who doesn't excite perhaps the way he excited a previous generation,

Melanie Plenda:

Dante Scala, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. Thank you so much for joining me here on The State We're In today.

“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.