Center Library
Valuation of Lake Sunapee
Lake Sunapee is the fifth largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire. It provides significant value to the state economy in the form of property, property taxes, business revenue, and water supply. The lake draws visitors and both full-time and part-time residents to the area…
Equitable Emissions Reduction
Vermont faces numerous challenges from climate change, which have already begun to negatively impact the state's ecosystem, economy, and public health, especially affecting rural and low-income residents. While the state's greenhouse gas emissions make up only a small fraction of total United States emissions -…
Modernizing Unemployment Insurance
This report analyzes the opportunity for Vermont to implement new improvements to their Unemployment Insurance (UI) System. This report draws on and synthesizes the key findings of the December 2021 Report of the Unemployment Insurance Study Committee, the Memorandum on the Feasibility of Changing the…
The Peer Support Solution: A community Based Model for Closing the Gap in Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Workforce Shortages
Mental health and substance abuse in the United States is a pressing crisis of mental health. The crisis has only been exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the demand for mental health and substance abuse support resources has never been…
Maternity Care Deserts in Rural New Hampshire
The closure of labor and delivery units across New Hampshire poses numerous problems for the state's mothers and newborns, leaving large numbers of rural residents without easy access to maternity care services. These closures are the product of a variety of factors including a shrinking…
Forensic Mental Health in Vermont
In the legal system, incompetent individuals are deemed mentally unfit to testify or stand trial by the court. Competency restoration is the mental health treatment provided to legally incompetent defendants so that they can fully participate in judicial proceedings. The current U.S. competency restoration system…
Non-Driving Related Suspensions in New Hampshire
Eleven million Americans currently have suspended driver's licenses as a result of not paying fees/ fines or missing a hearing date.1 Under current New Hampshire law, a driver's license can be revoked for a number of offenses unrelated to operating a motor vehicle. These categories…
Barriers to Career and Technical Education in New Hampshire
Roughly twenty percent of high school students in New Hampshire attend Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs spread across 32 CTE centers in the state and in Vermont. CTE prepares youth and adults for a wide range of careers. At the secondary level, CTE provides…
HB 1299 and New Hampshire Cervid Importation Policy
Cervids constitute a centrally important aspect of wildlife importation policy. In the past fifty years, the cervid-borne Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been identified in twenty-nine U.S. states, threatening wild and domestic game while complicating wildlife management and deer importation policy. The prion disease is…
Parental Incarceration in Vermont
This report provides background, context, and insights into the current impacts of parental incarceration of children in Vermont. In addition, it analyzes the expedient factors in H.399, a bill that proposes "to require the sentencing court to consider the criminal defendant's status as the primary…