BRATTLEBORO — The executive director of the Groundworks Collaborative shelter and support program is set to depart for another human services post, capping a tumultuous year still unsettled by the violent killing this spring of one of the nonprofit agency's social workers.
When Joshua Davis began as a graduate school volunteer at one of the agency's antecedent organizations 14 years ago, he didn't foresee he'd soon join the staff, then governing board, then leadership team. Nor did he expect he'd help merge Brattleboro efforts targeting homelessness and hunger into one umbrella organization.
Groundworks has faced unprecedented challenges this year. They include working with people who lost eligibility in the state's motel voucher program, and the April 3 killing of local Shelter Coordinator Leah Rosin-Pritchard, allegedly by a client now in the custody of the Vermont Department of Mental Health.
"There are a number of questions on the table for the organization that the book has not been opened on," Davis, 48, said in an interview Tuesday. "It feels like a really ripe time to bring a new leader in."
In his tenure, Davis helped the Morningside Shelter, where he was executive director, and the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center merge into the collaborative in 2015. The new agency has gone on to build a $3.3 million downtown headquarters with overnight beds and daytime restrooms, showers, washers, dryers, and storage lockers.
Construction began in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the state to offer motel vouchers to anyone without permanent housing. But soon after the facility opened last year, staffers found that, even with a record local supply of 34 shelter beds and 200 motel rooms, demand was even higher.
"It's disheartening," Davis told VTDigger at the time. "We collectively haven't made much progress."
Groundworks lost 30 other beds this past April when it closed its nearby Morningside House shelter upon its coordinator's death.
"It's incredibly painful to look somebody in the eye and say the only thing that I have to provide for you today is a tent and a sleeping bag," Davis said this summer. "For better or for worse, that's all we got right now."
Groundworks employs 45 people in its housing, food, health, and support programs. Former Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell, who has assisted Davis this past year, will serve as interim leader until a new administrator is found, the collaborative's board of directors said in a statement.
For his part, Davis is set to become the new executive director of Southeastern Vermont Community Action, a nonprofit that serves low-income households in Windham and Windsor counties.
"I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead this organization for so long," he said of his eight years heading Groundworks. "We've been through a lot."
This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VtDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.