The Campaign for Vermont Youth Conservation Corps

Stronger
Through Service

Our vision is a Vermont made stronger by young adults who have transformative service experiences, steward the land and waterways, and make lasting contributions to our communities.

We are now embarking on the next generational investment in VYCC, completing the restoration and build-out of the historic East Monitor Barn to create year-round capacity for the programs and people that make Vermont stronger.

Since 1985, more than 7,000 young people have worked and learned on VYCC crews, making lasting contributions to Vermont.

Participants work in small teams outdoors, united, and engaged in impact service projects that support our shared lands, waterways, and communities. They build and maintain trails that make Vermont's outdoors accessible. They work in forests, improving habitat and timber stands. They pull invasives and restore streambanks. On our 11-acre diversified organic farm, Corps Members and volunteers grow more than 50,000 pounds of food each year. Through our Health Care Share program, VYCC partners with medical centers to deliver organic vegetables, eggs, and value-added ingredients at no cost to more than 400 households annually. These are projects that shape the culture and steward the land of our Green Mountain State.

Our alumni include conservationists, farmers, teachers, business owners, land stewards, elected officials, and tradespeople who continue to strengthen the health and vitality of their communities. The projects they have completed, representing more than two million hours of service, are a defining part of VYCC's ongoing legacy.

VYCC Corps Members working on a conservation project in the forest
Corps Members tending tomatoes in a hoop house on the VYCC farm
VYCC forestry crew with chainsaws in the Vermont woods

What Your Support Makes Possible

Completing the East Monitor Barn will expand VYCC's ability to serve young people, strengthen Vermont's communities, and steward the land we all share. Here is what a fully restored East Monitor Barn means for the work we do.

Training & Leadership

Four-season teaching and training space

VYCC currently has only one small four-season teaching space, greatly limiting our ability to offer programs in the colder months. A weatherized East Monitor Barn provides a year-round workshop and training center where VYCC crews and partner organizations build the technical and leadership skills essential for success in conservation, the trades, and sustainable agriculture. It also supports our year-round Crew Leader positions, where aspiring conservationists learn leadership skills and access pathways to greater professional and civic impact.

VYCC Corps Members raising a timber frame structure on campus
Agriculture & Food Security

Expanded food production for Vermont families

VYCC runs the largest prescription vegetable program in the state, an innovative approach to healthcare that delivers organic produce to Vermonters facing food insecurity and diet-related illness. A four-season wash/pack station and expanded commercial kitchen in the East Monitor Barn will support growing season extension, program growth and diversification, and strengthen food distribution to community members, while providing year-round culinary and agricultural education opportunities for Corps Members, schools, and volunteers.

Corps Members working in the fields on the VYCC farm with Vermont mountains in the background
Conservation & Workforce

Meeting the growing demand for skilled crews

Partners across Vermont, from state agencies to local land trusts, are asking VYCC to address a growing backlog of projects that require crews with advanced training in forestry, carpentry, outdoor recreation, and environmental conservation. Modernized training facilities in the barn will enable VYCC to prepare crews for this work year-round and to expand pre-apprenticeship programs where Corps Members earn college credit, gain industry credentials, and work directly with Vermont employers.

Two VYCC Corps Members doing roofing work together on scaffolding
Historic Preservation

Saving and repurposing Vermont's iconic barns

The Monitor Barns of Richmond, originally built in the early 1900s, exemplify Vermont's working landscape. Completing the East Monitor Barn demonstrates that these structures can be preserved and put to meaningful, modern use. Designed with Vermont Integrated Architecture, built by Neagley & Chase Construction, and restored by Building Heritage, this project is a model of historic preservation in practice and a source of Vermont pride for generations to come.

The East Monitor Barn during restoration, showing the scale of the historic structure
Voices of VYCC
Sam Brakeley
"Learning how to thrive in challenging conditions and still move forward productively is one of the greatest strengths VYCC teaches. As a small business owner, these are the characteristics that I look for in new hires."
Sam Brakeley | Owner, Hermit Woods Trailbuilders / VYCC Alumnus
Andrew Whitehead
"My experience at VYCC was the central launching pad for my career. It provided me with the essential technical skills to farm and cook, the leadership skills to supervise effectively, and the confidence to explore my passions in life."
Andrew Whitehead | Executive Chef, Lareau Farm, Waitsfield / VYCC Alumnus
Ariana Matthews-Salzman
"As a young person working at VYCC, I learned how to give feedback, communicate effectively, navigate conflict, and facilitate safe and respectful connections among people. These skills are the backbone that support me in my work, whether as a farmers market board member, a yoga teacher, or a resource specialist at the Vermont Foodbank."
Ariana Matthews-Salzman | Resource Specialist, Vermont Foodbank / VYCC Alumnus
"For decades, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation has relied on VYCC to complete urgent projects that we simply do not have the resources to tackle."
Nate McKeen
Director of Vermont State Parks
"The fresh local food on a family's table has a profound impact on body and soul. Hunger has deep roots. VYCC is part of a growing solution."
John Sayles
CEO, Vermont Foodbank
"VYCC has done a tremendous service for our state leading the restoration and stewardship of two of Vermont's most recognizable and historically significant structures: the Monitor Barns of Richmond."
Ben Doyle
President, Preservation Trust of Vermont

The Vision

A restored and repurposed East Monitor Barn: 20,000 square feet of year-round program space for teaching, training, food production, and community impact on VYCC's 400-acre campus in Richmond, Vermont.

Architectural sketch showing the East Monitor Barn interior levels and planned uses
Inside the completed barn. The ground floor will house a four-season wash/pack station and commercial kitchen for food processing, storage, and year-round distribution. The stock level above will serve as a four-season workshop and training center for VYCC crews and partner organizations. The barn will also include support facilities serving the adjacent hillside cabins. Upper levels preserve the barn's original timber framing and monitor roof architecture.
VYCC campus plan showing East Monitor Barn, West Monitor Barn, Hillside Cabins, Farm Shed, Compost Structure, and Outdoor Kitchen
VYCC's campus in Richmond, Vermont. Through the Stronger Through Service campaign, VYCC has already completed several campus investments: new hoop houses and a propagation house to expand farming capacity, a timber-frame compost facility and 2,000-square-foot equipment shed built by Corps Members, and weatherization upgrades to the historic farmhouse. Six three-season hillside cabins and an outdoor kitchen are under construction on the East Campus in 2026. The East Monitor Barn is the centerpiece of this campus plan and the next major project requiring support. VYCC's 400-acre property includes 280 conserved acres, a growing trail network, over 370 acres of forest land, and approximately 11 acres of tillable organic farmland. Almost all of the land is under conservation and historic easements.
The East Monitor Barn

Built in 1901. Restored and ready for its next chapter.

Working with local and state land trusts, VYCC restored the historic West Monitor Barn and purchased a 265-acre property in Richmond, Vermont in 2005. That first $3 million capital campaign restored the barn, conserved land, and created a permanent home for the organization. Three years later, VYCC purchased the adjoining 165-acre East Campus, which includes the farmhouse, the East Monitor Barn, and the Horse Barn. The resulting 400-acre campus, almost all of which is under conservation and historic easements, has galvanized VYCC's growth and impact over the past two decades.

1901 press clipping
May 1901, The Enterprise & Vermonter, mentioning the barn's construction.

The East Monitor Barn is one of the few remaining large-scale dairy barns of its era: a 20,000-square-foot, three-and-a-half-story structure built on the historic Whitcomb Farm. At 54 feet wide, 112 feet long, and nearly 70 feet tall, it is the largest structure on the VYCC campus and prominently visible from Route 2 and Interstate 89.

By the time VYCC acquired the East Campus in 2008, the barn's north retaining wall had shifted south, causing the entire building to list forward and creating a complex restoration project. Through the early phases of our Stronger Through Service campaign, Building Heritage led the stabilization and structural restoration. In 2023, the team lifted 500,000 pounds of barn off the lower levels, laid a new foundation, restored timbers, and set it back down. In 2024, the upper stories were repaired and the original slate roof fully restored, using salvaged slate on the monitor and new slate on the main roof.

The barn is once again plumb, straight, and sound. What remains is the interior build-out and weatherization that will bring it to life as year-round program space.

In 2025, VYCC piloted a 17-week timber-framing pre-apprenticeship using the stabilized, unfinished ground level of the barn as a classroom. Four young adults gained hands-on experience in new construction and historic preservation, building pathways to living-wage employment in Vermont's skilled trades. This year, participants will construct the new hillside cabins on VYCC's campus.

Original slate roof before restoration Restored roof with new and salvaged slate
Left: the original slate roof before restoration. Right: new slate on the main roof, salvaged slate on the monitor.
Interior timber trusses, original to 1901
Interior timber framing, original to 1901.

An Investment in Young People
and the Future of Vermont

Your tax-deductible gift to VYCC's Stronger Through Service campaign supports the completion of the East Monitor Barn and the programs, people, and partnerships it will serve for decades to come.

Restoration Updates

December 16, 2024

Barn Restoration Provides Training in the Trades
May 6, 2024

April 2024 Construction Updates
January 10, 2024

November & December Construction Updates
View all updates →