Neighborhood Support Teams

What They are & How to Get Involved

Neighborhood Support Teams are just one way to build trust and community connection, raise awareness, and establish a protective presence to ensure schools are places of safety and belonging for everyone, regardless of a person’s immigration status, ethnicity, color of skin, accent or the language(s) they speak. We are building a Burlington-specific model adapted from those used in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland.

There are Three Key Pillars of This Approach:
Community Connection & Mutual Aid (Ongoing)
Know Your Rights Education (Ongoing)
Rapid Response (Emergency – As Needed)

All Neighborhood Support Team activities are legal and nonviolent ways to support and protect the rights and safety of community members. Neighborhood Support Teams are launched and led by individual school communities and are composed of family and community members who carry out the work. These teams work in collaboration with BSD, and act independently to stay rooted in community needs.

Allies: If you would like to support in any of the above areas, please join the Signal interest group for your school community to get involved. From there, you’ll receive next steps for how to connect with different parts of the Neighborhood Support Team’s mission.

Impacted Families: Please contact your school’s administrative assistant or your multilingual liaison to share needs or get connected with any support that you may need.