BRATTLEBORO — This Special Focus section was reported and written over the past year by MacLean and Shanta Lee Gander, and edited and designed by Jeff Potter.
Additional assistance and reporting was provided by Matthew Vernon Whalen, a Marlboro College graduate who lives in town and has completed a nonfiction book about homelessness, dislocation, and addiction in Brattleboro.
Additional research and reporting by Mariah Edson, William Drake, and William Epifanio, all students in MacLean Gander's fall 2018 class in advanced news writing at Landmark College in Putney.
The Commons has multiple Special Focus projects in the works as an integral part of the nonprofit newspaper's mission. These efforts are made possible by the sustaining memberships of our readers and substantial in-kind contributions from professionals and students alike. Visit donate.commonsnews.org to join or to make a special donation to this and future investigative efforts.
As always - and in particular with controversial topics - we present our work not as the last word but only as the first. We warmly encourage your thoughts and reactions for public discussion in our Voices section - please send them to voices@commonsnews.org. To reach the investigative team with information or conversation about upcoming stories on this or other topics, email investigate@commonsnews.org.