Montpelier, VT –Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas announced today the launch of a new online system for her office’s “Safe at Home” program, an address confidentiality and protected records service.
Started in 2001 and operated by the Secretary of State’s office, Vermont’s Safe at Home program serves survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, and providers and patients of legally protected healthcare (reproductive and gender-affirming care). The program allows participants to use a substitute address for receiving mail and when creating records with state or local government agencies. Participants can vote, obtain a driver’s license, get married, register births, and receive their mail without fear that those records, which are publicly available, will put them at risk of being located. Vermont is one of 35 states that have some kind of address confidentiality program.
“The Safe at Home program is a really important service that our office provides to Vermonters,” said Secretary Copeland Hanzas. “It’s been one of my top priorities from day one to raise its profile and to modernize our systems, so that we are providing a resource that is as effective and accessible as possible.”
ReFrame Solutions, a software design company that specializes in public service platforms, submitted the winning bid to build Vermont’s new Safe at Home system. Until now, the program had functioned with paper forms, and systems for managing participants and processing mail that had become outdated. Eligible applicants can now apply using an online portal, participants and victim advocacy organizations can manage their accounts online, and the internal operation of the program will be more efficient.
“This is a big upgrade for this long-standing program, from our back-of-house processes like creating mailing labels to front-of-house features like providing a mobile wallet ID for participants,” said Secretary Copeland Hanzas. “From here, my office will be working with victim advocacy organizations like Vermont Network to make sure everyone who can benefit from accessing this service as part of their overall safety plan is able to do so. We now stand more ready than ever to help survivors and healthcare providers and patients to feel safe at home.”
The Safe at Home online platform can be found at: https://safeathome.vermont.gov/applicant/sign-up
An overview video of the program can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTTvpAQ6ce0