Courtesy / ArtVan
ArtVan is among the Maine Women’s Fund grantees that will bring tools of change to women and girls across Maine.
Updated: June 25, 2020
Maine Women’s Fund grants $140K to 16 organizations
By Staff
The Maine Women’s Fund on Wednesday said it has awarded annual grants totaling $138,975 to 16 nonprofit organizations dedicated to transforming the lives of women and girls throughout the state.
In the past 30-plus years, the fund has made over 490 investments totaling more than $2.6 million to 230 organizations investing in the power of women and girls across the state, according to a news release.
“Our generous donors and sponsors allow us to fund new and established organizations so that they have the resources to strengthen women’s rights, create new opportunities, and economic well-being,” Candace Walworth, board member and chair of the grants committee, said in the release.
The committee received letters of interest from 68 nonprofit organizations of various sizes and from all areas of the state.
Each committee member reviewed all requests and participated in a group discussion. The committee then invited 27 organizations to submit more detailed proposals.
After further assessment, 16 organizations were selected for funding based on strengths of the program and organization; a clearly identified need for the program; and the diversity of geographic area and populations served.
In addition, the committee evaluated each applicant on its ability to further the mission across the Maine Women’s Fund six funding areas: education, financial skills and literacy, health care, leadership, personal safety and policy.
Grant winners
• A Company of Girls builds self-confidence and resiliency, cultivates leadership skills, and creates a community of tolerance and acceptance where uniqueness is celebrated and creativity thrives through experiences in theater, visual and culinary arts.
• ArtVan serves children ages 3-18 in 390 family apartment units in Bath, Brunswick, and Auburn through regularly scheduled visits. Their art therapy approach lets poverty-related stressors be proactively and externally expressed through art.
• The Elder Abuse Institute of Maine will pilot a warmline aimed at helping Maine's 16,000 home health workers to identify elder abuse and to report cases more effectively and frequently.
• The Hope and Justice Project Inc. will implement wellness recovery action plan workshops in three areas of Aroostook County to provide survivors of domestic violence with a working plan for achieving their wellness goals.
• The League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund will enhance the ability of women from underrepresented communities to impact the decisions that affect their lives, and support the role that women continue to play in securing democratic rights for all.
• Mabel Wadsworth Center is Maine's only independent, nonprofit, community-based feminist health center. The funding will support a feminist model of care focused on sexual and reproductive health through education, advocacy, and clinical services.
• Maine Children's Alliance advocates for policies to support the 12,000 female-headed households and 14,000 children living in poverty in Maine, such as expanding access to education, job training, and improved work-family policies and food security.
• MaineTransNet will address the increasingly hostile social and political attacks that leave trans people hurt and isolated; this grant will support their goal of ensuring one support program monthly in all 16 of Maine's counties.
• New England Arab American Organization will provide a unique opportunity for New Mainer women to earn child development associate certification. Participants will advance their skills and earn income while reflecting cultural diversity.
• One Less Worry provides personal care products, including pads and tampons, which cannot be paid for with SNAP or WIC benefits, to those in need in Knox County while reducing stigma associated with periods through the group's Period Friendly project.
• Restorative Justice Institute of Maine will partner with the residents of the Women's Correction Center to address harm and injustice through practices that build connection, equity, accountability and healing.
• Family Futures Downeast addresses multi-generational poverty by combining post-secondary, workforce and career pathways for parents while their children receive high-quality early education.
• Tree Street Youth supports youth of Lewiston-Auburn through programs rooted in academics, the arts and athletics in a safe space. The group will build additional, intentional supports to reduce barriers to leadership experienced by young mothers.
• Wabanaki Public Health provides community-driven public health services to all Wabanaki communities while honoring their cultural knowledge, cultivating innovation, and collaboration. The services are overseen by Tribal leadership.
• Wayfinder Schools serves at-risk youth and teen parents, providing students the experience necessary to discover their strengths and skills, connect with their families, practice personal responsibility, contribute to community, and earn a high school diploma.
• YWCA Central Maine, which advocates for racial and gender equity, will offer a custom "Parent and Child Together" learning experience to introduce New Mainer mothers and children to the structure of a U.S. early learning classroom.
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