Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Updated: February 10, 2025

On the Record: With new Biddeford location, My Place Teen Center aims to amplify its mission

TK Donna Dwyer, president and CEO of My Place Teen Center, at the new location in Biddeford, with Jim Godbout, the general contractor on the $3.7 million project.
By Renee Cordes

Donna Dwyer is the president and CEO of My Place Teen Center, a Westbrook-based nonprofit with a new, second location in Biddeford following the $3.7 million renovation of St. Andre’s Church. As volunteers were putting on the finishing touches at 75 Bacon St. in Biddeford, Mainebiz stopped by to see the progress. We checked back in after the center opened.

Mainebiz: What motivates you to do the work you’re doing?

Donna Dwyer: The kids and the level of business acumen required. The kids are gangly, wild, sweet, anguished, tumultuous, loyal, craving affection, needing guidance and desperate for a haven and food. My heart commands me to lead this organization and ensure its vitality and security. The demand for savvy business acumen feeds my mind, as do my entrepreneurial proclivities.

MB: Why Biddeford for the second My Place Teen Center?

DD: In 2014, Biddeford stakeholders requested discussions about bringing our nonprofit business model to them. Initially, we functioned in a consultant model, but in early 2017, discussions turned to the following: Could My Place Teen Center run a second site for them? This decision was an easy answer. Expanding was already part of our strategic plan due to the positive relationship with city leaders and the similar demographic and landscape of both cities. To this end, we have been working closely with the Biddeford Housing Authority/Southern Maine Affordable Housing, city leaders and the talented Jim Godbout [of Godbout Plumbing and Heating in Saco] to open a second site at 75 Bacon St. in January.

MB: How is the Biddeford place similar to the one in Westbrook?

DD: We had to renovate both locations extensively. My Place Teen Center’s business model ensures that we are free, open five days per week, and serve homemade meals. Our space has a homey aesthetic, featuring job and life preparedness and teaching emotional wellness, leadership and accountability. To cater to all kids, we are a drop-in center and offer a specialized teen curriculum. Most of all, we are a haven for vulnerable teens, including kids living in poverty, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and New Mainers.

MB: And how is it different?

DD: It’s not — the special sauce is the same at both locations, except for the moss wall and living plant wall in Biddeford. Those are spectacular.

MB: How are things going so far in Biddeford?

DD: The kids are piling in. We knew this would be the response, and we prepared for it. In the short term, we keep kids safe, warm and fed. In the long term, we’re always thinking, what skill sets do they need to be flourishing adults?

MB: What was the most challenging part of converting a church into a teen center?

DD: Money and resilience. Raising enough funds to transform a dilapidated, aged historic building into a teen oasis. Resilience to stay in the hunt. To make this renovation feat happen, we required dozens of skilled craftspeople. Jim Godbout, our angel on earth and in-kind general contractor for the massive project, was at the helm and made it doable over the past two years. Guy Gagnon facilitated Biddeford Housing Authority to My Place Teen Center conversion. Our board supported the vision. We needed tons of money to complete it, and that took seven years. Patience and trust were paramount.

MB: You have a lot of messages of gratitude incorporated into the design. Why?

DD: Grateful is an understatement. Herculean labor of love is more apt — the messages are a permanent reminder of the powerful effort and dedicated diligence on behalf of our teens.

MB: For businesses wanting to contribute to either center, what do you need most?

DD: Transformative, long-term investments in our mission.

MB: Do you think of opening a third center in another community one day?

DD: On the one hand, hahahaha! Gimme a break. On the other hand, $10 million, a shuttered church and Jim Godbout or Jim’s clone, and we’ll make it happen. I know the perfect city, too. Find a way — there’s always a way. Please take note, [philanthropist] MacKenzie Scott …

Sign up for Enews

Mainebiz web partners

Most Recent

Most Recent

Related Content

Thumbnail 'Harbinger of hope': $650K boost for Biddeford teen center under construction in former church

0 Comments

Order a PDF