|
Androscoggin Bank's MainStreet Foundation announced the recipients of its impact grants for the third quarter of 2018. Recognizing a need for at-risk kids in Maine to be safe, healthy, active, happy, educated and nourished, the MainStreet Foundation awards grants to organizations actively working to help kids thrive. The grants vary based on the need and are awarded in amounts up to $5,000.
The MainStreet Foundation Board of Directors has approved grants to the following organizations. A total of $11,700 was awarded to the following seven nonprofit organizations:
- Community Clinical Services Pediatrics (Lewiston) - $1,500 was awarded to Community Clinical Services Pediatrics to support its Project Move! by providing materials that will help monitor physical activity and heart rate of participants. The program is designed to help reduce childhood obesity, one child at a time. Participants will have access to a pediatrician, dietician, physical therapist, behavioral counselor and the YWCA to help them stay on a path of healthier eating, movement, and thinking.
- Good Shepherd Food Bank (Auburn) - $2,700 was awarded to help fund a Backpack Program at Washburn Elementary School. The packs, including easily prepared nutritious items for three meals a day plus snacks, are given to food-insecure children each week to sustain them through the weekend, as well as during school vacations.
- Kids First Center (Portland) - $1,000 was awarded to support Kids First For Kids! workshops that are designed to address the needs of children who have been affected by the separation or divorce of their parents. The workshops focus on helping children to identify the emotions they're experiencing and learn coping strategies that can help when difficult family situations arise.
- Ohills Reads C/O Healthy Oxford Hills (Norway) - $1,000 was awarded to Ohills Reads. The community-led group aspires to build a stronger, healthier, and more empathetic community by uniting schools, businesses, local organizations, and families with a community-wide reading and discussion of a common book. The project aims to engage in education and prevention of opiate use and reduce stigma through increased awareness and empathy.
- Promise Early Education Center (Lewiston) - $2,500 was awarded to support the Head Start Program, serving low-income families in Androscoggin County. Funding will help build home libraries for families by providing one book each month of the school year, promoting family literacy and encouraging children to read at home and begin to view reading as a relaxing, enjoyable part of everyday life.
- ROiL DBA Maine Inside Out (Portland) - $1,000 was awarded to support the expansion of Maine Inside Out's current programming through the formation of a Leadership Council. Maine Inside Out participants are young people who have experienced incarceration. The Council will provide senior participants with training and work opportunities, with a goal of building leadership skills, professional experience, and community visibility of Maine Inside Out's youth leadership.
- Rural Community Action Ministry (Leeds) - $2,000 was awarded to Rural Community Action Ministry, an organization that works with families or individuals that are homeless, at risk of homelessness, hungry, or isolated to provide basic needs for health and safety. Funding helps provide the resources needed for children at the family shelter to get back to school, supports the partnership with school personnel to educate students about poverty and the need to care for each other, and funds Backpack Projects that provide food for school-aged children with food insecurity.
"We are consistently impressed by the extensive programming designed to support youth in communities around Maine," said Steve Closson, Chairman of Androscoggin Bank's MainStreet Foundation. "We are happy to support the goals these organizations are working so hard to achieve."
MainStreet Foundation has awarded a total of $34,700 so far in 2018.
|
