Upcoming Event
Inside the Leaders’ Studio: From Passion to Product
Begins Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Join us September 21 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St., Portland for Inside the Leaders’ Studio: From Passion to…
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2008-2009 Grant Partners
Public Policy
The Maine Women’s Policy Center encourages women’s participation in public policy, amplifying both their voices and their power. With our support, the Maine Women’s Policy Center will champion economic security for women across Maine through increased flexibility at work, adequate paid time off, the end of unfair profiling practices, and equal pay. The grant amount of $15,000 represents the second year of the 2007-08 grant and the 2008-09 grant. Visit our Inspirational Stories page to learn more about how the Maine Women’s Policy Center is making change happen.
Maine Equal Justice Partners focuses on the issues that affect women’s daily lives – access to adequate health care, food assistance, income supports, housing issues, fair working conditions and higher education and training opportunities. With a $10,000 grant (year two) from the Maine Women’s Fund, Maine Equal Justice Partners will work to improve benefits and supports for families on TANF and those transitioning off the program so that they can achieve economic independence; improve access to health care for low-income families; and increase opportunities for low wage women workers to attain education and training that will improve their employment options.
Education
The Passages Program of the Cobscook Community Learning Center serves out-of-school pregnant and parenting young women in Washington County through a home-based, self-paced high school diploma program. Each year, in Washington County, approximately 45 children are born to young women who range in age from twelve to eighteen. Offering these young women a way to complete high school, without compromising their ability to be parents at the same time, is a critical way to tap into the high motivation they experience during this period of their lives, bolstering their ability to enter post-secondary education, the workplace and adulthood in general. Based on the success of the program supported by a 2007-08 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, we will continue to invest $5,000 in this project in 2008-09. Visit our Inspirational Stories to learn more about how the Cobscook Community Learning Center is fostering empowerment.
Girls see more than 3,000 media images each day and the themes of those messages are that girls need to be thin and sexy, they need to use their bodies to attract boys and men, and they need to find someone to take care of them. These messages make it hard for girls to believe they can be independent, economically secure, and safe without being in a relationship with a man. Through direct service programming, education, and leadership development, Hardy Girls Healthy Women (HGHW) helps girls create positive environments and develop the skills they need to aspire to independent, secure futures. This second year grant of $10,000 will help HGHW expand statewide and nationally. Visit our Inspirational Stories page to learn more about how Hardy Girls Healthy Women is making change happen.
Entrepreneurship, Better Jobs and Wages
Dress for Success is a critical intervention, enabling women to get access to, and win, better jobs. Getting that job and retaining it is an important first step towards self-sufficiency and building a career. Dress for Success serves a critical market – 80% of their clients have an income of less than $12,000 a year. Most are young, single mothers who have not previously held full-time jobs. With our continued support of $5,000, Dress for Success will provide disadvantaged, low-income job-ready women with the attire and self-confidence they need to enter the workforce. While located in and serving the needs of women in Southern Maine, the program also serves women from as far North as Belfast and as far West as Rumford.
Women, Work, and Community received a second year grant ($10,000) to support the Kennebec Corridor Creative Enterprise Project, which targets the needs of low-to-moderate income women artisans and emerging entrepreneurs in communities along the Kennebec Corridor that includes the towns of Augusta, Waterville, Skowhegan, Gardiner, Richmond, and Bath. Additionally, they received a $10,000 grant to support the expansion of this program to the Crown of Maine Creative Enterprise Project, which provides small business networking and skill building opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Aroostook County. These enterprises account for 20% of all employment in Aroostook County and are in need of market outlets to grow and expand. The project will increase business management and technology skills, improve marketing success, link entrepreneurs and catalyze networks and shared action through mini-grants which will be matched by the entrepreneurs.
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) is Maine’s only provider of free and low-cost immigration information and legal assistance to low-income Maine residents. ILAP’s skilled legal assistance helps Maine’s immigrants keep their families together, gain protection from persecution and domestic violence, attain residency and work authorization, and become proud U.S. citizens. With a $3,000 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, ILAP will provide the advocacy required to enable undocumented battered women in Aroostook, Washington, and Androscoggin counties to leave their domestic situations, attain immigrant status, get access to public housing and enter the workforce.
Financial Literacy and Asset Building
It is the mission of Caring Unlimited to work with the community to end domestic violence in York County. This includes providing support and safe haven to women, their children and men whose lives are affected by domestic abuse in a manner that honors their essential worth, nurtures their inherent strengths and respects their right of self-determination. Through the Maine Women’s Fund grant of $4,500, Caring Unlimited will provide a savings match to battered women living in transitional housing. For women who stay the full 24 months, they will leave with up to $1,200 in savings which can be used to secure permanent housing, transportation, and other needs.
CA$H Greater Portland, managed by United Way of Greater Portland, is a partnership of community leaders and industry experts encouraging individuals and families in Cumberland County to increase income, reduce debt, save for the future and achieve financial stability. This program serves refugee and immigrant women, helping them learn to navigate the banking system, as well as inform bank and credit union representatives about the needs of this diverse customer base. Through a $5,000 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, the program will also provide a 5-part financial literacy series for the target audience.
