by maineseacoast | Aug 19, 2020 | Downeast Campus, EdGE, Food Pantry, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Thank You Thursday, Weald Bethel Community Center
It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission Love goes to Milbridge, ME based Mano en Mano (Hand in Hand).
Founded in 2005, Mano en Mano works with farm-workers and immigrants to help them thrive in Maine. The organization’s work includes partnerships with Maine Seacoast Mission.
Mission Service Program Director Wendy Harrington said, “We began working with Mano en Mano in the early days of the Mission’s EdGE program when they helped us support the English language learner students in the after-school program.”
This year, starting with a $10K Good Shepherd Food Bank grant to support distributing culturally-specific boxes of food for local families and for migrant workers, Mano en Mano partnered with the Mission, Vazquez Mexican Takeout Restaurant, and Downeast Community Partners. Using the Mission Downeast Campus Food Pantry as a central location the team distributed 165 boxes of food to 347 people.
“It..was so helpful having this partnership [and] great to provide food for families. Now they feel comfortable picking up food there,” said Mano en Mano migrant education director Juana Rodriguez-Vazquez.
Mission Service Program Director Wendy Harrington added, “This year our work with Mano en Mano has become more integrated around food security, financial support for people in the community, and the new housing initiative.”
This is what community looks like.
On the web: https://www.manomaine.org
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manomaine/
by maineseacoast | Aug 18, 2020 | Downeast Maine Tiny House Project, Housing Rehabilitation, John Zavodny, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Scott Shaw
L-to-R: DCP Development Associate Megan R. Hayes, Bobbi Harris (DCP), Mission President John Zavodny, DCP Operations Manager Dale Basher, and Scott Shaw (Mission)
MILBRIDGE, ME — On a misty Monday morning, August 3, a tall yellow crane is suspending a new tiny house in mid-air while carpenters guide the building onto its cement foundation. Four years ago this tiny house was an idea sketched on a paper napkin. The idea grew, and attracted support from four partner organizations, several sponsors, and many volunteers.
Partner organizations Downeast Community Partners (DCP) and Maine Seacoast Mission were already working together — with volunteers — through the Mission’s Housing Rehabilitation Program to make homes in Downeast Maine safe and warm through home repairs and home insulating.
Neither DCP nor the Mission had ever tackled a tiny house. But perhaps tiny houses could serve as a new way to provide safe, warm housing to the elderly, low-income individuals and families, and military Veterans?
Word reached Mission Housing Rehab Program Manager Scott Shaw that a Washington County disabled military Veteran named Ryan needed a place to live. Ryan’s situation was a perfect reason to build a tiny house.
Full story, videos, and photos at Downeast Maine Tiny House Project’s Blog.
by maineseacoast | Aug 5, 2020 | Downeast Maine Tiny House Project, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Thank You Thursday
It’s Thank you Thursday and today’s shout out of Mission Love goes to Downeast Community Partners (DCP).
DCP was created in 2017 with the merger of two organizations: Washington Hancock Community Agency and Child and Family Opportunities. With headquarters in Ellsworth and Machias, the new DCP was, and is, designed to improve the quality of life and reduce the impact of poverty in Downeast communities.
For years DCP and the Mission have partnered to keep families and individuals in Washington and parts of Hancock County in safe, warm homes. Each year, area residents can apply for a housing repair assist.
In brief, the Mission’s Housing Rehabilitation Program, with its talented, hardworking volunteers, puts homes into shape — trailer skirting, roofing, building decks, scraping and painting, and other repair work. DCP then completes the work with its weatherization program: insulation, thermal windows, new doors.
And Monday, August 3, DCP and the Mission were on site in Milbridge to see its latest Downeast Maine Tiny House Project — in partnership with C.F. Adams Charitable Trust and Assabet Valley Regional High School — placed on its concrete foundation.
We’re looking forward to many more years teaming up with Downeast Community Partners.
This is what community looks like.
On the web: https://www.downeastcommunitypartners.org/
by maineseacoast | Jul 2, 2019 | Housing Rehabilitation, Maine Seacoast Mission, News
CHERRYFIELD, ME — The Mission’s Housing Rehabilitation Program Manager Scott Shaw sent these photos of “the South Berwick crew” — a hardworking group of volunteers from the First Parish Federated Church, South Berwick, ME.
“A big thanks to them,” said Scott Shaw. “The crew removed two garage doors from an elderly gentleman’s home, and enclosed the space. That allowed our partners, Downeast Community Partners, to weatherize the home.
“The amazing church group stacked five cord of firewood for an elderly couple,” said Shaw. “They also finished work on the Lamb House, just in time for a single mom and her three children to avoid homelessness and move in.”
