About Us | The Community Caring Collaborative

Our mission is to nurture and sustain collaboration that expands resources and increases hope, health, and well-being for people in Washington County, Maine. The challenges of poverty, trauma, substance use, major health issues, the process of aging, or other factors can make people vulnerable. Our focus is on increasing awareness of the impacts of those challenges, removing barriers to well-being that diminish potential and hope, and increasing opportunities to help people reach their dreams.

Our Story

The Community Caring Collaborative started in 2007 to address the issues of at-risk infants, young children, and their families. The goal was to create a strength-based system of care that would meet emerging needs in order to improve outcomes for our youngest population and their families.

Equally important was the creation of a collaborative that removed barriers between agencies and worked together to change the quality of services and the outcomes for people in Washington County.

The CCC’s model of authentic collaboration promotes individual agencies’ effectiveness as well as working together to develop place-based, responsive programming. CCC-developed programs such as Bridging, Early Childhood Consultation and Outreach, and the Hope Fund have served to strengthen the continuum of supports in Washington County and reflect the success of our dual commitment to supporting individuals and organizational partners at the same time. Collaboration across systems is essential to develop transformational change and to address broader issues of increasing success and opportunities. To this end, we have learned that we must address poverty and its impact on health, education, and well- being.

Single agencies and entities cannot do the work alone. It requires ongoing collaboration and the ability to build and advance a shared agenda holistically and responsively. For individuals living in poverty to achieve increased health or educational attainment, for instance, communities must remove the barriers that impede these hopes and goals. The Community Caring Collaborative has become a backbone organization that convenes and supports partners in incubating programming that is effective and collective. The CCC utilizes its history, partnerships and values to respond to new areas that must be addressed collaboratively in order to improve lives in Washington County.

Dedicated to the work of expanding resources and opportunities and promoting far-reaching change, the CCC is poised to not only continue its work on shared issues such as addressing poverty and deepening authentic collaboration, but also developing a viable means of measuring its impact across agencies and in the lives of community members.

Who are we?

We are a small staff of 6 who work with a talented team of consultants and an expanding partnership of organizations across Washington County.

CCC Staff

Charley Martin-Berry, Director
Julie Redding, Clinical Director
Abby Frutchey, Substance Use Response Coordinator
Dante Zanoni, The Connection Initiative Program Manager
Christy Laurel, Communications & Training Coordinator
Angela Donaghy, Finance & Barrier Removal Coordinator

CCC Consultants

Elizabeth Neptune, Neptune Advantage
Elin MacKinnon, LCSW
Rafi Hopkins, Section Sign LLC
Sarah Strickland, Strategic Wisdom Partners

Sunrise Opportunities, headquartered in Machias, is our fiscal sponsor, providing us with 501(c)(3) status. Sunrise is a private non-profit organization run by a volunteer Board of Directors, founded in 1957, that offers residential, subsidized housing, and outpatient services to adults and children with an intellectual disability, autism or a mental health diagnosis.