Happy Wednesday!
This is the Community Caring Collaborative Weekly Communiqué where we share announcements about trainings, meetings and other events, including announcements from our collaborative partners. Look for links to meeting minutes and agendas in the Meetings section, training registration forms and flyers in the Events section, and job postings and other items of interest in the Announcements section. Subscribe here to get the Communiqué. Make sure to add Community Caring Collaborative to your contacts at claurel@cccmaine.org. Gmail users, check for the Communiqué under the Promotions tab. This mailing goes out every Wednesday, so if you have announcements, please send them to Christine by 5 pm Monday to be included. Thanks!
Pictured above, the roiling spring waters of Bad Little Falls across the street from the SCEC House
Announcements
CCC Staff Transition: This week our beloved finance & barrier removal coordinator, Rhoda Hodgdon, hands over the baton to new staff member Nicole Sevey. Rhoda has been training Nicole and is very happy to finally be able to spend 
more time with her extended family. The CCC shares Nicole part-time with Sunrise Opportunities, our fiscal agent. Nicole has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a Management concentration that she earned as a student-athlete at the University of Maine, Orono. Field hockey was her sport in college which offered valuable lessons on leadership and teamwork. Originally from Skowhegan, ME, she now lives on Beal’s Island with her boyfriend and two dogs – a Border Collie and black Lab. The CCC is thrilled to have Nicole on our team! Please welcome her next time you visit the central office at Sunrise Opportunities.
Your announcement could go here: email the details to Christine by 5 pm Monday for inclusion in Wednesday’s Weekly Communiqué.
Events
Now listed chronologically, so make sure to scroll down for items just added!
Mother’s Day celebration: On May 13th Nuestra Voz en la Comunidad and Mano en Mano will be hosting the 11th annual Mother’s Day celebration, from 5 pm to 10 pm at Milbridge Elementary School. Everyone is invited and we ask that folks bring a potluck dish to share. More information can be found on the FB event page. We are still in need of volunteers to help decorate, run children’s activities, coordinate food, and clean up at the end of the night. If anyone is interested they can write to Eli at eredfern@manomaine.org or give him a call at (207) 598-8925. Count on a really enjoyable time with great food, presentations, and dancing!
Data Demystified: The University of Southern Maine’s Data Innovation Project invites you to their inaugural Data Summit on May 15th at the Wells Conference Center, UM Orono. Download the flyer for more information.
Homeless Coordinated Entry: Mary Ellen Quinn from CHCS invites you to participate in a new initiative “Region 3 Homeless Coordinated Entry.” This is a system that provides people who are homeless a much more efficient and effective way to get assistance no matter where in our system of services they present themselves. In addition, such a system is now mandated by HUD as part of the necessary requirements to be met by any Continuum of Care ( COC) that wishes to apply for federal housing/homeless services funds. See flyer for background and information on a Train the Trainer event scheduled for May 17th at 10:00 am at the United Way of Eastern Maine on Main St. in Bangor. There is a call-in option available for the training. Details on that coming soon.
Toxic Chemicals and Our Children’s Developing Brains: G.E.A.R. workshop on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, from 9-11 a.m. at Downeast Horizons, 77 Union St, Ellsworth, hosted by Cynthia Cullinane, Regional Parent Support Coordinator. Read about this and other G.E.A.R. spring workshops in this flyer.
Disaster Preparedness for Seniors by Seniors: Emergencies and disasters can strike quickly and without warning and can force you to evacuate your neighborhood. Learn how to protect yourself and cope with disaster by planning ahead in this presentation on May 18th from Noon to 2 PM in UMM Science 102, by Caroline King, Executive Director, American Red Cross, Northern & Eastern Maine. This event is free & open to the public.
Bridges Out of Poverty Webinar: one-hour webinar, “Bridges Out of Poverty,” uses the lens of economic class to provide concrete tools and strategies for individuals, organizations, and communities to alleviate poverty.This webinar will provide an introduction to a comprehensive approach to understanding the Bridges Out of Poverty constructs. Thursday, June 1, 2017, 11:00am-12:00pm CDT (not Eastern time). Register here.
LGBTQ Health Conference: Save the date of June 16th in Portland, ME, for the 2017 LGBTQ+ Health Conference on the theme of Trauma and Resiliency with keynote speaker, Sandy James, Survey Project Manager of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Conference information at Health Equity Alliance.
Save the Date: The Community Caring Collaborative invites business owners and human resource staff to 
save the date of July 13th for Addiction, Recovery & the Workforce: a summit for Washington County businesses of all sizes. This is a free event from 8:30 to 3:30 pm at the University of Maine, Machias. Participants will learn and discuss challenges to hiring and employing people in recovery; hear strategies for success and dealing with challenges from a panel of experts; plus gain foundational information on addiction and available treatment and recovery supports. Please circulate this flyer to business owners/HR managers you know. Info on speakers coming soon!
Needs & Offers
2 Job Offers: The Maine Migrant Health Program (MMHP) is now hiring! We are recruiting for a DownEast Program Manager and a Community Health Worker (CHW III) for Aroostook County. Please feel free to share across your personal networks with anyone you think might be interested.
Scholarship Offer: Mano en Mano brings to your attention the 2017 Julia Robiola Gigena Scholarship. This scholarship was established to provide financial aid to students from Washington County, Maine, who self-identify as Latino and who wish to pursue a two or four year college or university degree. The deadline to apply is May 26th and June 2nd for students renewing their scholarship. This is the link for more information.
Volunteer Drivers Needed: WHCA is looking for volunteer drivers. Benefits include flexible hours, reimbursement at 44 cents a mile, AAA Plus at no coast to you. Volunteers must be at least 25 years old, have a valid, clean Maine driver’s license for 3 years, have a reliable, clean vehicle, and live in Hancock or Washington County. Call or email Joceyln Storey, WHCA’s Volunteer Coordinator, at 207-610-5940 or jstorey@whcacap.org, M-F, 8-5 pm.
Shelter Advocate Needed: Next Step Domestic Violence Project is seeking a Shelter Advocate to provide services to guests at the shelter in Washington County. Read the job description with application instructions here.
Send us your agency/community needs or offers, such as job recruiting or housing needs.
Updates
This is where we post updates on programs, initiatives and pending legislation.
2 Early Childhood Updates from Gay Haroutunian:
- LD 1321 (to pilot and fund early childhood mental health consultation) was passed this week by the Joint Education Committee with only 3 dissenting votes. If passed, this bill would fund a pilot and then a statewide program for consultation to child care personnel (and possibly Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers) when they have a youngster whose “challenging behaviors that put them at risk of learning difficulties and removal from early learning settings.” There is a model for this program in Washington County here in Maine – the CCC’s ECCO Program; and there are a couple of nation-wide modes. A randomized clinical trial of this intervention was recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The Maine Children’s Alliance has done a wonderful job enlisting national experts in consulting on the design of this program and bill. Please stay tuned for when it will be best to contact your legislators to move this bill toward enactment.
- LD 1475 (to redirect unused federal funding toward reducing child poverty) – the public hearing for this bill has been scheduled at Health and Human Services this Monday, May 18th at 1 pm. Maine currently has $155 million in unspent Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) funds sitting in the bank unused. Meanwhile, Maine Equal Justice Partners has documented that the percentage of Maine children living in deep poverty has, from 2011 to 2015, increased at triple the rate of the national average (the rate has increased by over 15%). If passed, this bill would use the unspent TANF federal funds on several programs to lift children and their families out of poverty. Please see the excellent (and short!) MEJP policy brief.
Meetings
Work Group & Poverty Busters: Next meeting is June 7th, from 1 – 3:30 pm at the SCEC House. Minutes from our May 3rd meeting coming soon.
St Croix Community Connections: This is Poverty Buster’s sister group in Calais, organized by Christine Morris. This group meets monthly – new members welcome! Contact Christine for details on the May meeting.
NASA’s satellite image of Acadia highlights how the park could be vulnerable to sea level rise.
It’s not just a silent spring in Acadia to worry about. (NPS image)