About Us

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Jessica Berry

St. George School

Meredith Batley

Knox Clinic

Joseph Hufnagel

The Landing Place

Rachel Wilcox

Knox Clinic

Brad Choyt

RSU13 School Board Member

Jessica Anderson

Count Me In Executive Director

Carrie Sullivan

Maine Health

Mark Munger

International Consultant

Mark Glovin

Penquis

Char Corbett

Healthy Kids

Our Story

The MidCoast Community Collaborative was created out of a community event hosted on January 26, 2023 called Change for MidCoast Students. The event was held to raise awareness of the child and youth mental health crisis and the impact on providers supporting children from birth to adulthood are experiencing in the MidCoast – over 200 community members attended creating an undeniable energy for change.

Since our January 26th event to raise awareness about the mental health crisis of our children and youth a backbone network has emerged that is working to continue to build cross-sector collaboration among Knox and Lincoln County individuals, businesses, school districts, and organizations to begin identifying and removing barriers that prevent collaboration and the ability for community members to access resources.

In June 2023, the Collaborative hosted a cross-sector partner event with over 90 attendees including professionals from the Governor’s office and other state departments. All of the attendees worked together to create a list of priorities for resource providers and caregivers. While there were a number of great suggestions, two themes jumped out loud and clear from our meeting: Convening and Making Change.

Geographic Focus

Our geographic focus is Knox and Lincoln Counties. However, our reach is broader, such as collaborating with Midcoast Youth Center in Sagadahoc County and the Community Caring Collaborative in Washington County. This spread is to collaborate with organizations and individuals who are doing similar work, so that we might begin doing the work better and stronger together.

Our Structure

While incorporating into a non-profit would be one way to formally organize ourselves, we hope to remain seen and understood as a supporter of organizations and not a competitor or service provider, therefore, we have chosen a different path.
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Since our last convening on June 9th, we have continued to host small focus groups, lean into individual conversations, and work to integrate ourselves into communities to build relationships. We are beginning to better understand problems and challenges faced by community leaders, providers, youth, families and community members.. Members and partners have begun to understand gaps in services and are starting to create systems to bridge gaps and improve individual and collective effectiveness.

Streams of Work

Early Childhood
  • When looking at a continuum of care for the development of children and what exists to support that continuum of development in the MidCoast, it became clear that there is a serious portion of the continuum missing. When reviewing asset maps it is clear that there is a significant resource issue for birth to 4 year olds and their families. The Collaborative plans to continue researching, convening and planning on how we might all work together to begin bolstering services in this particular area. 
  • In Summer 2024, a focus group from Lincoln County convened in Waldoboro to begin discussing the needs specific to the town related to early childhood. 
  • The work in Waldoboro transpired into the MidCoast Early Childhood Convening which took  place on November 2024. Local and state level Cross-sector early childhood partners are coming together to begin co-designing a proposal in response to the early childhood needs in the MidCoast; this work is supported primarily by a $75,000 John T Gorman Foundation grant we received to support early childhood planning with a specific focus on Waldoboro.
Professional Development
  • United MidCoast Charities and a private donor generously awarded the Collaborative funding to support a youth focused professional development series provided by Trekkers. The Collaborative teamed up with Trekkers to begin planning professional development opportunities for partner organizations. 
  • We also gathered quantitative and qualitative information about professional development for providers and educators in our communities. We are learning what people think they need and want. We are also developing a list of topics and a list of skills which are already offered, or might be developed based on demand and capacity. 
  • There are many coalitions working on similar topics.We have begun to host discussions with organizations from Waldo to Sagadahoc Counties with the hope of bringing coalitions together so that we may begin developing support and a continuum of care that extends through the entire MidCoast region.
Youth
  • In late 2023, MCC was awarded a $50,000 Juvenile Justice Advisory Group Grant that was used to establish a referral system for organizations and individuals to present a child/youth need that they need support with. The Collaborative used the network of over 70 partners to resource the needs and also maintained a small barrier removal fund helped with monetary needs. 
Research and Learning System
  • Several folks participate in a survey in June 2024! We were able to get very useful data on what folks saw as the collaboratives strengths (Mutual trust! Skilled Leadership! Unique purpose! Favorable climate for collaboration!) and challenges for us to address as we move forward (Staff and funds! Measurement and data use! Clear roles and policy guidelines!) 
  • We are moving forward on a project to address building a system for regional learning by understanding data use across collaborative member organizations. We will be reaching out to folks soon to schedule some interviews to hear more about what data you are currently using to understand your impact and to learn more about your hopes for the collaborative.
Celebrations
  • In 2024, the Maine Children’s Alliance recognized the The MidCoast Community Collaborative  as a 2023 Giraffe Award recipient. The Giraffe Award is given to unsung heroes in communities throughout the state who “stick out their necks” for Maine kids and their families.

As we continue to work to connect all of our partners we would like to also highlight and share your work and events. If you have any opportunities that you would like to broadcast to the larger Collaborative network, please consider sharing them via our Facebook group!