Your Voices, Our Focus
Over a period of nine months, more than 1,500 community leaders, donors, nonprofits and stakeholders provided their insights and perspectives on our state’s challenges, needs and opportunities through Maine Community Foundation’s Statewide Needs Assessment and Issue Identification project.
What are our communities’ strengths? Challenges? What emerging opportunities are there? How, specifically, can MaineCF help?
These questions and more were among those answered by people from all 16 Maine counties and from diverse backgrounds to help determine our next steps and how the foundation will engage its resources – from grantmaking to donor and community partnerships, investments and advocacy – to help all Mainers thrive.
In the summer of 2023, MaineCF began a community needs-assessment process with Suzanna Elkin of Elkin Consulting. After weathering a pandemic, tough (and ongoing) conversations about racial equity and climate-related challenges, it was critical to reengage with Maine’s communities, ask you what you were seeing, and hear your responses.
You lent your time, knowledge and expertise to steer the course on this needs assessment. Surveys of donors, community leaders and the public gave voice to the important issues that matter to Mainers. Focus groups and community conversations engaged residents in each corner of the state. A far-ranging literature review revealed important work being done by Maine’s community leaders and nonprofits – and gaps in that service, too. Your perspectives provided invaluable context to what matters most in your communities. We are grateful for your contributions.
Some of what we heard may not be a surprise to anyone who knows Maine well. Some of it, however, may be new information that intrigues, frustrates or motivates you. This feedback has inspired MaineCF anew to build a better Maine, starting with the issues identified by you. Most of them overlap with one another and all are critical to a stronger, more equitable Maine. MaineCF must remain nimble and constantly work to determine where and how it can make the biggest impact, in concert with the ongoing work by other organizations and agencies throughout the state.
The top issue areas from MaineCF’s needs assessment are:
- Housing – Lack of affordable housing is impacting Maine’s older people, as well as the state’s workforce and people’s ability to live near where they work.
- Health Access – The cost and accessibility of quality health care in Maine is a top concern for families and businesses – particularly in rural areas and for specific populations.
- Economic Opportunity – Economic opportunity is a far-reaching, ongoing challenge in Maine, encompassing wage and income gaps, workforce skills gap, and limited child care.
- Mental Health & Substance Use – Support for mental health and substance use recovery is a priority for Mainers – and the need has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Early Childhood Development – Access to quality early childhood education is a significant concern across Maine; the cost of care makes this challenge even greater.
- Climate – The effects of climate change in Maine — rising temperatures, more extreme and wetter weather events, sea level rise and flooding — are having impacts on the health and economic well-being here and now.
Furthermore, we saw how equity and justice are threads that weave throughout each of these focus areas. Diverse Maine people and communities — including LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities and women — do not have access to equal services, opportunities or resources in the state. Similarly, rural populations lack access to sufficient services, opportunities and resources including health care, education and workforce development, broadband or transportation. The outcomes in each of these areas shows the impact of these inequities. In each section you will see important, applicable information on the impact inequities and disparities have as we seek to build a better Maine.
Thank you for your insights. We look forward to working with you on the significant issues facing Maine. Just as we’ve worked together for more than 40 years, we will work alongside you in the years to come.
With our gratitude,
Deborah Ellwood
President and CEO
