Greater Bangor

Greater Bangor, a Community of Promise, began to organize on behalf of children in 1997, with the formation of a local steering committee comprised of parents, youth, community leaders, and social service representatives, all supported by the United Way of Eastern Maine. In the spring of 1998, this group became a Communities for Children partner community. Additional support and leadership came from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and the Danforth Foundation of St. Louis.

"As the vision began to take shape, it became clear exactly what type of community effort this would be. Communities for Children would not be about "quick fixes," intervention, or fund raising. It would be about long-term prevention strategies, community strengths and local citizen involvement. Although an earlier needs assessment . . .had shown some deficiencies in the area, it was determined that the effort would focus on asset and strength building and work from a strong, positive foundation to be proactive." (Channa Jackson, VISTA member)

In 1998, partnering with the Search Institute, Greater Bangor used the 40 Developmental Assets Survey to assess 193 community youth. Using the survey results, volunteers from the United Way and the community held focus groups and over 350 participants, ranging in age from 8 to 80, provided feedback on goals.

With this information leaders, from the Bangor community were invited by the Children’s Cabinet to participate in the Danforth Policymakers Institute, held in St. Louis in August of 1999. The team attending included United Way staff, the Chief of Police, the Principal of the elementary school, the Director of the YMCA, and members of the Region III Children’s Cabinet, led by Kevin Concannon, Commissioner of the Department of Human Services. This week-long planning process led to the formulation of six desired outcomes and defined six corresponding task forces to carry out the program.

The Children Ready to Succeed in School task force became a key player in obtaining a three-year grant for a home visitation program. Facilitated by the Penquis CAP, Parents Are Teachers, Too (PATT) started in the fall of 2000 and is now expanding to Piscataquis County. Both a United Way representative and community volunteers from the original steering group sit on the PATT Advisory Council.

Read for Success, a literacy initiative, came out of the Task Force on Developing a Caring and Encouraging Environment for Learning. Started in September 2000, the program has collected over 2,500 books and matched over 20 businesses with area day cares and schools to read to children on an ongoing basis. Another component, Born to Read, places seniors in day cares to read on a weekly basis and is being expanded to all five counties.

The Task Force on Youth Roles created opportunities for youth to interact. Strategies currently being pursued are a discount card reward initiative to encourage good citizenship and local block parties to bring diverse groups of youth together. Trainings to encourage local agencies to involve youth are being developed.

The Positive Family Communication Task Force is working with Acadia Hospital’s Community Conversations on parenting workshops and a community forum was held in March 2001 with nationally known speakers who discussed how the community could connect to youth.

The Libra Foundation provided the Camp Bangor Scholarship program. Over 900 students used their vouchers to attend over 125 Maine camps in the summer of 2000 and over 1,500 adults and children attended the 2001 Camp Fair. The program enabled the United Way to engage youth and to provide community service opportunities for youth.

From the beginning, a sub-group of youth had expressed an interest in building a skate park in Bangor. They followed through and the development was a learning experience for the youth and the adults who were involved. Through their involvement with C4C, the group made numerous presentations to community civic organizations and secured a site for the skate park. They also received funds and publicity from their speaking engagements.

Another group of youth, YARE, grew significantly with the support of C4C. Their Sidekicks mentoring program doubled in 2000, providing many new youth at Downeast Elementary School with a big brother or big sister. The group also recently served as the Youth Advisory Board for the allocation of funds in the Best Buy Community Service Grant Program.

The City of Bangor Parks and Recreation Department partnered with Fairmount School and Mary Snow School in the fall of 200 to create safe after school activities for fourth and fifth graders. The Recreation Department facilitates this low cost program.

The Greater Bangor Communities for Children has been recognized and asked to present at numerous conferences: The National Community Service Conference, Orlando; The Power of Partnerships Conference, Augusta; Healthy Families, Healthy Youth Conference, Minneapolis; The Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism, Bangor; The Danforth Foundation Policymakers Institute, St. Louis; The National Conference of State Legislators, San Diego; and the Education Commission of the States National Forum and Annual Meeting, Minneapolis. In March of 2000, one of the founding C4C steering committee members received the Maine Children’s Alliance Giraffe Award for her commitment to mentoring youth in Greater Bangor.

Since the summer of 1999, over 610 community volunteers have been active, performing over 1,850 hours of volunteer service in community-building activities. In-kind donations of books, T-shirts, food and publicity total over $17,000 and additional fund raising efforts have raised over $143,000 for training and administrative costs for Read for Success and Camp Bangor.

The United Way itself has changed as a result of using the Communities for Children outcomes. The annual funding process, termed Community Investment, includes, as one of its priorities, funding agency programs that support children and families. What used to be a process that just allocated funds to agencies now focuses on supporting collaborative initiatives to change the community for the better. The Greater Bangor Communities for Children received a grant from the Danforth Foundation to develop indicators to measure the outcomes of their community-building work. Baseline indicators are currently being created.

Contact Greater Bangor C4C