Grant Recipients of the Maine Women's Funden-ushttp://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563180MapBuilder.Net2485880Thu, 13 May 2010 13:01:58 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Women Unlimited and the Challenge Learning Center of Maine (CLC) created opportunities for girls to meet Maine women who are successful and thriving in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The event featured successful women discussing their jobs, what first interested them in STEM, and how they got into their given fields. They offered their advice on how to succeed in STEM and provided opportunities for the participating girls to try out various activities related to each woman's occupation. 44.8011821 -68.777813844.8011821-68.77781382135799Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:52:34 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563CA$H Greater Portland, managed by United Way of Greater Portland, is a partnership of community leaders and industry experts encouraging individuals and families in Cumberland County to increase income, reduce debt, save for the future and achieve financial stability. This program serves refugee and immigrant women, helping them learn to navigate the banking system, as well as inform bank and credit union representatives about the needs of this diverse customer base. Through a $5,000 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, the program will also provide a 5-part financial literacy series for the target audience.43.61221676817573 -70.2465820312543.61221676817573-70.246582031252135798Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:50:27 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Caring Unlimited: It is the mission of Caring Unlimited to work with the community to end domestic violence in York County. This includes providing support and safe haven to women, their children and men whose lives are affected by domestic abuse in a manner that honors their essential worth, nurtures their inherent strengths and respects their right of self-determination. Through the Maine Women’s Fund grant of $4,500, Caring Unlimited will provide a savings match to battered women living in transitional housing. For women who stay the full 24 months, they will leave with up to $1,200 in savings which can be used to secure permanent housing, transportation, and other needs.44.89479576469787 -68.0932617187544.89479576469787-68.093261718752135791Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:38:59 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Cobscook Community Learning Center Passages Program serves out-of-school pregnant and parenting young women in Washington County through a home-based, self-paced high school diploma program. Each year, in Washington County, approximately 45 children are born to young women who range in age from twelve to eighteen. Offering these young women a way to complete high school, without compromising their ability to be parents at the same time, is a critical way to tap into the high motivation they experience during this period of their lives, bolstering their ability to enter post-secondary education, the workplace and adulthood in general. Based on the success of the program supported by a 2007/08 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, we will continue to invest $5,000 in this project in 2008/09. 44.801731 -67.12000344.801731-67.1200032135795Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:46:13 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Dress For Success Southern Me is a critical intervention, enabling women to get access to, and win, better jobs. Getting that job and retaining it is an important first step towards self-sufficiency and building a career. Dress for Success serves a critical market – 80% of their clients have an income of less than $12,000 a year. Most are young, single mothers who have not previously held full-time jobs. With our continued support of $5,000, Dress for Success will provide disadvantaged, low-income job-ready women with the attire and self-confidence they need to enter the workforce. While located and serving the needs of women in Southern Maine, the program also serves women from as far North as Belfast and as far West as Rumford.43.60426186809618 -70.08178710937543.60426186809618-70.0817871093752486352Thu, 13 May 2010 13:59:19 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Girls Investing in their Future Today (GIFT) is a comprehensive Girl Scout Program that teaches girls ages 9-11 the basics of financial literacy. The Maine Women's Fund offered a $5,000 grant that, beginning with a mother-daughter overnight, will provide girls in the GIFT program with the basic knowledge and skills that they need to budget, earn, save, spend, and invest. Involving mothers will foster open communications within families about money and economic security. Mothers often oversee household spending, but are also often under-educated when it comes to financial literacy; GIFT is as much a learning experience for them as it is for their daughters. It also ensures that lessons learned during the weekend will extend into an ongoing conversation at home. 44.795993 -68.763564144.795993-68.76356412135792Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:41:27 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Hardy Girls Healthy Women: Girls see more than 3,000 media images each day and the themes of those messages are that girls need to be thin and sexy, they need to use their bodies to attract boys and men, and they need to find someone to take care of them. These messages make it hard for girls to believe they can be independent, economically secure, and safe without being in a relationship with a man. Through direct service programming, education, and leadership development, Hardy Girls Healthy Women (HGHW) helps girls create positive environments and develop the skills they need to aspire to independent, secure futures. This second year grant of $10,000 will help HGHW expand statewide and nationally.44.5826428195842 -69.69726562544.5826428195842-69.6972656252135797Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:48:44 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project is Maine’s only provider of free and low-cost immigration information and legal assistance to low-income Maine residents. ILAP’s skilled legal assistance helps Maine’s immigrants keep their families together, gain protection from persecution and domestic violence, attain residency and work authorization, and become proud U.S. citizens. With a $3,000 grant from the Maine Women’s Fund, ILAP will provide the advocacy required to enable undocumented battered women in Aroostook, Washington, and Androscoggin counties to leave their domestic situations, attain immigrant status, get access to public housing and enter the workforce.43.5326204268101 -69.92797851562543.5326204268101-69.9279785156252135794Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:45:01 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Maine Equal Justice focuses on the issues that affect women’s daily lives – access to adequate health care, food assistance, income supports, housing issues, fair working conditions and higher education and training opportunities. With a $10,000 grant (year two) from the Maine Women’s Fund, Maine Equal Justice Partners will work to improve benefits and supports for families on TANF and those transitioning off the program so that they can achieve economic independence; improve access to health care for low-income families; and increase opportunities for lowwage women workers to attain education and training that will improve their employment options.44.315987905196906 -69.64233398437544.315987905196906-69.6423339843752135793Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:43:16 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Maine Women's Policy Center encourages women’s participation in public policy, amplifying both their voices and their power. With our support, the Maine Women’s Policy Center will champion economic security for women across Maine through increased flexibility at work, adequate paid time off, the end of unfair profiling practices, and equal pay. The grant amount of $15,000 represents the second year of the 2007-08 grant and the 2008-09 grant.44.33956524809713 -69.94995117187544.33956524809713-69.9499511718752485878Thu, 13 May 2010 12:45:39 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Coastal Studies School for Girls, the Freeport Public Library, Waynflete School, and a variety of Maine environmental and research organizations came together to offer an exciting and informative lecture series designed to inspire and inform high school girls about global environmental issues and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) opportunities in related fields. The series of six lectures over a four month period featured oceanographers, wild life biologists, nature photographers, a marine archeologist, and environmentalists. Participants learned about global issues and how they can make a difference in their daily lives and career choices. The series was open to the public, allowing for cross-generational dialogue, engagement, and involvement. 43.833706 -70.07936243.833706-70.0793622486294Thu, 13 May 2010 13:44:59 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563With the help of the Maine Women's Fund grant of $5,000, Penquis and WomenCare partnered up to bring together middle and high school girls from Greenville to increase their financial literacy and help them to aspire towards education and better futures 44.2118807 -69.273138344.2118807-69.27313832485877Thu, 13 May 2010 12:36:47 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Each year, Girls Unlimited (run by Hardy GIrls Healthy Women) creates a space for girls in grades 4 - 8 to expand their horizons by participating in activities and workshops designed to encourage them to think critically about the world around them. In the past, the conference has focused on ways that science and technology can be used to pursue fields of study and social action, and offered 120 girls the opportunity to participate in five different workshops rooted in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), including iMovie, Photoshop, online social networking, conservation, marine biology and captive wildlife care and education. Conference participants got hands-on experience using these technologies to engage in social action, develop coalitions among girls, and learn from college women who are persuing the sciences in their careers. 44.5520105 -69.631712144.5520105-69.63171212486300Thu, 13 May 2010 13:51:17 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563The Sexual Assault Services in Southern Maine creates stability in the lives of women who are homeless or economically marginalized so they can take steps toward economic independence. With the Maine Women's Fund grant of $5,000, this can be achieved by increasing opportunities for women to expand their options for achieving safety, assisting women in understanding the dynamics of sexual violence and how it affects their lives, and providing opportunities for women to pursue legal action, obtain medical care and/or access other support to heal from experiences of sexual violence. 43.668397 -70.280743.668397-70.28072485327Thu, 13 May 2010 12:06:57 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Hardy Girls Healthy Women and Community Health and Counseling Services host four sessions of Adventure Girls, a program for girls in grades 2 - 6 and run by "Adventure Women" with careers in STEM fields. A female fire chief will demonstrate the chemical reactions and combustibles of fire, a female detective will help girls discover forensic science and how facts are gathered and crimes are solved, girls will explore botany/science medicine and pharmaceutics at a local herb farm, and girls will tour a large tomato farm and explore farm ecology where they will learn the positive impact that agriculture has on the environment and communities. 45.5913402 -69.999921245.5913402-69.99992122485879Thu, 13 May 2010 12:54:32 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563This project was designed to dramatically improve the number of graduates who are better prepared to enter college, further the workforce, and contribute to our economy through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers. The project began with a group of students who met monthly to learn about STEM careers and college courses. This group attended a local Expand Your Horizon event at the University of Maine Orono, and oversaw a two day STEM College/Career hands-on event for students in grade 6 - 9 once they returned. This project reached out to girls from economically disadvantaged communities, where the majority of these girls have the opportunity to be first-generation college students. 44.8998981 -68.670407444.8998981-68.67040742486085Thu, 13 May 2010 13:26:41 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563The $20,000 grant from the Maine Women's Fund went to two projects by the Volunteers of America Northern New England that focus on serving incarcerated women. "Transforming A$$ets: Women in Transition to Financial Independence" is a project that addresses the high incidence of women released from prison having difficulty finding work that provides a liveable wage and economic security, and services from this project include employment training, job fairs, financialliteracy training, and asset building. "Women Building Futures"  teaches job skills to women returning to the community, enables women to learn non-traditional employment skills that will help them earn a liveable wage, and provides women with a valuable construction education and the ability to earn a nationally accredited certification. The project also assists the participants in job placement upon release. 43.918898 -69.96713943.918898-69.9671392486288Thu, 13 May 2010 13:39:45 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Negotiating salaries is a challenge for women at all stages of their careers, as women are less likely than men to ask for what they deserve. Recognizing that the greatest long-term benefits will be achieved by working with young women just entering the workforce, the Wage Project has developed $tart $mart Campus Workshops that train college-graduating women how to avoid the wage gap. Through the Maine Women's Fund grant of $5,000, the Wage Project's All Maine Women $tart $mart Initiative will work through Maine's public institutions (University of Maine, Community College system) to help young women gain skills and learn resources and information that will enable them to negotiate equitable salaries. 44.106771 -70.20423544.106771-70.2042352484323Thu, 13 May 2010 11:36:12 -0400http://www.mapbuilder.net/users/nimblefire/76563Women, Work, and Community in Presque Isle works towards improving the economic lives of Maine women and their families. They travel to families to provide them with support, guidance, and the tools they need for a more promising future. Based on the success of the last grant, The Maine Women's Fund has provided a $10,000 for the 08/09 year to the Kennebec Corridor Creative Enterprise Project, which targets the needs of low-to-moderate income women artisans and emerging enterpreneurs in communities along the Kennebec Corridor that includes the towns of Augusta, Waterville, Skowhegan, Gardiner, Richmond, and Bath. In addition, The Maine Women's Fund has also provided a $10,000 grant for the Crown of Maine Creative Enterprise Project, which provides small businesses with networking and skill-building opportunities for the women entrepreneurs that lead them in Aroostook County. 46.681153 -68.015861546.681153-68.0158615