In the midst of our 18th year of providing services and meals to more than 500 phenomenal youth, we were on the hunt for some serious, BIG funding. Funding to finish the renovation of the building; most notably, the siding and insulation project, the downstairs water leakage issues, and overall energy efficiency initiatives for our 150-year-old building, as well programming funding for our Youth Leadership Academy – a comprehensive positive youth development program created to increase Developmental Assets, build strengths, attitudes, and skills to reduce risky behaviors among My Place Teen Center youth. Many grants were written, many were rejected, some awarded, and thus we are very pleased to announce the following extraordinary gifts:
IDEXX – $30,000
Cumberland County Community Development Block Grant – $113,357
Cornelia Warren Community Association – $135,000
Grants to Green Maine – $30,000
Department of Health and Human Services – $129,393
Narragansett Number One Foundation – $10,000
Peoples United Community Foundation – $2,500
Bank of America – $2,500
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care – $1,000
Westbrook-Gorham and Falmouth Rotaries – $7,500
As a nonprofit, the struggle is real to get adequate funding through our red doors. We are most grateful for those entities and individuals who caretake in our mission and help keep kids safe, loved, fed, cared for, and cared about.
Incredibly, after five years of renovation and paying off our 40 year mortgage, we are only $50,000 shy of completing the building. Stay tuned.
And, it has to be said, that long-term, much appreciative thanks go to the City Of Westbrook and the United Way of Greater Portland for their incredibly stable support and belief in our work.
PS: TD Beach to Beacon – Here We Come! 
