A resource for organizations building strong communities
"We strive to help individuals and families in Maine meet their basic, material needs by providing donated clothing, hygiene products, household items, and other necessities. We focus our work on those starting life over from scratch: domestic abuse survivors, asylum seekers and those facing financial hardships. We partner with schools, caseworkers, teachers, nurses and professional care providers to provide these material resources."
"MaineTransNet is a community based organization led by transgender people for transgender people. We provide peer-to-peer support groups, social and community events, advocacy for the transgender community across Maine, and transgender cultural competency training for medical, mental health, and social service providers. We engage transgender people and our allies across Maine in the practice of community building and organizing for mutual liberation. Our work is rooted in a deep desire to care for one another, which leads us to focus our efforts on building systems of mutual support on a bedrock of accessibility, inclusivity, and hospitality. We view structures of power and oppression as interlocking, and believe in finding our leadership from among those people who experience this as a reality in their daily lives."
Your Guide to Black Owned Businesses in Maine
"What is BOM?
Black Owned Maine launched on June 1st, 2020. Our directory was created to fill a void within the commerce industry of Maine. Before BOM there was not a single, concise directory of Black-owned businesses in Maine. National directories listed one or two businesses, but most left Maine out completely. We sought to challenge this truth and create an immediate solution.
We offer micro-grants to families and businesses and we host a podcast titled ‘Black Owned Maine Podcast.’ In the future we plan to open a business center and develop a Black business owner coalition."
"The mission of Good Shepherd Food Bank is to eliminate hunger in Maine by improving access to nutritious food for people in need, building strong community partnerships, and mobilizing the public in the fight to end hunger."
"The mission of Preble Street is to provide accessible barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger, and poverty, and to advocate for solutions to these problems."
"Our mission is to build global connections by bringing together Black and Brown artists from diverse backgrounds to engage in their creative process with an opportunity to serve as both mentors and mentees. An integral aspect of the Indigo vision is to provide Maine based artists of African descent access to a broader range of practicing artists of color from around the world."
Maine Inside Out is a community of artists and visionaries with lived experience of incarceration and structural racism and their allies. We build, practice and share models for community change to build a world where everyone matters and belongs.
"The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center serves as a hub of collaboration that strengthens the immigrant community through language acquisition, economic integration and civic engagement."
"The league is a powerful, grassroots organization that works to educate voters and make government more accountable to the people."
"We are a team of Maine music professionals and performers working to increase the awareness around the extraordinary live music venues of Portland and the tremendous impact their presence have in our local economy.
We aspire to aid in keeping our venues sustainable, our musicians creating and our communities connected. We desire to gain recognition for the essential role our venues have played and continue to play in helping define the culture as it exists in Portland today. Allied venues collectively provide hundreds of jobs, millions of dollars in revenues, charitable donations and taxes."
381 Movement
“Bring awareness and solution to social injustice within the criminal justice, economic, and educational system”
381 movement promotes change and equality for the people. The world has been built upon laws and foundations to repeatedly suppress minority and the non-whites. The elected officials/leaders in power have overlooked these reoccurring crucial issues for too long. For centuries, protests and rallies were a way for people to express their sufferings, and emotions on topics they felt were unsettling. By joining the movement, you are committing to bringing solutions to the world. The problem has been the only conversation for too long. Its time to take action!
MADRVA
www.richmondmutualaid.wixsite.com/resources
We are a solidarity network of community members and organizations working together in Richmond, Virginia to help each other.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Richmond, or MAD RVA, aims to create a support system in response to COVID-19 and the effects it has had on Richmonders, including supply shortage, job losses and quarantine. We operate collectively and are primarily functioning as a supply delivery for folks who cannot access medicine, food and other vital goods. We have also just launched a mini-grants program and are developing other supports, forming partnerships across community and demanding policy shifts towards equity and social justice while navigating the undetermined timeline of effects on our community.
With more than 700 health centers, AbortionFinder.org features the most comprehensive directory of trusted (and verified) abortion service providers in the United States.
Repro Legal Helpline
We believe everyone should be able to access abortion care if they want or need it. Our attorneys and advocates provide legal information and support to people navigating complex laws in order to self-determine their reproductive lives.
The National Network of Abortion Funds builds power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice.
Plan C was founded by public health researchers, social justice activists and digital strategists. We started with the belief that abortion pills belong in the hands of people who need them, and that this kind of care is a basic human right.
Our goal is to provide a simple, up-to-date, and localized source of information for people seeking abortions.
Vision:
The Last Prisoner Project was formed by a coalition of cannabis industry leaders, executives, and artists dedicated to bringing restorative justice to the cannabis industry. LPP was founded out of the belief that if anyone is able to profit and build wealth in the legal cannabis industry, those individuals must also work to release and rebuild the lives of those who have suffered from cannabis criminalization.
NIVA's mission is to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent venues and promoters through out the United States.
These entertainment hubs are critical to their local economies and tax bases as employers, tourism destinations, and revenue generators for neighboring businesses such as restaurants, hotels, and retail. Independent venues exist in every state across the country; they were the first to be closed, they will be the last to open. The economic recovery process will extend past just reopening the front doors, requiring solutions unique to the industry.
Artist Relief is an initiative organized by the Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists—all small to mid-sized national arts grantmakers—that have come together in this unprecedented moment guided by the understanding that the wellbeing of artists has financial, professional, social, and mental dimensions, and should be fostered with a holistic framework of support.