Grants available to nonprofits serving vulnerable communities

Nonprofit organizations that serve disadvantaged, underserved or vulnerable communities may be eligible for grants from the Maine Community Foundation’s Frances Hollis Brain Foundation Fund.

The fund awards grants to nonprofits that focus on early childhood care and education, extended-day learning, community clinics and oral-health initiatives, food security, people experiencing homelessness, and legal services. Organizations must serve communities in Auburn, Bath, Biddeford, Brunswick, Greater Portland, Lewiston, Saco and/or Sanford, or have a statewide mission in the fund’s focus areas.

This year, priority is given to organizations or projects that address challenges or needs in early childhood education, according to a news release from Taylor Mace, senior communications and marketing specialist at the foundation.

The application deadline is Saturday, April 1.

In 2022, the fund awarded 27 grants totaling $174,130.

The local 2022 grantees included:

• Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, Camden, to send four middle-school students from Lewiston-Auburn’s Boys and Girls Club to a summer Outward Bound course;

• Maine Family Planning, Augusta, to provide affordable and accessible sexual and reproductive health care to low-income patients;

• Maine Resilience Building Network, Manchester, for programming that promotes the healthy development of children;

• Tree Street Youth, Lewiston, to design an early-childhood program for preschool-aged children.

• Trinity Jubilee Center, Lewiston, to provide shelter, food and diapers and facilitate access to medical care, housing, and employment; and

• YWCA Central Maine, Lewiston, to provide preschool-aged children food services that are designed to build healthy relationships with food and prevent childhood obesity.

For all recent grants and for more information about the fund, visit mainecf.org.

For more information, contact Program Officer John Ochira at 207-412-0837 or jochira@mainecf.org.