April 2017 News

Table of Contents

A Message from the Executive Director

Hello and Happy Spring!

I am excited to have been chosen to lead the next chapter in the Maine Women's Fund story - an organization I have admired for many years. It is an honor to be able to work with the Board and all of you to improve the lives of women and girls in Maine. I also look forward to the opportunity to work with many of my friends from my previous "lives" in women's health, public policy, philanthropy, and my time living in Presque Isle, Wiscasset, Portland and Bath.

My first few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity: site visits to the current grantees, reading applications for the awards we'll announce later this spring, and meeting with members of the Fund's community. It's also been amazing to read the short and powerful Swift Social Justice Grant proposals; the first funded is highlighted below. This additional grant opportunity is already providing us with new friends, new learning, and many new opportunities to respond quickly to the needs of Maine women and girls most impacted by these uncertain and ever changing times.

Please feel free to reach out to introduce yourself and your organization during our Open Houses at the office in Falmouth and around the state (keep an eye on our Facebook page, twitter feed and see the PS below FMI). I'm thrilled about the direction in which the Fund is headed, and look forward to talking with you about it. Our grant making is strong and growing and we are actively assessing areas in which we can provide leverage, an amplifying voice, and additional leadership.

I look forward to working with you all to support and create the social change we need to improve the lives of women and girls here in Maine.

Megan Hannan

Executive Director

PS - Speaking of Open Houses, please join us!

Tuesday, April 25th from 1-3 pm at the Maine Health Access Foundation's conference room, 150 Capitol Street, Suite 4, Augusta
Friday, May 5th from 3:30 - 4:30 pm at the Cary Library conference room, 107 Main Street, Houlton

Spotlight on Impact

The Maine Women's Fund is thrilled to announce our first Swift Social Justice Grant!

The grant will support The YWCA of Central Maine's Stand Against Racism, an annual day of education, action, and dialogue around local and national issues of racial justice. This year's theme is Women of Color Leading Change which is beautifully reflected in the agenda for the Stand Against Racism on Sunday, April 30 from 12 noon to 4 pm at the YWCA of Central Maine in Lewiston.

We look forward to ongoing learning from the many amazing women of color, female identified persons in the LGBTQIA community, New Mainer women and women of Muslim and Jewish faiths leading change in Maine about the work their communities are prioritizing at this moment in time, and how the Maine Women's Fund can provide needed support for that work.

If you are a woman of color, or a woman from other communities at risk in the current political and cultural climate, leading work with other women, girls and female identified people, and want to talk more about the Swift Social Justice Grants Program please contact Kimberly Crichton at 774-5513 x206 or Kimberly@mainewomensfund.org.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Interested in attending this FREE event? This is what you can look forward to!

Keynote Address:

Hamdia Ahmed, Activist

Ahmed is a lifelong activist and has worked on behalf of the Adopt A Future program by the United Nations Association of the United States of America and the U.N. Refugee Agency, which works to provide resources to educate children in refugee camps. She is currently a student at the University of Southern Maine.

Presentation of the Women of Color Leadership Mural & Artist Performance:

The Lewiston High School 21st Century Leaders

Stand Against Racism will also feature the unveiling of a newly created mural by the Lewiston High School 21st Century Leaders in the YWCA gym! Student leaders will offer presentation and performance on their work creating a large-scale mural on the theme of Women of Color and Leadership. The presentation will discuss their work researching contemporary and historic women of color leaders and activists, the artistic process, and what leadership means to them.

Workshop Session I from 2 pm - 3 pm:

The Connections Between Us: Women of Color Solidarity Workshop (WOC only)

Samaa Abdurraqib, For Us, By Us & Magnifique Butoto, Maine People's Alliance

In this workshop, the facilitators will lead participants through exercises that ask them to think about the issues that divide us as women of color and how these issues impact us on a personal level and in our relationships with each other. The group will also work through exercises that emphasize group affirmations as well self-love and love for our communities.

Justice & The New Jim Crow

Lewiston High School Civil Rights Team

Do you know your biases? Students from the Lewiston High School Civil Rights Team will lead a discussion around implicit and explicit biases and how bias connects to larger systematic injustices in the correctional system and the crisis of mass incarceration.

White Folks' Role in Anti-Racism

Central Maine Showing Up for Racial Justice

Central Maine Showing Up for Racial Justice organizes white Mainers in and around the Lewiston-Auburn area for racial justice, community organizing, mobilizing, and education. Workshop details to be announced!

Workshop Session II from 3 - 4 pm:

Organizing Against Racism

Victoria Rodriguez. Community Organizer, Maine Women's Lobby

This workshop will be an opportunity for participants to learn organizing and advocacy tactics to fight racism and highlight how the issues that Maine Women's Lobby works on disproportionately impact women and girls of color.

Unpack, Rewire, and Learn

Margaret Brownlee. Academic Advisor & Community Inclusion Facilitator, University of Southern Maine

This breakout session will help participants understand how social priming leads to implicit bias, prejudice, and hate. We will unpack the overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and discover how our positions of power and privilege effect our daily lives. By the end of the session, we will explore the five approaches of social justice activism and learn how to act today!

Intersections of Racial and Healthcare Justice

Southern Maine Workers Center

Southern Maine Worker's Center is an economic justice oriented nonprofit that's rooted in human rights principles. In our workshop we'll explore how our racial justice commitments help to fuel our grassroots campaign for universal healthcare and the unjust ways in which people of color and immigrants are impacted by our current healthcare system. Through this, we'll also examine the intersectional approach we use to help build power across class, race, and other forms of difference.

This entire event is FREE! All are welcome. Childcare will be provided. No tickets needed.

We hope to see you there!

On behalf of the staff and board of the Maine Women's Fund, thank you for reading and for all you do to support Maine women and girls.

Office location:

74 Lunt Road, Suite 100, Falmouth, ME 04105

The Maine Women's Fund thanks MaineShare for its ongoing support. MaineShare makes it easy to donate to more than 30 statewide organizations working every day to make Maine a better place to live. For more information, please visit the website.