helping people
fall 2012
Achieving
Success!
Volunteer, Peer, and
Neighbor-to-Neighbor
Support
opportunityalliance.org
Athena Everitt, 5, Mohammed Mahad, 6, Logan Burns, 3, and Ellie Bowley, 4 add their brushwork to a mural celebrating Parkside. The mural is a project of The Opportunity Alliance’s
SPIRAL Arts program. We’d like to thank Diane Hudson, freelance photographer and writer,
for contributing this beautiful photo.
Parkside Neighborhood Center
The Hub for Neighbor to Neighbor Connection in Parkside
The Parkside Neighborhood Center works to strengthen individuals and families living in
the Parkside neighborhood of Portland by offering educational and cultural opportunities
to connect neighbors and promote social and physical well-being. This summer, the Center
hosted its annual block party. The event is a celebration of families, diversity and unity in
the Parkside neighborhood and included face painting, children’s games, information tables,
food, good company, good cheer, and a chance for neighbors to get acquainted.
For more information on the Parkside Neighborhood Center, visit our website: www.opportunityalliance.org/
Learn how you can help through the Parkside Neighborhood Giveaway
Days, page 3.
This issue of our newsletter
highlights the many ways that
The Opportunity Alliance
encourages people to reach
out and help other people in
their neighborhoods and in the
larger community. We place
a particularly high value on
services that empower families and individuals to connect
with community supports. We
are a leader in peer-to-peer
and parent-to-parent partnering supports and services.
We have fostered many collaborative partnerships with
groups and individuals like
you who have become valuable
resources for the families and
individuals who come to us for
help. Together, we help to create supportive programming
for nearly 20,000 people in our
community each year.
Recovery Benefits Everyone
A Rally in Monument Square Kicks-off National Recovery Month
The Opportunity Alliance
Community News and Notes
published by:
The Office of Development
& Communications
The Opportunity Alliance
50 Monument Square
Portland, ME 04101
For more information or
address correction call (207) 874-1175
or visit:
www.opportunityalliance.org
The Opportunity Alliance
Board of Directors
Kristen Farnham, Chair
Thomas W. Saturley Vice Chair
Dan Hunter, Treasurer
Marc Doyan, Secretar y
Carol Billington
Crispin Bolese
Anita Chandler
Anne Dinsmore
Sheila Dobson
Ann Donaghy
Dawn Gay
Jane Harmon
Peter Harrison
Chris Jerome
Angus King III
Deanna Nor ton
Barbara T. Schneider
Greg Shinberg
Tom Smith
Tim Soley
Gerr y Vicenzi
2
The Portland recovery community
kicked off National Recovery Month
on September 6th with a rally at
Monument Square. The event was
led by local and state agencies and
organizations (including The Opportunity Alliance) in an effort to
bring attention to National Recovery
Month, which is held in September
of each year to promote awareness
of paths to recovery from substance
abuse and mental illness. Speakers
at the event included Kevin Mannix, weather announcer for WCSH
TV Channel 6 (pictured above with
members of our staff from left: Kane
Loukas, Vice President for Children’s
Mental Health Services; Elizabeth
Szatkowski, Director of Community
Support Services; Constance Jordan,
Medical Director; and Steve Addario,
Director of Crisis Services). The Portland event was held in conjunction
with other events planned to occur at
the same time across the nation.
The Opportunity Alliance has
provided crisis response services
to residents of Cumberland County
since 1970, ensuring that someone
is always there to assist children,
adolescents, and adults whenever it
is needed. Our crisis services offer
immediate access to crisis intervention, suicide prevention/intervention, crisis/supportive counseling, and problem solving. Our
services include Mobile Outreach,
Peer & Family Navigators, and a
Mental Health Police Liaison who
works with the Portland police.
Peer and Family Navigators
are men and women, currently in
recovery, who have benefitted from
mental health and/or substance
abuse services. They help people in
recovery develop and stay engaged
in their recovery process.
If you or someone you know
needs help with a crisis,
call 774-HELP/4357.
The Opportunity Alliance Community News & Notes
fall 2012
How You Can Help!
Diaper Drives to Benefit
The Opportunity Alliance
Individuals, families and businesses can “adopt” families
or individual children in need for the holidays. We will
provideyouwithaspecificwishlistandyoudothe
shopping, or you can make a donation and we will do the
shopping for you! Contact Katie Paye for details: katie.
[email protected].
The Opportunity Alliance recently hosted a series of
informational open houses at our Family Center in South
Portland for families interested in becoming foster parents
in one of our therapeutic foster care programs. The evenings
featured dinner and informal conversations with staff and
current resource parents about our two foster care programs:
Treatment Foster Care is for children and youth
removed from their homes by the Department of Health
and Human Services because of abuse or neglect. Given
their experiences, many of these children need additional
supervision, stability and care, often at a moment’s notice.
Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC),
is a short term (6-9 months) program, providing case
management, counseling and skills training to teach troubled
youth and teens with co-occurring mental illness and substance
abuse issues how to behave within families, at school and in
society at large.
Both programs offer generous stipends, ample support
from a professional staff, and training. If you, or someone you
know, might be interested in this exciting opportunity to turn
a youngster’s life around, contact Sarah MacLaughlin at: sarah.
[email protected].
Giveaway Days at
The Parkside Neighborhood Center
Local Businesses Provide Opportunities
for Youth
The Parkside Neighborhood Center offers quarterly
Giveaway Days to Greater Portland residents in need,
providing clothing, books, and other household items.
Our next Giveaway Day is scheduled for Saturday,
November 3rd from 10 am to 1 pm at Sacred Heart
Church/St. Dominic’s Parish on the corner of Sherman
and Mellen streets in Portland. Donors can drop off
donations of cold-weather clothing for all ages, toys,
books, and baby and household items at Sacred Heart on
Friday, November 2nd from 9-11 am and 4-6 pm. We’re
also looking for volunteers during both days, particularly
from 12-2 pm on Saturday. For more information,
please contact Rachel Horton White: rachel.white@
opportunityalliance.org
The Center for Career Exploration
We’ve put together a packet that will help you to host
your own Diaper Drive - a fun and easy way for any
company, club, school, community organization or
place of worship to help their neighbors. The packet
contains ideas, contact information and all the details
needed to run a Diaper Drive. Diapers donated through
your efforts will be given to our clients and we hope
these drives will help meet this very large need in our
community.
Ifyou’relookingforafulfillingcommunityservice
project, contact Erin Gonzalez, erin.gonzalez@
opportunityalliance.org, for details and a packet.
Be a Part of the Holiday Gift Drive
3
Foster Care
at The Opportunity Alliance
The Center for Career Exploration opened for business with
an ambitious and productive start in South Portland thanks
to a grant from the Great Bay Foundation. The Center allows
at-risk youth to explore career possibilities by exposing them to
a range of options through partnerships with local businesses.
Currently, The Center partners with 22 businesses in South
Portland, including Hannaford’s, Best Buy, and Wright Express.
These businesses provide a variety of opportunities including
part-time jobs, job-shadowing, career mapping, interviewing
skills training, and job readiness training. Plans are underway
to expand The Center to neighborhoods in Westbrook and Portland. For more information, contact Robert Franciose at: robert.
[email protected]
The Opportunity Alliance Community News & Notes
fall 2012
Celebrating Our Seniors
Senior Companions and Foster Grandparents
Contribute Thousands of Hours of Volunteer Service
The Opportunity Alliance honored 153 Foster Grandparents with a luncheon
at the Marriott at Sable Oaks. Our Foster Grandparents volunteer in York,
Cumberland and Oxford counties. Through more than 108,000 hours of
volunteer service, Foster Grandparents work in schools, child development
centers and the homes of families with special needs children to nurture and
support school readiness in preschool and K-12 education activities.
At the luncheon, special guest speaker Bill Nemitz, Portland Press Herald
columnist,reflectedonthelastingimpacthisgrandfatherhadonhislife.He
encouragedFosterGrandparentstorealizetheysimilarlyinfluencechildren
inwaysthatgofarbeyondtheclassroom.Whileenjoyingthebenefitsof
modern technology, Bill reminded everyone that there is no electronic “app”
that could take the place of what volunteers do as Foster Grandparents.
Special recognition was paid to 10 year volunteers Ida Haines, Elsie
Haskell, and Fran Seeley; 16 year volunteer Maxine Hartford; 17 year volunteers Margaret Bailey and Grace Knight (pictured at left with Quinn Lavigne
of Portland High School); 18 year volunteer Betty Emmons; and Polly Carmichael and Joanne Curtis each serving 19 years.
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage Paid
Permit No. 662
Portland, ME
50 Monument Square
Portland, ME 04101
Please visit us online at:
www.opportunityalliance.org - Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter.