Since its start as a small social work agency in Portland, Maine, Preble Street has been guided by its commitment to mission and empowering vulnerable Mainers. Earlier this year, this commitment led Preble Street to assume operations of Hope House, a 56-bed emergency low-barrier shelter in Bangor, after Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) announced the shelter would close unless another provider could step in.
Preble Street Hope House becomes the first 24/7 Preble Street program outside of Portland, but it is not the first program to serve Bangor and the residents of Northern Maine. Preble Street Hope House joins Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Services and Preble Street Veterans Housing Services in providing critical services and care to vulnerable individuals and families in the Bangor area.
Preble Street's impact in Bangor
Anti-Trafficking Services
Since 2013, Preble Street Anti-Trafficking Services and its partners have provided services to people of all ages and genders who have been forced into human trafficking — people who have been forced to perform a variety of work — including commercial sex work, domestic services, agricultural and restaurant work — through sexual, physical, and/or psychological violence. All here in Maine.
In just the last two years, ATS has expanded outreach and survivor support services to all 16 counties in Maine. This includes Penobscot County and the City of Bangor. In a 6-month period, the ATS Outreach team collectively traveled 40,000 miles to outreach and support survivors of human trafficking across Maine.
Veteran Housing Services
Preble Street Veterans Housing Services (VHS) assists Veterans and their families in finding and maintaining stable housing and works to end homelessness among Veterans throughout Maine. In addition to Portland, VHS has dedicated offices in both Bangor and Lewiston and helps Veterans in all 16 Maine counties.
In the last grant year, VHS served 184 Veteran households in the Bangor area. A household can be an individual or a Veteran family, and VHS assists these households with direct services, like case management, budget counseling, referrals to employment specialists, housing placement, and even financial support. VHS helped 92 of these individual and family households to find stable housing, ensuring these Veterans and their families have a place to call home.
Preble Street Hope House
Preble Street Hope House is one of only five privately operated adult low-barrier shelters in Maine and the only low-barrier shelter north of Waterville. Low-barrier shelters do not require background checks, credit checks, income verification, previous program participation, sobriety, or ID for access to services. Low-barrier shelters provide services to people experiencing mental or behavioral health challenges and/or substance use disorders – they are often the first place that people can go to begin the process of recovering from homelessness.
Professionally run low-barrier shelters are more than just a roof over people’s heads. Staff are trained in trauma-informed care and harm reduction and provide life-changing services, like housing navigation, case management, healthy and nutritious meals, and more. Shelters also divert people from expensive services, like hospital emergency rooms, jails, police, emergency response systems, and the child welfare system, saving communities money.
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Social work is at the heart of the MaineHealth-Preble Street Learning Collaborative
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Supporting survivors of trafficking
“One of the biggest misconceptions, specifically here in Maine, is the mentality that it doesn’t happen here. It absolutely happens here, and that is why our program is in existence.” Hailey Virusso, Preble Street Director of Anti-Trafficking Services There’s no one face of human trafficking… a survivor can be someone who got pesticide poisoning, forced
