Client Assistance Fund: A hand up

Homelessness and poverty disproportionately affect BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. In Maine, Black and African American individuals are ten times more likely to experience homelessness than their White peers. To help counteract these negative effects of white supremacist systems, a generous donor contributed $150,000 for a Client Assistance Fund (CAF) to address … Read more

Advocating for Solutions

Advocacy is a key component of social work. Social workers advocate for clients every day as they help them access healthcare, housing, and social services. While this approach is necessary, valuable, and positively impacts individuals, it does not address the systemic issues that lead to hunger, homelessness, and poverty. To truly address these problems, we … Read more

CURRENT ACTION: Tell legislators to support LD 1626 and tribal sovereignty!

(Image from Wabanaki Alliance) Oppressive state and federal regulation of Native tribes, as well as a lack of sovereignty for those tribes, has resulted in worse health and economic outcomes for Indigenous communities in Maine. Exercising control over Indigenous people and land while simultaneously not investing in equitable resources for those communities is the sordid … Read more

Stop discrimination based on homelessness!

People experiencing homelessness describe experiencing discrimination from landlords, employers, and in their daily routines. LD 1871 helps them document those discriminatory acts with the Maine Human Rights Commission to formally lodge discrimination complaints. This bill extends the original Dignity Pilot, a program to document discrimination against people who are unhoused, by two years. The hearing … Read more