 Hello, I'm Leslie McVane from Member Highlights at Community Television Network and I'm here today for the 10th anniversary of the main Association of Nonprofits Day at the Capitol in in Augusta. As you can see from the statistics here, one in seven main workers works for a nonprofit and we're going to take a little time now and talk to some of those people. Well I'm with Brenda Paluso. Hi Brenda. Hi Leslie, nice to see you. You're the Director of Public Policy for the Main Association of Nonprofits. That's correct. I said that right. You did. And this is a big anniversary. Ten years you've been doing that. Yeah, it's great. We have been doing this for ten years and every year we tweak it a little bit. This year we added an educational day which happened on Tuesday which is fabulous event. We had a panel of former legislators. We did a tour of the state house and we had remarks by the Senate President Justin Alfond and Speaker of the House Mark Eves and it was really well received. A bunch of nonprofit leaders participated in that day and then we've created a social media campaign. We're we're giving it a try when we we're trying to get nonprofit employees, nonprofit supporters, nonprofit volunteers to show their support for the nonprofit sector. By sporting these badges they're very colorful on their Facebook pages or saying like I'm one of the one in seven mayors that works for a nonprofit or I'm one of the 350,000 volunteers that volunteers every year for a main nonprofit. Well and organizations can post a badge that says we're a big part of Maine's small business community because 75% of nonprofits are very very small and they contribute a huge portion to this gross state product. We're here today to just show our support to the legislators and let them know that we're partners, nonprofit and government work together to serve Maine and we all have the same goals. We want to make Maine the best place possible to live and work, raise a family. I'm now with the company of girls Devin Dukes. Hi Devin. Hi Leslie, so nice to see you. Nice to see you and Scott Miller the board president. Yes good to see you. Good to see you as well. Now what what about coming here today is important for you? I think the most important thing about us coming here today is that we have been around for about 17 years and we've been growing and morphing and we're just so excited to tell everybody about all the new initiatives that we're doing and the fact that we are out there and we're vibrant and we just want them to come join us. And how long have you been on the board Scott? I've been just about six years now and started when ACOG became an independent entity and felt very privileged to be invited at that point and spent most of those years learning about ACOG and about nonprofits and feel that I'm now able to contribute something as well. And what about it really intrigued you? Well my daughter was involved for four years and I think I caught what might be called the ACOG fever. I want to see the girls and how much they learn how much they develop how much they grow and all while having a great time. It's just amazing. It really does give them a great sense of self-worth. It really does. I was telling some folks about a program we have called Family Traditions and the girls bring in recipes from their families that they've been making for years that are important to them and not only does it bridge cultural gaps because we serve girls from different cultures and different economic strata but also it teaches them leadership skills. The girls are the kitchen leader for the day and they come in that day and they're terrified and they probably wish they'd called in sick because they're like I can't lead the group and in a short two hours they're like you do that and you do that and I'm comfortable being the leader. So just that quick change shows us that you can make such a difference in such a small amount of time. And for women for young girls knowing you know that they can go and be as as accomplished and leaders in the in the world. It's okay to have a voice which you know some of us when we were growing up were told to be quiet just sit there and smile and these girls are not taught that I love it. Now we're with the we're with the community school. Hi. Hi. And you're Joseph. Yes. Huffnagle. Huffnagle sorry. And tell me what you do at the community school. I direct the residential programs so we have a residential program in Camden as well as New Gloucester at the Opportunity Farm Campus. And Margo Fowler at your your role at Community School. I'm the Residential Director of the Opportunity Farms Campus in New Gloucester. So tell me what being here means to you today. It's just wonderful to be part of an association of like-minded people working towards similar missions and providing services for people in need around the state of Maine. In particular we represent young people, students who are looking for opportunities to move forward with their education in an alternative way. So it's just great to be part of all these organizations and to be supportive of one another. Margo. To me it's just an opportunity to show them off because they're the school and these are all students that were thinking about dropping out and not being in school anymore and not graduating and they're all here and they all have goals and we're all so proud of them and they change my life every day so that's why I love it. And it's so important. Have you had many legislators come and visit the school? We've supported the support that we received from legislators, local community members, different educational institutions, has been overwhelming on both sides, both in the mid-coast as well as southern Maine. Our students work well in the community at career exploration placements and so the community piece of the community school is very real in terms of reaching out. But yes, the support we receive is pretty special. And I just have to say too, we're two programs. There's a passages program that's a teen parent program that is throughout the state and that's a home-based program where the teachers go into the homes of the students and they represent eight different counties around the state and they actually have presence also in Washington County. So and we work as one school, one mission. Well, I'm going to go talk to them right now. Hi, what's your name? Leah Lambert. Leah, how did you find the community school? Joseph and the founder, or not founder, but like one of the board directors of the school, Dotty, came to my school at Lewiston and I was in like, it was in like the guidance office and I wasn't that interested at first because like I didn't want to move away from my friends and stuff. But then like, I looked more into it and it, I don't know, it just like, sound really interesting and like I wanted to get my high school diploma and stuff because I wasn't going to, if I would have stayed on the track I would have been on, so. What's your name? Gilbert Brown. Hi, Gilbert. Where do you come from? Portland, Maine. Yeah. And why did you choose the community school? Well, because I was skipping school and not getting good grades and I would have ended up being on my fifth year of high school with probably summer school and another year I did onto that and would have probably not ended up graduating and I wanted to join the military and you can't do that with a GED unless you have 16 college credits. So, this was the most effective route to that goal. And how are you doing? I'm doing pretty good at it, I feel. Hi, what's your name? My name is Dylan Pellchat. And where are you from? I'm from Lewiston. So, what brought you to the community school? I messed around a lot in school. I was always skipping school to go and bike at the skate park and hang out with friends and I only had like 14 credits my senior year. So, this is my fifth year of high school. So, I decided to come here. I got led onto it by a woman at the Lewiston High School named Mary Seaman. She's a really nice lady that told me about it and I wasn't really too interested like Leah. We're from the same school and I just decided that I'll go through with it because it's probably pretty much my last chance and I've loved it ever since. Hi, what's your dust dust dust? Yep, dust and pride. Where are you from dust? I'm from Bremen, Maine. And what brought you to the community school? I don't know, I just think it was a good spot to go because where I was I always worked a lot in skip school and this was a good place for me to be able to work and do school at the same time and I can't really skip school because I live at the school. So, I think it's a good place. I recommend it. Hi, what's your name? Lindsay. Hi Lindsay, where are you from? Bangor. Came a long way down here. What, what, how did you hear about it? From my case worker that I had and at first I was hesitant about it but after I got here I like it a lot and it's helped me a lot and I'll be graduating going to college so I'm excited about that. And what's your name? Clay. Clay, I like it. You're wearing kind of a clay colored shirt. Where are you from, Clay? I'm from Gardner and I don't know. Now I'm at the school. I found out about it from my cousin who used to go there. She graduated. I actually went through her graduation and yeah, I was pretty excited because it's a nine month program so it didn't really matter on your previous credits and I don't think I was doing that hot on credits at my high school so it was a good opportunity to bust it out and graduate on time. And what do you hope to do after this? Hopefully something in like engineering or I don't know, something along those lines. I'm not, not quite positive on it. We all have passages projects and for that I'm doing something involving solar panels. Solar panel company actually just gave me a free solar panel which was kind of cool so. Hi, what's your name? We didn't want to forget you over here. Hi Mandy, where are you from? I'm from Buckfield. Yeah. And what brought you to the community? I wasn't really going to school. I basically dropped out because I was just so sick of dealing with like teachers at public school. I wasn't getting good grades. Then I met with my case manager and she offered the community school to me and I applied in July and I got accepted. And it's quite a hard process to go through. It's really hard being away from home. I really miss home a lot. That's one of the hardest parts of being at the community school is just being away from home all the time. Do you have a big family at home? Yeah, I do. Well, this is your new big family, right? Yeah. Well, we've just finished talking with some of the students living at the community school and I'm going to speak with a student right now who's in the passages program which takes place in your own home. Yes. What's your name? Kayla. Hey Kayla. So tell me about what this is meant to you and your life. The passages program has helped me tremendously. I got pregnant my junior year in high school and it just wasn't working out and so my counselor recommended passages and it's it's been a blessing honestly ever since. I had my daughter in June and I've been it for five months now and I'm getting ready to graduate this June. So I'm really excited. Well, it's you know, it's it's it's enough of a a weight on you to to be pregnant and to think about bringing a child in the world without having to worry about having to you know, get your education too. And it's definitely a pus. That was definitely something that I wanted to do was get my diploma and put a better example for my daughter because I mean, she needs a good example. Well, I'm here now with Representative Ben Chipman from the Bayside area in Portland. Is that correct? Parkside, Bayside and East Bayside neighborhoods. Well, thank you for stopping by to talk with us for a minute. Here it is non-profit day in the rotunda here and what does that mean to you when you when you look at all these non-profits and and the needs? Well, it's it's great to see so many different non-profits from all around the state here to talk about the services they provide and the communities that they work in. Quite a different range of services provided, which is nice. And in terms of the need, I think that you know, unfortunately is state budget cuts that have been going on, you know, over the last few years, but quite a bit more recently have been made that's caused more of a push in these communities on to the non-profits to kind of have to pick up where government services are leaving off, unfortunately. And so I'm glad there's so many non-profits that are able to kind of help out in that regard, but it's kind of unfortunate that because of so many cuts that it's put more demand more and more demand on the non-profits to do more and more than they've ever had to do before. Well, the legislators have just come out of session and are beginning to gather behind me here in the Capitol to see who's here from the non-profit world in Maine. Hopefully they will learn something about what our non-profits in Maine are doing to help the people of Maine and will join forces in some way to make it an even better state. This is Leslie McVane from Member Highlights Community Television Network.