Our Services
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Community Summer Camp 2025
“Superpowers: Heroes, Identity, Community, and Earth’s Patterns”
Beginning June 23, we engaged 59 youth (13 Mentors, 6 MITs, 40 youth) 6 off of our wait list, in our fourth annual Community Summer Camp for four weeks of free summer camp!
Using anchor texts from I’m Your Neighbor Books, Thank You Omu, and New Kid, we explored the different “superpowers” members of our community have, including our own. We are excited to have our new space which allowed youth to have more options in how they engaged in learning including podcasting, game-making, art/mask making, quilting, cooking, and more!
Each day included van transport, breakfast, a STEAM deep dive and hands-on activity, science and art rotations, a Community Circle, lunch, and a field trip.
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Family Advocacy Services
Sessions by appointment for enrolled families.
We offer individualized sessions for caregivers of which focus on addressing the immediate needs of the family with the goal of providing 200 hours a year. A session may focus on applying for post-secondary degrees, applying for federal financial aid, filling out forms in English, or assisting with phone calls in English. Connections to basic need support such as clothing and food is also available.
In 2024-2025, we worked diligently to build value-added partnerships to support the breadth of our basic needs work. This was motivated by our first administration of the World Health Quality of Life Questionnaire in April 2024, in which we found that 54% of the caregivers we serve did not have enough money to meet their family’s basic needs.
We now partner with the Portland Food Co-op, whose weekly donations of fresh produce support the Shared Meals that anchor each of our after-school Youth Mentorship Groups. Additionally, in the summer, we distribute produce and cooking essentials to 17 families a week through our Local Love Food Share program. Wayside Food Programs provides us with healthy snacks that youth can access anytime while at Our Place and allows us to build individualized food boxes for families as needed throughout the school year. Partners for World Health supports our basic needs work by contributing personal hygiene items (i.e. feminine products, soap, hair care supplies, first aid supplies, and more) to our (new!) Care Closet. In our new Care Closet, stocked with clothing, shoes, housewares, and hygiene supplies, youth and caregivers can “shop” for whatever they need, free of stigma.
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Youth Mentorship Groups
Monday
High School Mentor Lunches 11:40-12:20Younger Youth 2:30-4:30
Tuesday
Younger Youth 2:30-4:00pmMiddle-High School Girls Group 4:00-5:30
Wednesday
Academic Tutoring (Elementary) 2:30-4:00Middle School Boys Group 4:00-5:30
Thursday
Academic Tutoring (Middle-High School) 3:30-5:30Friday
Fun Friday pop-up guest classes
Ranging from art projects with USM students to Afrobeats dance classes with Veeva Banga
*10 Mentors are currently engaged in an internship-for-credit experience through Portland High School, attending Monday lunch and learns and one youth group per week as paid staff
Youth engage in a discussion about animal tracks before going on a hike with Rebecca Dugan from the Falmouth Land Trust.
Value-Add Partnerships
At Our Place, we believe in Value-Add partnerships, or in other words, partners that understand our population, engage well with our youth, and share a vision for the success of all youth and families.
To that end, here are a list of partners who have engaged with our youth at no cost or reduced cost and to whom we are sincerely grateful.
Our education advocacy partners include the leadership of East End Community School and King Middle Schools and Extended Learning Opportunities Coordinator, Portland High School, Andrea Levinksky.
Our advocacy partners include: Disability Rights Maine, City of Portland Public Health, Bernstein Shur, MANA, East Bayside Community Policing, and The Center for Grieving Children.
