Making Health Happen - Our First 20 Years
Healthy Acadia was established in 2001 as a single program focused on tobacco prevention on Maine's Mount Desert Island and surrounding communities. The program was supported through Healthy Maine Partnerships, a statewide initiative launched by the Maine Legislature with appropriated funds from a 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to facilitate a coordinated effort to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related chronic diseases. Our first office, a single room at MDI Hospital, had served as the staff smoking lounge in the 1970’s - a fitting start for a community health coalition funded with tobacco settlement dollars!
Over the next few years, our small but dedicated team became increasingly active in state-funded prevention efforts, including tobacco, lead poisoning, and obesity prevention, expanding our work as a Healthy Maine Partnership and developing our role as community convener. We took a lead role in keeping our communities healthy, engaging in localized efforts to increase access to healthy food and physical activity opportunities, and promote healthy aging, and the reach and scope of our programs continued to grow and expand.
In 2005, we launched the Downeast Farm to School Program, connecting local farms with schools to provide fresh produce and garden curriculum to students across Hancock County. In 2008, we partnered with our sister organization, Washington County: One Community, which provided office space for our first staff member in Washington County, enabling us to expand Downeast Farm to School into Washington County communities.
Healthy Acadia became an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2009. We continued to broaden and deepen our prevention work and convene collaborative efforts to improve community health. By 2011, we had expanded our primary service area to include all of Hancock County.
In 2012, a two-year, $1.3 million Community Transformation Grant enabled us to strengthen partnerships and provide funding support across Hancock and Washington counties to build healthy communities, including work to improve healthy food access, physical activity, social and emotional wellness, and dental health. We began implementing Maine SNAP-Ed, bringing nutrition education to communities and schools across Hancock County.
In 2013, we opened our first office in Ellsworth. Now a team of 13, we had significantly expanded the scope of our community programs and initiatives to include Drug-Free Communities programming, oral hygiene education for new and expectant mothers, and the launch of the Downeast Gleaning Initiative, an effort to reduce food insecurity in our region. In addition, we began administering mini-grant sub-awards to community partners across Hancock and Washington counties to support health infrastructure, including playgrounds, smoke/tobacco-free signage, healthy food storage space for food pantries, and more.
In 2014, community leaders spearheaded the launch of The neighbor4neighbor Fund (n4n) to support seniors in need across our region. We convened the Downeast Substance Treatment Network, a collaborative effort to remove barriers and increase access to substance treatment and recovery. We also launched our evidence-based, “Tai Chi for Health” classes to support and improve health for people of all ages and fitness levels.
In 2015, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), we collaborated with community partners across Hancock and Washington counties to launch the evidence-based National Diabetes Prevention, the Chronic Disease Self-Management, and Chronic Pain Self-Management programs. At the request of Washington County: One Community’s Board of Directors and our mutual state partners, we brought the disbanding organization’s programs and staff under our umbrella, expanding our service area to include all of Washington County (WaCo). As part of this process, we took on DownEast Teen Leadership Camp, a program established in 2000 to serve Washington County youth.
In 2016, together with Ellsworth Police Department, we launched Project HOPE to help connect people seeking recovery from substance use disorder to treatment and other resources. We continued to expand our recovery and prevention programming, convening the Washington County Substance Use Response Collaborative. We took on operations of BlueHill FarmDrop together with Fairwinds Florist, with strong support from Blue Hill Wine Shop, the developers of the innovative online farmers’ market.
We launched several highly impactful programs in 2017, including the Downeast Cancer Patient Navigation Program (Washington County), Early Childhood Consultation and Outreach Program (ECCO-Hancock County), and The You’ve Got A Friend Fund (YGAFF), a community partner-supported mini-grant fund to help individuals to overcome barriers. With a small team of staff and volunteers trained through Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, we launched our Recovery Coach Program, offering coaching in the Hancock and Washington County jail systems. Our diabetes prevention program received CDC Full Recognition. We also transitioned from a Healthy Maine Partnership to become Hancock and Washington counties’ sole Maine Prevention Services provider for Tobacco Prevention, Substance Use Prevention, Youth Engagement, and Obesity Prevention (Let’s Go! 5210).
In 2018, we launched Maine RecoveryCorps, which has now evolved into Maine Recovery Core and now serves nine counties across Maine, providing peer recovery coaching services and recovery resources. We worked with Aroostook Mental Health Center (AMHC) and Downeast Substance Treatment Network to launch the Downeast Treatment Center in Ellsworth. MDI FarmDrop was launched in partnership with A Climate to Thrive and Floret of Somesville, and operation of Blue Hill FarmDrop was transferred to George Stevens Academy. We launched our Mindfulness in Education initiative, bringing programs and services to support mindfulness and resilience in childcare and school settings across the region.
In 2019, we formalized our community volunteer recovery coaching program as Maine Alliance for Recovery Coaching, now serving five counties. We opened a satellite office in Calais, as well as a second Ellsworth location dedicated to substance recovery support services. Our Downeast Partnerships for Success Initiative expanded to support substance prevention, anti-bullying, suicide prevention, LGBTQ+ empowerment, and resiliency programming for youth ages 9-20.
Our team and our communities rose to the many challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Thanks to community, business, and foundation contributions, we purchased a Harvest Van, which has greatly increased the capacity and impact of our Downeast Gleaning Initiative. Together with partners, we opened Safe Harbor Recovery Home for Women and Children in Machias, the first of its kind in Washington County. We initiated COVID-19 response at the community level, convening the Downeast-MDI COVID-19 Task Force, and supporting businesses and organizations across the region through Keep ME Healthy education, outreach, and mask distribution. We convened a Health Equity Team to advance racial and health equity, both through Healthy Acadia’s internal learning and systems changes, as well as externally throughout our communities.
In 2021, Healthy Acadia was selected as one of fjust our worksites across Maine to host a group of inspiring youth leaders ages 16-24 through Maine Youth Action Network’s Gateway to Opportunity Program (G2O), who helped to plan and facilitate our DownEast Teen Leadership Camp programming. In celebration of our 20th year, we embarked on our first documentary film project, "Together: Community Health Champions." The film, which premiered in November 2022, celebrates six individuals across Washington and Hancock counties, Maine, who go above and beyond to increase the well-being of our communities, each in their own unique way. Their stories inspire and affirm that we all can and do meaningfully contribute every day to building healthy, resilient communities - and that we do our best work in partnership, together.
Healthy Acadia currently implements more than 40 programs, with the support of more than 70 staff, interns, consultants, AmeriCorps service members; and hundreds of community volunteers. We have five office locations and active engagement in health efforts statewide. We have strengthened our efforts to advance, promote, and support health equity across our region and beyond, including racial, gender, income, and sexual orientation equity, and more. As our work continues to grow and deepen, we are poised to stay responsive to community needs and continue providing critical health services for many years to come.