About Us

The John T. Gorman Foundation advances and invests in innovative ideas and opportunities that improve the lives of Maine's most vulnerable people. We focus on four key areas: Improving educational achievement for children, promoting successful transitions to adulthood for vulnerable older youth, helping struggling families succeed and enabling seniors to remain in their homes as long as possible.  
Our Priority Areas



First Place Program Helps Vulnerable Teens Find Stability
 
Young people experiencing homelessness are among the most vulnerable members of our community, as they often have neither the skills they need to care for themselves nor the support network they need to overcome tough circumstances. Preble Street, an organization that provides barrier-free services to empower people experiencing homelessness, hunger and poverty, plays a crucial role for homeless youth in the Portland area.

The organization's best practices-driven approach helps young clients achieve stability through permanent housing. This model has been so successful that it has drawn recognition from national stakeholders like the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which sets policy for the entire country.



Mitchell Promise Scholars Offers Young Mainers a Chance at College Success

All young people in Maine deserve the opportunity to pursue their educational goals, but youth who have overcome barriers like homelessness, unstable home lives, or time in foster care often face challenges when they get to higher education. National studies estimate that although 80 percent of youth who have been in foster care would like to attend college, only between two and nine percent actually complete a degree, compared to 60 percent of their peers.

At the John T. Gorman Foundation, we believe that these young people have the potential to achieve their dreams-they just need the right support to help them get there.  Since 1995, the Mitchell Institute has done just that by providing scholarships and other supports to one college-bound graduating senior from every public high school in Maine. With over 1800 Mitchell Scholars now having completed the program, their outcomes are well-documented-85 percent of the Scholars finish college, and 35 percent go on to pursue graduate studies.

To expand this proven model to a wider group of vulnerable young Mainers, in 2013 the Foundation partnered with the Mitchell Institute to establish the Mitchell Promise Scholars. Through the program, an annual cohort of promising high school seniors who have overcome significant life challenges are given the support they need to get to college and stay there.

Welcome, Jen!

Jennifer Beck, Program Associate

In September, Jennifer Beck joined the Foundation as a Program Associate. Jennifer comes to us from Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, where she spent 11 years as a professor of psychology and led multiple initiatives to improve outcomes for college student access, readiness, and completion.

Jen also founded and led an independent consulting practice, which specialized in evaluating strategies to support positive outcomes for vulnerable children, youth, and families. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her B.A. from the University of New Hampshire.

In her role as Program Associate, Jen will work to unify our strategies related to children and families, and will keep abreast of relevant efforts in Maine and across the country to help us identify key programmatic and policy opportunities aligned with our mission and priorities.

We are thrilled to have Jen as part of our team, and hope that many of you get the chance to meet her in person in the days ahead.

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Note from the President and CEO

Here in Maine, almost ten percent of our population aged 16 to 24 are disconnected -- meaning that they are not in school or working. That's nearly 15,000 young people who lack the relationships and resources that are required to successfully navigate the pathway to adulthood. At the John T. Gorman Foundation, we believe that we must invest in these young people, many of whom have experienced homelessness, encounters with the juvenile justice system, or time in foster care. We need to do this because it's the right thing to do and because it's an investment in Maine's future. That's why we've devoted this issue of our quarterly newsletter to spotlight some of the work we're doing with grantees and partners around the state to help vulnerable Maine youth successfully transition to adulthood.
You'll learn about a forum that the Foundation organized back in September which featured Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, one of the top experts in the nation on adolescent brain development, as well as a panel of Maine-based experts who connected Dr. Cauffman's research to challenges facing kids in our community. We'll also bring you updates on our work with Preble Street's First Place initiative, which provides young people who have faced homelessness with both housing and the supports they need to live on their own; and Gateway to Opportunity, a "best practice" summer employment program for Portland youth which had a great first year. Further up the coast, the Eastern Maine Skippers Program of the Penobscot East Resource Center -- created to combat what was a growing dropout problem -- is equipping young people in Hancock and Washington counties with the academic and business skills required to meet the challenges of today's economy. We also highlight our partnership with Jobs for Maine's Graduates, which helps Maine youth all over the state achieve their educational goals and the Mitchell Institute's Promise Scholars Program which is helping youth facing significant challenges succeed in college through scholarships and other supports. Finally, in this issue we're thrilled to introduce you to Jennifer (Jen) Beck, a Program Associate and the newest member of our team.

Thanks for reading. As always, I invite you to send along any questions, comments, and ideas related to our mission of improving the lives of disadvantaged people in Maine.

 
-Tony Cipollone, President and CEO

Noted Expert Shares Research on Adolescent Brain Development

Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman  
As part of our commitment to helping vulnerable young people in Maine successfully transition to adulthood, the John T. Gorman Foundation believes that everyone who works with and serves those young people should be up-to-date on the latest research about adolescent brain development-and how the circumstances in which kids grow up might affect that process.  

That's why on the morning of September 13th, we organized a forum in Portland called "Hard Lives, Bright Futures: Why Brain Science Matters When Working with Vulnerable Older Youth." The keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, is a leading expert in the field of adolescent psychology and how brain development affects the way that young people take risks and make decisions. Her research has played a key role in recent Supreme Court cases, including one that abolished the death penalty for those under 18.
 

Highlights from ?Hard Lives, Bright Futures? featuring Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman

We're pleased to share this video featuring highlights from "Hard Lives, Bright Futures".
An Outstanding First Summer for Gateway to Opportunity

In the spring, the John T. Gorman Foundation announced our support of a new pilot program designed to offer young people in the Portland area the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience over the summer. The Gateway to Opportunity (G2O) initiative now has its first summer in the books-and by all measures, it was an immense success.

The initiative was designed in line with national best practices, and benefited from advising provided by national workforce development experts from Brandeis University. Twenty-two high school students from the Portland Public Schools participated. Many came from diverse backgrounds and all faced economic challenges. A wide range of partners, including the Portland Housing Authority, Portland ConnectED, The Opportunity Alliance's OPEN Project, the Muskie School of Public Service's Portland Empowered program, Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, the University of Southern Maine (USM), and the Greater Portland Workforce Initiative came together to conceive and launch the program. Several of the partners also served as work sites for the participants.

Eastern Maine Skippers Program Offers a Pathway to Success for
Down East Students

 
Faced with a growing dropout rate that raised concerns about the economic future of Hancock and Washington counties, schools in the Down East region recognized that something needed to be done to help ensure that young people had the skills and abilities to contribute to the continued prosperity of their communities. That's why they and the Penobscot East Resource Center created the Eastern Maine Skippers Program, in which the John T. Gorman Foundation has made a three-year $300,000 investment.

"The Skippers program shows that when young people in the Down East region are offered a curriculum that has the right mix of practical and academic elements, they may be more likely to stay in school," says Nicole Witherbee, Chief Program Officer at the John T. Gorman Foundation.

Read more here.
John T. Gorman Foundation and L.L. Bean Jointly Honored
By Jobs for America's Graduates

From left to right: Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, Tony Cipollone, JMG CEO Craig Larrabee, and Shawn Gorman.
On November 9 th, the John T. Gorman Foundation's Board Chair Shawn Gorman and President and CEO Tony Cipollone accepted the Jobs for America's Graduates' National Educational Leadership Award at JAG's annual ceremony in Washington, D.C. We were honored to share the award with L.L. Bean, where Shawn also serves as the Executive Chairman of the Board.

The two organizations were nominated by Jobs for Maine's Graduates, the state's local chapter of the JAG national network, for, as the official nomination put it, our shared commitment to "JMG and its results-driven approach to ensuring all Maine students graduate, attain post-secondary credentials and pursue meaningful careers." The Foundation was the first private investor to support JMG's new College Success model, which supports College Success Specialists on Maine's public university and community college campuses, and that grant helped to secure the state's first appropriation of public dollars to support the program.

Thanks to JAG and JMG for the recognition, and for all the important work you do to help Maine's young people achieve their educational goals!