It is that time of the year, again, when we look back on what we’ve accomplished and seeded this year and look forward to what is to come in the new year. Since 2019, Sewall has practiced pausing in between what is now and what is to come by taking a break at the end of the year.
Read MoreAs we reflect on this week's election outcomes and the significant inflection point in our nation’s path that it represents, we at the Sewall Foundation reaffirm our steadfast commitment to equity, justice, and the well-being of communities across Maine and the Wabanaki Nations. Rooted deeply in our mission to promote social, environmental, and economic well-being, we stand with and for those who may feel vulnerable or uncertain or unheard. We are unwavering in our vision of a more just and inclusive world, and our work toward equity will continue with even greater resolve.
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Sewall has been supporting League of Women Voters Maine Education Fund since 2022. In 2023, Sewall awarded the Education Fund a 24-month Equitable Civic Engagement grant to eliminate inequities in voter turnout at the local, state and national levels. Read to learn about the Education Fund’s efforts to ensure all Mainers can meaningfully participate in the democratic process.
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RedRover has been a Sewall grant partner for more than 20 years. Read to learn about how RedRover is strengthening the human-animal bond across the U.S. by temporarily sheltering animals in emergency situations, increasing the number of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters and creating youth programs that encourage empathy toward animals.
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Central Aroostook Humane Society of Presque Isle received a $200,000 Animal Welfare grant in 2023 for a much-needed new shelter. Read to learn about the upgrades planned for the site, and how the community has rallied to support the fundraising efforts.
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We’re pleased to present this series of articles on our inspiring grant partners.
Our Katahdin has received six Healthy People Healthy Places grants since 2017. Read to learn how Our Katahdin’s collaborative volunteer movement is breathing new life into the former mill town of Millinocket, Maine, and bringing jobs back to the region.
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We’re pleased to present this series of articles on our inspiring grant partners.
Presente! Maine has received six Sewall grants since its inception in 2020: three Rapid Response grants, and three Healthy People Healthy Places Food Systems grants. Read to learn how Presente! is meeting the complex needs of Maine’s Afro/Indigenous and Latinx communities.
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We’re pleased to present this series of articles on our inspiring grant partners.
Sunrise County Economic Council (SCEC) has received 10 Healthy People Healthy Places grants since 2013. Read to learn how SCEC is bringing together businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, and citizens to create jobs and prosperity in Washington County.
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We’re pleased to present this series of articles on our inspiring grant partners.
Wabanaki Youth In Science (WaYS) received a 36-month Healthy People Healthy Places grant from Sewall in 2022. Read to learn how WaYS is encouraging Wabanaki youth to advance their education and pursue careers in STEM.
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We’re pleased to present this series of articles on our inspiring grant partners.
Nature Based Education Consortium (NBEC) has received five Healthy People Healthy Places grants since 2019. Read to learn how NBEC’s collaborative, multi-generational network is dismantling systemic barriers so all Maine youth can learn outdoors.
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We are thrilled to be bringing on two talented individuals to fill two new positions at Sewall: Animal Welfare and Legacy Community Partner and Wabanaki Communities and Tribal Governments Community Partner. While Sewall has long been working in these areas, this is the first time that full-time staff will be leading each. This will allow us to deepen relationships, strengthen cross-program collaboration, and explore new ways to be good partners.
Joining Sewall as our first Wabanaki Communities and Tribal Governments Community Partner is Sonya LaCoute-Dana. Joining Sewall as our first Animal Welfare and Legacy Community Partner is Amie Hutchison.
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As an organization steeped in navigating change, we know transitions can be bittersweet. While we will miss having him on our team, we are excited for Jonah Fertig-Burd’s new phase as he transitions from his time with us as Food Systems Community Partner to work as an independent consultant, facilitator and coach in food, housing, arts, and wellness, while also growing his cooperative business, Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center.
Read MoreThe EcologyShifts Program has now completed the first of four training modules. This first module focused on establishing a foundational understanding of key change-making issues such as decolonizing the environmental field and outlining the pitfalls in the methodologies for establishing greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. We also collected information from cohort members that allowed us to refine the program to meet their needs.
Read MoreEcologyShifts is a community-learning and change-making experience that focuses on personal growth, organizational and sector change toward a just and equitable environmental field. EcologyShifts officially launched November 10th and 11th of 2022 and is now 6 months into its 18-month cycle. This brief is contributed by Deb Bicknell, Host Circle member.
Beginnings often include the unexpected. They can be beautiful, bumpy, unpredictable, tender, exciting and possible. We are learning and shifting together as a whole community which includes a Host Circle and 18 participants from 10 different organizations.
Read More“Fostering safe, healthy and sustainable environments is key to ensuring that all people, especially the ones who have been historically under-resourced, can live and grow to their full potential. Protecting and uplifting reproductive rights and justice incorporate protecting and uplifting the environments in which people are raised. Here, we find a central connection between the movement for RJ and the movement for climate justice.”
- Dion Mensah, Equity Forward
Reproductive justice, environmental justice, intermingling of church and state, discrimination based on sexual orientation, Miranda rights, tribal sovereignty, economic justice. All issues upon which the Supreme Court of the United States has made recent life-crushing, justice-eradicating decisions.
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Election season is coming and the importance of free and fair elections, voter participation, and a representative government couldn’t be more evident. Each of us as individuals and through our organizations – funder, nonprofit, or business - can play a role. This is a good time to be thinking about how you and your group can help.
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Hunger is a fixable problem, in our country and state. Even as we deal with symptoms of hunger through increased access to healthy, affordable food, we should also collectively address the root causes of hunger including economic, social, and systemic conditions that perpetuate inequity and injustice.
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From its start as a staffed, private, independent foundation, Sewall has sought to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive, by bringing together people of different backgrounds to advance the foundation’s mission and values. As with most of the philanthropic sector in the US, the foundation started with an all-white staff and board. In 2015 we hired the first BIPOC (Black-Indigenous-People of Color) staff member; currently, one-third of our staff identifies as BIPOC. By 2018, three of our nine board members were BIPOC; and currently we are developing internal data collection structures that will allow us to track what proportion of our resources go to support BIPOC-led efforts and organizations. These quantifiable shifts represent our work on diversity, and steps towards our commitment to equity and inclusion. As we’ve grown, so has our understanding and application of equity.
Read MoreMay 25, 2020 was the first Memorial Day observed in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the day when George Floyd became the seventh person of color in 2020 to be killed by police using deadly force in the U.S. Nearly a year later, a jury in Minnesota convicted Floyd’s killer on all three charges. In the time that transpired since Floyd’s murder, 181 Black individuals were killed by the police across the U.S.
The verdict announcement came as Sewall Foundation continues to deepen our understanding of the multitude of ways that racism operates in the U.S., in Maine, and in our own organization and the philanthropic sector. Our nine-member staff represents diversity across life experiences, racial and other identities, and varied perspectives on issues of local and national concern. Recognizing that racial violence and the verdict affect us differently, we decided to take a few days to process individually before coming together as a group to share with each other. In this statement we offer our collective reflections.
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The Sewall Foundation will be offering an informational webinar about the Healthy People Healthy Places 2021 grant round. This webinar will take place on Monday, May 17th at 1:00-2:30 pm via Zoom. After you register, you will receive a Zoom link.
This grant round is open to organizations whose work aligns with our new focus areas and are not current Healthy People Healthy Places grantees. The webinar will be an opportunity to meet Sewall Foundation staff and get more detailed information and guidance for your application. It will also provide space for you to connect with others working to advance the well-being of communities and the environment in one of the Healthy People Healthy Places focus areas: Food Systems, the Katahdin region, Lewiston-Auburn, Wabanaki Communities and Tribal Governments, and Washington County. Please note, for this grant opportunity, our Keystone and Nature-Based Education focus areas are by invitation only.
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