Rural Resiliency Community Alliance (Town of Van Buren, fiscal agent)

MISSION STATEMENT: to educate our community about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood trauma and empower its members to collaboratively develop, evaluate, and sustain resources to combat their negative intergenerational effects and promote resiliency.

VISION STATEMENT: We envision an effective, sustainable collaboration of all segments of our community working together to develop, implement, and sustain policies and activities that promote individual and community resilience, successfully addressing both the causes and the negative effects of ACEs and generational trauma. Read More

• About Us
  The Rural Resiliency Community Alliance was incorporated as a volunteer 501(c)(3) organization in 2019 to educate the people of Van Buren, a rural town of about 2000 residents in Aroostook county in far northern Maine, about the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and their lifelong negative effects. After a series of six community forums, COVID-19 hit, and our ability to undertake workshops came to a halt. From 2019 until now we spent time in countless Zoom meetings to plan ways to engage the community in promoting resilience. As a part of that planning effort, we surveyed residents of our area and the neighboring ZIP code (Limestone and Caswell) to determine their perception of significant needs. Three unmet needs stood out in this significantly underserved area: (1) services to enable our many isolated elders to socialize and to receive medical and social services in their home area; (2) parenting education and help for expectant and new parents; and (3) an out-of-school-time program (OST) to provide a safe, supportive, and enriching experience for our at-risk school children after school and during holiday periods. Through an AmeriCorps planning grant, we designed an integrated intergenerational program for children and elders with a year-round OST program as well as a drop-in and socialization center for elders. We are in the initial stages of developing greatly needed (and currently non-existent) services in collaboration with several organizations from the larger communities in our area, and are quite excited to be the initiators of a true grassroots effort that will involve many community organizations, AmeriCorps members, and individual volunteers in promoting community and individual resilience. Service delivery, in collaboration with our local school system, will begin in late October, 2021.
• Our Impact
  In our first year we will initiate an OST program, coordinated with the local school system, for up to 24 elementary and middle school children in Van Buren, a town of about 2000 residents. In our second and third years we expect to expand our programs to a neighboring town and serve another 24 children. We will also develop a drop-in center for elders in the community, and develop and provide integrated programs that will involve both elders and children. We will also re-institute our community forums educating and empowering local people to understand the intergenerational lifetime effects of ACEs and design and implement activities and programs to promote resilience in the community. AmeriCorps members will be in on the ground floor, involved directly in the grassroots community planning and evaluation process as well as direct service delivery. RRCA will provide initial and on-going training to help develop knowledge, skills, and confidence in our AmeriCorps members and volunteers.
  
  Children and youth who are at-risk, their families, and our marginalized elders will benefit from the program through social-emotional learning, skill development, positive relationships with adults and peers, services to effectively assist elders to comfortably and happily age in place in their own community, and enrichment and recreational activities involving both children and elders. A key component of both the youth-oriented and the elder-serving components of the program will be direct input by participants in designing and evaluating all aspects of the program.
  
  Ours is a rural, isolated, poor community on the Canadian border in north-central Aroostook county, at the tip of the state of Maine. The population of the contiguous ZIP codes we will eventually serve is about 5200, of whom about 600 are between 5 and 18, and 1100 are over 65. The poverty rate is 29.6%, over twice that of the state of Maine as a whole (12.9%). The area is rural, poor, and significantly underserved/ The predominant area employers are several farms that raise potatoes, broccoli, and grain. There is little other industry. The University of Maine has campuses in Fort Kent (about 50 miles north of Van Buren) and Presque Isle (about 45 miles south). The nearest cities are Presque Isle (pop about 8900) and Caribou (pop about 8200).