Health group seeks Bangor area projects to fund

Maine’s health care system is like Swiss cheese, riddled with unmet needs and barely there services. Each year, the Ellsworth-based Maine Community Foundation gives out about $1 million to help fill the gaps, and each year a special little chunk of that money comes from the Penobscot Valley Health Association Fund, a special account administered by MCF for the particular benefit of the Bangor area.

This year, the PVHA purse is a little fatter than usual, and advisory board members are looking for the right project, or projects, on which to bestow about $75,000. In past years, there has been about $50,000 to award. According to an MCF press release, the grant makers are “particularly interested in supporting efforts to address overlooked healthcare needs of the community, especially proposals that target physical and mental needs of youth that are not adequately met.”

PVHA board Chairman Dr. Frank Bragg said earlier this week that in previous years the fund has supported projects ranging from Eastern Maine Medical Center’s outreach program to teach about diabetes in public schools to “a group of depressed women in Stetson” who wanted some money to go bowling with each week.

Awards also have been made to the Warren Center for Communication and Learning, the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, the River Coaltion youth support program, and a self-help teen substance abuse recovery group in Hampden.

Bragg said the advisory board is interested in jump-starting new projects as well as building the strength of existing ones. “It is a very pleasant task to be charged with giving away money,” he said. “We have no preconceived notions about where it should go.”

The Penobscot Valley Health Association, originally the Bangor TB and Health Association, was established in 1906. Aimed at helping indigent Bangor residents who suffered from tuberculosis, the organization was funded through generous donations from the area’s most well-heeled individuals and businesses. But when the state public health system took over the care of poor TB patients, Bragg said, the organization changed its name and went looking for other efforts to support.

The original Shaw House shelter for homeless teens was the first major project to be funded by the newly named PVHA, back in the early 1980s when the facility was located on Broadway. It cost $40,000 to get that project up and running, Bragg said, but once it was on its feet, PVHA moved on.

“We’re always looking for new projects,” he said. The fund, now administered by the Maine Community Foundation, continues to be supported by private and corporate donations. While Bragg’s 14-member advisory board reviews all applications and makes recommendations, it is the larger foundation that makes the final dispersal.

Proposals must be postmarked by May 15.

More information is available online at www.mainecf.org

or by phoning toll-free (877) 700-6800.