Community Wellness Coalition (also known as the KEYS Coalition)
Meeting Location - by appointment CWC/KEYS Coalition Landmark Hill |
Telephone 207.438.9100 Nancy Farrron, Coordinator nanef@comcast.net Diane Brandon, Web and eNews Assistant diane@keysregion.org |
Mission and Purpose
To develop and support collaborative projects which lead to individual, family, and community well-being in the KEYS Region of southern York County, Maine.
The CWC/KEYS Coalition offers
- A wholistic model of well-being, as a framework for individual, family, and community development. (Download a pdf of the Wholeness/Wellness Model here or view online here.
- Assistance with the development and coordination of KEYS Region collaborative projects that lead to improved quality of life, including making connections between stakeholders and citizens, convening and facilitating meetings and educational programs, supporting communication, connecting projects and resources, and organizing needs and resources assessments.
Vision
Whole Person – Whole Family
Whole Community Well-Being
Well-being for individuals, families, and communities in all the interdependent dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, cultural, occupational, financial/material, and environmental.
Accomplishments
- Writing grants for KEYS region projects which brought over $2 million into our region
- Organizing Community Connection Conferences, Planning Processes, Networking Meetings, and “InfoShares” (since 1997, including Our Future By Design 2004-6)
- Catalyzing the Community Resource Center “co-location” Initiative at Landmark Hill (since 2000)
- Organizing Community Needs & Resources Assessments/Reports (1999 and KEYS Counts 2004)
- Managing the development of the Agamenticus Arts and Heritage Directory (2001)
- Developing the KEYS Region website www.keysregion.org (2004, ongoing)
- Organizing the KEYS Coordinating Council (2005)
- Initiation of the following now independent projects and collaboratives:
- Family Resource Center at Landmark Hill (2003)
- Maine Communities for Children, "Children’s Leadership Councils" in each KEYS town (since 1997-8)
- Community Asset Builders (CAB) Project & KEYS for Prevention Project (merged into KEYS of Promise in 2005)
- Choose to be Healthy, a Healthy Maine Partnership
- Mental Health Task Force
- Senior Leadership Coalition
- Support for additional projects and collaborations:
- Community Health Connection
- Environmental Networking
- S. Berwick Teen Center
- Alternative Education Needs Assessment, York Schools
- Seacoast Region Needs and Resources Assessments by the Foundation for Seacoast Health, United Way of York County (Voices Project), and United Way of the Greater Seacoast
- York County Prevention Collaborative (YCPC)
- State Indicators GIS-mapping Project (IM4C) which produced www.CommunityData.Info
History
February 1997
With York Hospital as host and lead agency, the Coalition was initiated by a group of interested organizational leaders who recognized the need for integrating and developing resources for the good of the whole.
October 1997
The Coalition conducted a "Future Search" Community Connections Conference with a focus on the well-being of the people and involving leaders from our five-town region. Several "Interest Groups" emerged. (Photo below.)
October 1998
The Coalition opened an office in York Village, and a major grant from the Foundation for Seacoast Health to York Hospital supported increased staffing for Coalition projects.
March 1999
The Community Asset Builders (CAB) Project and Kids First Project received their first funding, through grants from the State of Maine.
June 1999
A Maine Communities for Children Americorps VISTA volunteer was placed at the Coalition offices, to support the CAB Project. The Bureau of Health granted support to our Coalition, as a Maine Healthy Communities Coalition.
October 1999
The Community Health Connection, a new project of York Hospital, located its first office in the Coalition suite, in an "incubator space" arrangement.
September 2000
The Coalition moved its office to a larger space at Landmark Hill, 518 Route 1 in Kittery, in order to initiate co-location of many services at one site.
October 2001
The Community Asset Builders (CAB) Project received a federal Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant.
January 2001
Six nonprofits moved to Landmark Hill, as part of the co-location goal.
April 2001
Open House for Landmark Hill Community Resource Center, with nine nonprofits involved.
May 2003
The Family Resource Center at Landmark Hill, originally an initiative of the Coalition, opened its doors as a program of Child Care Services of York County, in partnership Casey Family Services (Portland ME Office).
2004- 2005
The Coalition established a the www.KEYSregion.org website, and organized the "Our Future by Design: Better Together" KEYS Regional Citizen Planning Process. The opeing event was a forum held at Marshwood High School in South Berwick, with Governor John Baldacci and USM Professor Evan Richert as speakers. The process wrapped up with a KEYS Region Forum held on September 29, 2005. The Forum included presentations, three rounds of "cafe conversations" on the draft goals for our region and voting on priorities for the next few years. The forum closed with general discussion on themes of the morning. Also available here are:
• The agenda, with list of sponsors
• Forum photos
• Evaluation comments and
• Table Notes on citizen feedback at the Forum are linked at each topic on the left.
The KEYS region website: www.KEYSRegion.org added a new set of pages to report on the results of the process: http://www.keysregion.org/keys_ofbd/intro.htm
2006
June: The CWC moved from the suite at the front of the building at Landmark Hill, 518 Rte 1 in Kittery to an office in an adjoining suite in the same building. York Hospital's "Center for Community Health Promotion" moved into the suite where the CWC had been since September 2000.
September: The CWC completed its 18 months of work with the SAMHSA funded "Unified Governance Structures" Study, and the report was presented at a statewide conference. (See the publications section for a downloadable copy of the report.)
2007
The CWC reactivated its Maine non-profit corporation status, which had been established in January 2001, and applied for IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, which was granted as of April 2007. New members joined the Board of Directors, and strategic planning for the next 10 years of community building work was undertaken in the spring and summer. The CWC was 10 years old as of February 2007. In the fall of 2007, the CWC coordinated and facilitated KEYS forums on the Maine School Consolidation issue, supported by the NH Charitable Trust and United Way of the Greater Seacoast.
2008
The CWC bid farewell to its founding coordinator, Diane Brandon, and hired its new coordinator, Nancy Farron. The CWC received a community building award from the Maine Community Foundation.
Funding Sources for Projects Organized by the Coalition
- York Hospital (1996 - 2006)
- The Foundation for Seacoast Health
- Maine Communities for Children & Youth
- The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development
- Maine Department of Health and Human Services (Bureau of Health, Office of Childcare and Headstart, Office of Substance Abuse)
- The Maine Family Court System, for Kids First Program
- The Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group and Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- The Maine Community Foundation
- NH Charitible Foundation, Piscataqua Region
- United Way of the Greater Seacoast
- Partnership for Effective Nonprofits
- Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce
- Sea Grant & U. of Maine Cooperative Extension
The CWC accepts tax exempt donations.
| Friend | Under $50 |
| Supporter | $50 - $99 |
| Donor | $100 - $249 |
| Trustee | $250 - $449 |
| Benefactor | $500 - $999 |
| Visionary | $1000 or more |