SACO – The Maine Community Foundation has awarded Sweetser a $15,000 grant to support people living with mental illness or substance use disorder.
This grant comes from the foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to support nonprofit organizations involved in frontline efforts to serve the needs of those most affected by the virus and contain the spread of COVID-19.
“As a nonprofit, grants like this are a critical lifeline to ensuring high quality services reach every corner of our state,” says Justin Chenette, Sweetser’s communications & public relations director. “The pandemic has heightened an even greater need to provide help and hope to more children, adults, and families in our communities.”
Sweetser is one of the largest providers of mental and behavioral health in the state, reaching approximately 20,000 children, adults and family members each year.
To learn more about Sweetser’s services and how to support their mission, visit sweetser.org.
The 16th annual Cabin Fever Art Show once again found success as an online auction. This is the second year the event, which ran March 17-27, has been virtual.
The event shines a spotlight on the artwork of artists who self-identify as having lived experience with mental health, substance use or trauma. Each artist receives the full purchase price for their artwork.
This year 27 Maine artists entered 96 pieces of art in the auction! 62 pieces of art sold, raising over $1800 for artists and $142 for the art program at the Eslie J. Parquette School at Sweetser through the donation of six works of art.
Did you know our students tap trees, boil the sap, and produce tasty maple syrup?
Sweetser School student, Elijah, shows us the process of making maple syrup from start to finish. This is part of the experiential program right on our Saco campus.
In honor of March being National Social Work Month, we’re featuring a few of our staff members making a difference as they share their reasons for joining the field.
Meet Jamie Cooper. Jamie is a school-based clinician at C.K. Burns School and Saco Middle School. She has been with Sweeter off and on for over 20 years.
“I had to change my major quite a lot in college. I had a feeling that I wanted to do this, but I wasn’t quite sure. I had grown up kind of poor and didn’t really have many resources. I knew I wanted to make a difference somehow. School never came easy. I knew I wanted to work with kids. When I finally went through the doors and entered my first social work class it was sort of like coming home and I just knew that this was where I was supposed to be.”
Watch the Jamie’s full story …
Next, meet Dustin Spencer-L’Heureux, a clinician behavioral health specialist out of Lewiston. He has a Masters in Social Work, Clinical Condition from UNE, sits on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and has been with Sweetser for a year and a half.
“Since I was about 10 years old, I wanted to be a therapist. I had a lot of personal experience with mental health both personally and within my family. Social work incorporated advocacy, something that I’ve always been passionate about. Very involved with fighting for human rights with the LGBTQ+ community and advocating for disability rights. Music is something I can incorporate into my social work. I partially use it as a way to build rapport with clients. I also use it as a way to communicate with clients that might have a harder time communicating in a traditional way. Sometimes a song can speak to how a person is feeling without a need for any other communication.”
Finally, meet Emily Ostrow, a school-based clinician in MSAD #60 since October 2019. She earned a Masters in Social Work, clinical program, from Simmons University in Boston. Her Dad was in this same field.
“I always loved helping people. I was not a traditional graduate student. It took a long time and I had to work through grad school. I didn’t realize how clinical you can get as a social worker and I’m very clinical. I get to be collaborative with doctors, teachers, and parents. As a mother with two young children, being in a school-setting just made sense. I like feeling valued and I think as a social worker in a school in particular, you have a very unique role. I really appreciate that people know what I do, come to me for it, and that I get to do it. I am very proud of social work. I definitely want anyone who is drawn to it, to at least look into because we need them.”
At our school on the Saco campus, educators worked with students to remodel the music room into the new ‘Teen Room’. We met up with Arts Educator Nick Blunier who describes both the inspiration behind the room and its purpose with the students. Watch our new video below:
Nick is helping to collect a few items to continue making the Teen Room an ideal place for positive experiences. If you happen to have any of the following, reach out to Nick directly.
The biggest needs are …
Video games (like racing/sports), systems and controllers to go with it (wii, ps4, ps1, game cube, etc), TVs
Art supplies (minus scissors) & rolls of bulletin board paper
Board games, puzzles, card games
Hot cocoa or hot drink packets, teas with no caffeine, water cooler
Hosted by Sweetser, the annual event is in its 16th year, and its second online. The online auction is a wonderful opportunity for the community to support artists who self-identify as having lived experience with mental health, substance use or trauma.
This year’s event runs March 17-27. We encourage you bid on some of the unique pieces up for auction. Each artist will receive the full purchase price for their artwork. Learn more about the event.
We have a new addition to our family at the Ricker Farm on our Saco campus.
Please welcome Chrome, a 15-year-old Morgan horse who will be a great companion to our horse Tricky and an important teaching tool for our students. Students learn important skills as they help to take care of the animals on our farm.
We recently visited with Angie Anders who has been with Sweetser for nearly 12 years and is now an Ed Tech III and our Assistant Farm Manager. She helped us to meet Chrome.
Radio personality Lori Voornas interviewed Patrice Lockhart, MD, Medical Director of Sweetser’s New England Eating Disorders (NEED) Program. The Public Service Announcement was broadcast during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week in February on radio stations owned by Townsquare Media. Listen to the interview:
Sweetser’s annual holiday gift tag program is underway until December 17, when members of the community can pick holiday gifts for children in Crisis and Residential Services to make sure they are able to experience the joy of Christmas away from their families and homes. In the past 20 years, the community has donated 8,000 gifts (and counting) to the program. Participation only requires a simple online purchase that will have a huge impact on children who receive the gifts.
Karen Harper of IDEXX organizes the participation of her company’s employees in Sweetser’s Holiday Gift Tag Program every year for approximately 20 years. “People are thrilled to be able to help local families. We’ve had participation from virtual employees from all over the U.S. take part this year.” She added that “hosting the Giving Tree annually to support Sweetser provides a welcome way to help a very deserving group.”
Sweetser staff member Jennifer Adams recalls the many years she worked in direct care with children at Sweetser and saw firsthand the impact that donated gifts make for children going through an especially hard time. “I always asked to work Christmas so I could be there in the morning when the children opened their gifts. It made them feel special that someone cared enough to think of them.”
In the photo: A pre-COVID photo of IDEXX employees dropping off presents at Sweetser.
The 16th annual Cabin Fever Art Show once again found success as an online auction. This is the second year the event, which ran March 17-27, has been virtual.
The Cabin Fever Art Auction is now live!
