Three nonprofits tap into unmet demand

TUX TURKEL
Staff Writer
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
November 6, 2005

Three Maine enterprises underscore the scope of nonprofits in Maine and the services they provide.

The first is Zoey's Room, which is the inspiration of two women, Erin Reilly and Vinitha Nair.

With backgrounds in fine arts, multimedia and childhood psychology, the women were struck by statistics about declining interest among girls in technology. Grants helped them launch Zoey's Room and its parent company, Platform Shoes Forum, which they incorporated in 2003. The program has since expanded and is being used nationally.

Platform Shoes Forum now has four part-time employees and is developing an online game, X-Dream Challenge.

The game is meant to encourage kids to eat healthy foods and exercise. It connects players to a pedometer and heart-rate monitor to measure physical activity.

Platform Shoes Forum is trying to raise $300,000 to launch the game next year. It's looking for donors and corporate sponsors and expects to generate revenue through program fees.

Tedford Shelter, meanwhile, began as a church-sponsored homeless shelter in 1987. Stays were short, and few guests left for permanent housing.

Today the shelter draws from Freeport to Waldoboro and filled more than 10,000 beds last year. Half are for families. Rising housing prices are fueling the demand.

"The shelter's been around 18 years, and the problem isn't getting any better," said Don Kniseley, Tedford's executive director.

So the shelter is shifting focus.

It recently hired a full-time homelessness-prevention coordinator. The job includes working with landlords to limit evictions and helping at-risk families stay in their homes. Tedford also has joined with local partners to develop housing. One project is set to open in Bath this month.

Tedford Shelter has 17 employees, half of them full time. It has an operating budget of $800,000, one-third coming from private sources. Looking ahead, the shelter is contemplating how the pending closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station will affect housing availability in the midcoast.

"We plan to be at the table for those discussions," Kniseley said.

The Maine Centers for Women, Work & Community is even older. It started helping displaced homemakers re-enter the job market in 1978. The money came from state government.

Over time, it added training programs to help women start businesses. Recently, it branched out into personal financial management, targeting immigrants. The program now has 30 employees in 14 offices.

As the program has grown, organizers realized they needed to be less dependent on government money. Managers have recently begun diversifying the funding base, a good move in an era of spending cuts. The program also wants to build a small endowment.

"State and federal funding is unpredictable at best," said Eloise Vitelli, program and policy development director.

Private foundation grants now make up 16 percent of the $1.5 million operating budget. With a public mission, Vitelli said it's not realistic to wean the program from government money.

"But we don't want to be dependent on one source of funding," she said.

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at tturkel@pressherald.com.