Project Summary

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The Opportunity Agenda Project will define the issues of greatest concern to Maine people and help build support for a new vision of citizen-centered community economic development.

About me

I am 34 years old and grew up in a small mill town in northern Maine. For generations, people believed that you could get a job in the mill right out of high school and provide for a family for the rest of your life. When the mill shut down, that dream crashed, as it did in so many Maine towns. After a long struggle, many communities are trying to figure out what to do next. My deepest desire is to help facilitate that process. I see the Opportunity Agenda Project as a way for people who are near a point where they might give up hope to engage with members of their community and with people from around Maine to think positively about what we as a state could do differently to breathe new life into our economy and communities. Eric and Max are computer programmers and web designers and will build the online organizing collaborative to help connect folks from around the state who want to think through the problems we're facing. Nicole is a single mom trying to get through college who wants to help build the local campus and community conversations in central and eastern Maine. I used to help run Food AND Medicine, a community organizing group that raises money and runs support projects for laid-off mill workers and many of them are excited about the idea of working on this project. And my friend Justin started the Maine League of Young Voters and wants to help bring college students and community members together to think through what needs to be done.