The Community Caring Collaborative
- Program Representative Interviewed: Charley Martin-Berry, Executive Director
- Location: East Machias, Maine
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Program Overview: The Community Caring
Collaborative (CCC) was developed in 2007 with 2 goals: addressing health challenges faced by
children and young families, and holding regular meetings to
increase access to existing resources for participants. CCC aims to support and foster collaboration in the
community as a way to build capacity and improve health and well-being for residents. To address social
determinants of Health (SDOH), CCC
is committed to removing barriers and building family assets to increase opportunities for people in the
community. To help agency partners working with children and families, CCC provides access to flexible funds
to help reduce barriers that clients face. Barrier removal may include basic tasks such as fixing a
participant's car so that they can drive to a class. CCC also provides training and technical assistance for
partners to increase understanding about the impacts of SDOH. Finally, the CCC incubates programs by helping
to build a responsive design to an issue and assembling the right partners to build out and sustain the
program.
Two CCC-incubated programs include Family Futures Downeast and the Bridging Program. Family Futures Downeast is an intensive one-year program that uses a two-generation approach. The program provides educational and employment experiences to parents with young children while simultaneously offering programming for the children. The Bridging Program uses a promising approach of connecting an Infant Family Support Specialist with high-risk pregnant women and families who have children with high needs. In addition, CCC tailored the evidence-based Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation model for a rural setting in a program called Early Childhood Consultation and Outreach (ECCO).