Curbside: News from Preble Street Winter 2024/2025
Letter from Swannie: Winter 2024/2025
Photo: Between 1981-1993, Preble Street operated a day shelter in this Chapel providing breakfast, phones, bathrooms, mail, and links to community services. As we approach this milestone anniversary of 50 years, I’ve been reflecting more and more on Preble Street’s history and its future. When I was hired in 1991, I was one of two employees at Preble Street, alongside Florence
The first 24/7 Preble Street program in Bangor
A sad reality of emergency shelters is that they are always at risk of closing their doors. Over the past fifteen years, at least nine shelters in Maine have closed due to funding issues. Site-based Housing First is the long-term permanent housing solution for many of the people in Maine experiencing chronic homelessness, but until the
Preble Street Board Profile – Elaine Rosen Curbside Winter 2024/2025
How did you first get involved with Preble Street? I chaired the Greater Portland United Way Campaign in 1997 and toured every agency. The one that impressed me the most was Preble Street. What do you do when you’re not at Preble Street? I sit on corporate boards and investment committees; I spend time with
Compassion in action: Preble Street at 50
“If you can’t get what you need, we’re here,” was the message Joe Kreisler wanted people experiencing poverty to hear when he founded High Street Resource Center (the organization that evolved into Preble Street) in 1975. For 50 years, Preble Street has been here – expanding far beyond a handful of social work interns in
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring/Summer 2024
Letter from Swannie: Spring/Summer 2024
PHOTO: Partnership at work! Staff from Greater Portland Health, Maine Medical Center, and Preble Street recently celebrated the one year anniversary of recuperative care in Maine Anti-poverty work is far too important and complex to expect any one organization to be able to do it alone. Partnerships and collaboration are key. I was amazed when
Preventing youth from becoming unhoused
One of the most important things we can do for young people experiencing difficult, unsafe, or unstable situations is to find alternative options to entering emergency shelter. The impact of diverting youth from spending even just one night in a shelter bed can make a significant impact over their lifetime. “Once someone accesses emergency shelter,
A whole new chance at life
For 14 years, Kabir was homeless in Portland. But today, he is safely housed at Logan Place, Maine’s first Site-based Housing First program which opened 19 years ago. Kabir’s time on the streets was tough. “There is no break when you’re homeless. There’s no door to close,” he shared. Living outside led to numerous health
Preble Street Board Profile – Joe Ingream: Curbside Spring/Summer 2024
How did you first get involved with Preble Street? My first experience working with Preble Street was volunteering at their former soup kitchen in downtown Portland. I volunteered many times with my daughters while they were in middle school and high school. I also volunteered several times with colleagues prior to joining OneAmerica Financial. The
Curbside: News from Preble Street Winter 2023/24
Letter from Swannie: Curbside Winter 2023/24
Photo: Mark Swann, on right, at a 2015 protest in front of Portland’s City Hall advocating for more overflow shelter capacity. Ensuring that there are enough shelter beds for all who need them continues to impact vulnerable Mainers. Right now, we are at a tipping point for homelessness in Maine. The number of people experiencing
What can you do in one year? A look at Preble Street impacts in 2023: Curbside Winter 2023/24
Three Preble Street programs celebrated their first year of operation in 2023! Elena’s Way, a Preble Street Wellness Shelter Elena’s Way serves the needs of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness, individuals unable to access other shelter services, and individuals who are extremely vulnerable should they be unsheltered. At Elena’s Way, guests have control of their own
What will it take to end Maine’s homelessness crisis? Curbside: Winter 2023/24
Many communities across the United States are struggling with how to respond to the growing number of people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Thanks to the pandemic, along with the lack of affordable and available housing and shelter, Maine is one of those places. All of us agree that people living in tents and encampments
Preble Street Board Profile – Chip Leighton: Curbside Winter 2023/24
How did you first get involved with Preble Street? About 15 years ago, I started volunteering at the (then) Soup Kitchen with a group from my church, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Cape Elizabeth. I spent the first five years or so on the cleanup crew before I finally graduated to kitchen duties! What do
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring/Summer 2023
Local, Sustainable, and Nutritious Meals for all Mainers: Curbside Spring/Summer 2023
For a person experiencing homelessness, poverty, or housing insecurity, meeting the basic need of nourishment is often the first step needed to move toward stability. When basic needs are met, employment, housing, and connection to health services and other social services often become the next step. “At a time of rising food costs, it is
Maine’s First Recuperative Care Program: Curbside Spring/Summer 2023
Imagine if you experienced an accident or serious illness or were admitted to the hospital and you didn’t have a home to return to or a bed to rest in. Unfortunately, this is what happens to many vulnerable people in our community; too many people experiencing homelessness get discharged from the hospital, still weak and
Site-based Housing First: Curbside Spring/Summer 2023
“These programs serve as success stories where some of our most vulnerable are given the hand up they need to move beyond a survival-based existence focused on the next bathroom break, meal, or long cold night to live healthier, happier, and more productive lives.” – Mike Sauschuck, Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety At
Board Profile – Cito Selinger: Curbside Spring/Summer 2023
How did you get involved with Preble Street? I came to the Preble Street board in 2005 via Stone Soup, a Preble Street subsidiary whose mission was to train folks in the culinary arts. When I joined the board, I think I was one of four lawyers. At first, I wondered what I could contribute.
Curbside: News from Preble Street Winter 2022/23
Letter from Swannie: Curbside Winter 2022/23
For anyone paying attention over these last few years, it’s become abundantly clear that emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness are an important part of the public health infrastructure. Shelters didn’t close during the pandemic. Shelter staff and our partners in the healthcare industry did not work remotely. We stayed open, and, in many cases,
Getting Food to People Who Need it Most
Food insecurity and hunger continue to grow in Maine; the pandemic and rising food costs are driving more people to their local food bank or pantry. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Preble Street has produced and distributed more food than ever before – over one million meals a year – and increased output by
Teen Housing and Outreach: Curbside
18-year-old Austin currently spends his nights at the Preble Street Joe Kreisler Teen Shelter or outside on the streets. “I was emancipated at 16 to get away from my family. I lived with friends for about a year and a half. When I turned 18, their parents were like ‘Ok, time to be an adult,
Housing First: A Solution to Homelessness
Steve “Boomer” Littlefield is 67 years old. For 45 of those years, he experienced chronic homelessness and alcohol use disorder, sleeping mostly outside after some bad experiences in shelters. He survived the frigid Maine winters and nights thanks to his resourcefulness and a sleeping bag that protected him down to -65 degrees. He and hisfriends
Board Profile: Terry Sutton, Board President
How did you get involved with Preble Street? I had Preble Street on my radar as one of the non-profits that I was most impressed with, and I wanted to be more involved in my community… but with small children and a demanding full-time job, I couldn’t see a way to get involved. Luckily, I
Past issues
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring 2022
Curbside: News from Preble Street Winter 2021
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring 2021
Curbside: News from Preble Street Fall 2020
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring 2020
Curbside: News from Preble Street Fall 2019
Curbside: News from Preble Street Summer 2019
Curbside: News from Preble Street Fall 2018
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring 2018
Curbside: News from Preble Street Spring 2017
