Mini Grants Success Stories
Building the community we know is possible - together.
Our Mini Grants Program is one way that we support Lewiston residents and organizations to create the positive changes they (and we!) want to see in the Tree Streets Neighborhood.
Below, you’ll find some of our Mini Grant success stories. These stories are a true testament of how when we work together, we empower one another to build what we want to see in our community!
Mini Grant Success Stories 2024-2025
Gather to Grow’s Community Meals: Evenings of Ease & Belonging
In the wake of tragedy, sometimes the simplest gestures are the most powerful.
Following the October 2023 mass shooting, the team at Gather to Grow wanted to provide our community with space to reconnect, to grieve, and to begin healing. So they turned to a tried and true way we support each other in times of need: sharing a meal.
With support from a Healthy Neighborhoods $4,900 mini grant, Gather to Grow re-launched their Community Meals. Similar gatherings had been a vibrant part of the Tree Streets Neighborhood before the pandemic.
Seeds of Compassion: Youth Who Care
With a Healthy Neighborhoods Mini Grant, local youth found tangible ways to improve the lives of those around them, fostering a more neighborly environment across generations.
When Maine Community Integration asked 11 local youth how they wanted to support their neighbors, they designed a project focused on two ideas: 1) self-care and mindfulness are essential to being a healthy person, and 2) everyone in our community deserves to feel seen, cared for, and remembered.
Kommunity Kritters: A Lifeline for Lewiston Pets & Their People
It started with a friendship and a deep understanding of the importance of pets in the lives of their people.
Amy Sanchez and Larissa Ryerson have been friends since high school. Over the years, Larissa watched Amy open her heart and home to animals in need, kids in need - sometimes both at once. “Amy has always wanted to rescue them all, help them all,” Larissa says. “I always knew one day she would do something like this.”
For Amy, this was personal, because it is something that she deeply understands.
The Root Cellar’s Lew Crew: Empowering Youth Leaders
The Root Cellar’s Lew Crew began with an idea to provide youth with work experience while engaging them to beautify the Tree Streets neighborhood. Supported by a 2015 mini grant from Healthy Neighborhoods to purchase the equipment necessary to make it happen, Lew Crew Lawn Care began.
That first summer, Lew Crew Lawn Care challenged the program’s first eight teens to learn teamwork, customer service and financial management. Healthy Neighborhoods, Gather to Grow, and other community partners collaborated to identify sites that needed work. Thanks to those early partnerships, the program grew.
Mini Grant Success Stories 2021
