The Meeting Basic Needs/Safety Net Council is dedicated to strengthening communities by focusing on the basic needs and economic stability of individuals and families. Council members and partners are committed to addressing needs for food, shelter, and transportation, as well as helping people find and maintain safe and affordable housing and assisting people in attaining economic stability through emergency financial assistance, access to community supports and facilitating asset building.

The Meeting Basic Needs/Safety Net Council is working toward five of United Way of Mid Coast Maine's Community Goals:

• Everyone's basic needs are met, especially for food and shelter
• Everyone has access to safe and affordable housing
• Everyone has access to transportation in our communities
• Everyone knows where to go to get help and there are no barriers to needed social services
• Everyone will have access to employment that provides wages and benefits sufficient to meet the basic needs of a household

The Meeting Basic Needs volunteers distribute limited dollars to programs that are pursuing the Basic Needs goals within the community, are very effective in getting desired results and have a broad scope in helping significant numbers of people to meet their basic needs. This investment has led to many local success stories.

Special initiatives with community partners extends the work of the Council into public awareness of community issues and how to address them, maximizing visibility for community services, and working to remove any barriers that might keep anyone from accessing the services they need.

One of the special initiatives is a collaborative project of United Ways in Maine, Ingraham and the state of Maine: 2-1-1 Maine, is helping to create a free system that will provide free access to trained information and referral specialists to help with health and human services needs—any time, day or night—all by dialing a simple three digit number, 2-1-1 or going on-line at www.211Maine.org. Cumberland and Washington Counties can already call 2-1-1 and the remainder of the state will be active in July 2006.

For More Information
Interested in more information about the work of United Way's Meeting Basic Needs/Safety Net Council? Contact Maria Hinteregger at MariaH@uwmcm.org or call 207-443-9752.