Who We Are
The Maine MultiCultural Center welcomes and champions diversity as essential to the economic and social vitality of Maine.
Working with its community partners, the Maine MultiCultural Center promotes community enrichment and economic growth by attracting, retaining, and integrating immigrants to the greater Bangor community.
Programs
The delivery model for all of MMCC’s programs is Accompaniment. Steve Reifenberg, a faculty member at Notre Dame University, defines Accompaniment as “…a partnership with the other, walking together. No matter the duration of the relationship, accompaniment encourages and cares for all dimensions of another person, and in the process recognizes our shared dignity. Building on the centrality of relationships for a happy and healthy life, accompaniment is a valuable concept for engaging constructively with others in a complex world.” This is a model that is widely used by resettlement organizations around the country.
MMCC programs include:
- Volunteer Support Team Program – Each family that we work with is assigned a team of volunteers to assist them in navigating U.S. life and culture. The volunteers do this by helping our new neighbors meet basic needs, access essential services, find social supports, and experience a warm welcome to our shared community. Volunteers are recruited, vetted, trained, assigned, and supervised by the MMCC Program Manager, a full-time paid staff member.
- Economic/Business Navigator Program – In addition to the Volunteer Support Teams, MMCC also employs 2 half-time Outreach Coordinators to assist immigrants in navigating more technical issues such as rental applications, applications for work authorization, and a variety of applications for assistance. The Outreach Coordinators also work with a volunteer specialist who focuses solely on assisting immigrants in finding employment. We also help connect immigrant entrepreneurs to technical assistance for new business start-ups.
- Move-In Program– The Move-In program assists immigrants in locating and settling into safe, affordable, permanent housing. The MMCC Program Manager trains and oversees all of the Move-In Program Volunteers and manages all of our furniture and housewares, donations, purchases all items not obtained through donations, manages our warehouse, organizes & documents all move-ins, and facilitates/advocates for families in their dealings with landlords and property managers. In addition to setting up living units for immigrants, MMCC also provides rental guarantees to landlords for refugees who, due to having to flee their homeland, usually cannot provide credit or rental histories. For asylum seekers, MMCC can often assist with payment of security deposits.
- Education Program – MMCC’s Education Committee engages in community outreach. We have provided workshops for area teachers on how to support foreign-born students in their classes so they can be successful, and to area businesses on how to create a safe and welcoming work environment. We sponsor a monthly, virtual forum open to the public that focuses on a broad range of issues related to immigration. The committee is also currently engaged in producing an immigrant handbook that will provide new Mainers with information on how to navigate in their new home. The Committee is also in the process of producing a workshop for general audiences that provides up-to date information about the immigrants in our community – a general overview of the resettled population – where they come from, what their cultural backgrounds are, what languages speak, what challenges they face both initial and ongoing, how MMCC works to assist immigrants in resettlement both initially and over the long term, and how volunteers can be involved in the process
MMCC can help new Mainers connect to local service providers. If you need information or a referral to a local service provider, call (207) 307-7154 or email info@mainemulticulturalcenter.org
Populations We Serve
MMCC serves three broad categories of immigrants:
- Refugees – Refugees are resettled through the US State Department. Resettlement is managed in Maine by Catholic Charities Refugee and Immigrant Services (RIS). Following Bangor’s designation as a refugee relocation center in December of 2021, Catholic Charities opened a branch RIS office in Brewer. Bangor received 50 refugees during the 2023 resettlement year (October 1, 2022, through September 31, 2024), 90 individuals during the 2024 resettlement year, and is slated to receive 150 in the 2025 resettlement year. The federal government provides a one-time resettlement allotment of $1025/individual for each refugee that is resettled. This money must be used to pay security deposit & first month’s rent along with buying food for the first month until the family can apply for and receive benefits such as TANF or SNAP or obtain employment. These funds are quickly depleted and are not sufficient to fully furnish a home. Refugees also are usually unable to provide a credit or rental history which poses a significant challenge to securing safe and affordable housing.
- Asylum Seekers– Asylum Seekers make their own way to the area. They are not allowed to work during the first 150 days after requesting asylum. Once that waiting period is over, they may apply for a work permit, which can take one or two months to arrive. Asylum seekers struggle to make ends meet during their first 6 or 7 months in the country. Asylum seekers face the same challenges in securing housing as refugees do, but they do not receive a resettlement allotment so have fewer resources with which to meet that challenge.
- Voluntary Migrants – Voluntary migrants come to the US with work visas and can begin working as soon as they arrive. Their spouses can also obtain work permits once they arrive. While many come to our area with a job lined up, they do not always come with much in the way of financial resources. What may be a sizeable savings in many countries often translates to very little money in US dollars and is quickly depleted due to the comparatively expensive cost of goods and services in the United States. Even when finances are not an issue, figuring out how to navigate in a new country and culture, often in a new or foreign language, can be quite challenging.