Genesis at work on Maine islands

Since the early 1900s, the number of islands with year-round populations has diminished from 300 to 14. Remaining year-round island communities are being eroded by escalating property values, a scarcity of affordable housing and facilities, and uncertainty about the future of fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

Beginning in 1998, Genesis provided hundreds of hours of assistance and grantwriting to a determined group of Vinalhaven residents to help create the

Ivan Calderwood Home – a homelike care facility, opened in 2001, that allows frail elders to remain on the island close to family and friends rather than make the painful and often permanent journey to a mainland care facility.

With the completion of that project, it became evident that Maine’s off-shore island communities needed a permanent source of funding and technical assistance to preserve and sustain their year-round communities. Genesis joined with the Maine Community Foundation, the Maine Sea Coast Mission and the Island Institute to form the Islands Challenge Fund in 2004. The Fund, staffed by Genesis, makes grants to island projects. To date, grants have been made to groups on Monhegan, Islesboro and North Haven.

Please visit the links to your left to find out more about our work with the Islands Challenge Fund, the Island Housing Grant, news and information about our island partners and other organizations engaged in work which supports the sustainability of Maine's 14 year-round island communities.

If you have more questions about the Genesis Fund's involvement with the islands, please contact our Associate Director Liza Fleming-Ives.

Island Stories:  Genesis at work on Vinalhaven, Islesboro and Monhegan

"Reversing the Tide: Halting the Erosion of Maine's Island Communities" For more about this DVD produced by the Genesis Fund in 2004, click here.

www.maineislands.org is a new and developing site commissioned by the Planning Committee of the Islands Affordable Housing Symposium held in Belfast in April 2006.