ABOUT US

About Us!

Finding Our Voices is the grassroots nonprofit organization and sisterhood that provides peer support, community connection, and meaningful resources to women survivors of domestic abuse across  Maine, toward personal healing and systemic change. We are committed to filling in the gaps for services in Maine and also complementing the work of existing resources, including the traditional domestic abuse resource agencies.

We launched as a nonprofit in September of 2021.

Here is what we do, and don’t do! 

Our programs include Get Out Stay Out funding, access to donated dental care, online support groups, Healing Together in-person retreats. The public education/awareness pillar of our group includes such ground-breaking public awareness programs as a poster campaign featuring the faces and voices of 45 named Maine women survivors, Survivor-Speaks panel discussions, public rallies, and one- and two-day Healthy Relationship residencies in middle and high schools including a young person traveling with us sharing their story of dating abuse with the teen students. 

Our work in schools is for the benefit of teens of all genders. Our service programs are exclusively for Maine women survivors of intimate partner abuse. 

We do not provide legal advice, or find housing or jobs. We do not find or provide shelter and we do not do case management. We cannot put a credit card down for a motel/hotel stay or a U-Haul or car rental, but we can reimburse a social service agency for these payments. 

We do not operate a hotline, or do crisis intervention. We do not have a publicly available phone number. Survivors can reach us by email. 

We refer survivors to local agencies for what we can’t do, and also to supplement what we do. 
We view our work as complementary to existing systems of support.

We respect survivor autonomy and confidentiality 

Survivors choose how and when they engage with our organization. Personal information is kept  confidential and is never shared without explicit permission from the survivor. 

Services are provided without any requirement or expectation of participating in our programs  or speaking publicly. Financial assistance is provided with no expectation of publicity

Emergency funds and material assistance are offered privately and confidentially. There is no  requirement to participate in any of our organizational activities. 

We follow trauma-informed, survivor-centered practices 

All interactions prioritize safety, choice, respect, and empowerment. Survivors determine what  support looks like for them. Our support groups, get-togethers and gatherings are survivor-led spaces designed to reduce isolation and foster community, and healing.

We are 100 percent donor funded, neither seeking nor receiving government funding 

Relying on creative community fundraisers, and donations from individuals, businesses and  foundations allows us to be flexible with our support services and provide a quick turnaround for  funding where a quick response is of the essence (e.g., women and moms needing to flee the state,  safeguard their homes, selves, and children, access shelter NOW).  

Finding Our Voices exists to fill gaps, including those that arise after immediate safety has been addressed and particularly around financial stability, community, and long-term healing. We supplement resources provided by regional domestic violence resource centers and other social service agencies. 

Our wide and ever-growing trusted network of referral partners include hospital caseworkers; Behavioral Health; New Hope Midcoast; District Attorney offices; sheriff and police; DHHS and CPS; employers including Goodwill, Homeworthy and Families First homeless services; recovery, sex trafficking, and immigrant/migrant resource groups; and therapists. 

Open-hearted collaboration is what ensures that survivors have access to the widest possible range of supportive resources, and at a time of epic nonprofit funding cuts this is more important than ever.