Start Date: 08/25/2025
End Date: 07/27/2026
Term Date: Note: Start and end dates flexible
Location: Portland, ME
Focus Area: Age Friendly, Agriculture and Hunger, Community Outreach, Poverty, Public Health, Youth
The mission of Our Place Portland Inc. is to support the healthy development of youth and families using a humanistic, family-centered, and research-based approach. Our Place Portland Inc. supports the public health and development of youth and families in the Kennedy Park community in Portland and surrounding neighborhoods through high-impact programs designed for/by community members. Our programs serve vulnerable youth ages 5-14, with more than 50% identified as having special education needs and all learning English as a second language. Programs include Youth Mentorship Groups focused on social-emotional skills and health; Community Summer Camps for younger youth; a Mentors in Training program for middle schoolers; and Family Advocacy Services that provide individualized support, social connections, and access to fresh food through the Local Love Food Share and partnerships with basic needs nonprofits.
Located in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood, we serve families from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds, the majority of whom live in public or subsidized housing. Many families have lived in the U.S. for 5-10 years and face barriers to health, education, and economic stability. The Public Health AmeriCorps member will support our Family Advocacy and Youth Mentorship services by helping procure food and basic needs materials while assisting with youth and family health initiatives.
As an AmeriCorps member in this position, you’ll play a hands-on role in supporting youth and families through mentorship and access to resources. You’ll help organize weekly food and basic needs donations, ensuring families are equipped to thrive. In mentorship groups, you’ll prepare healthy after-school meals, engage with youth in social-emotional learning activities, and help them build resilience using research-backed approaches.
With guidance from the Executive Director, you’ll co-develop a youth-led public health program addressing issues such as vaping, drug use, and violence prevention. You’ll also assist with monthly Caregiver Collective potlucks to strengthen family support networks.
Beyond direct service, you’ll explore economic development strategies for caregivers, using data to inform solutions. Through training on best practices for supporting youth with disabilities, you’ll gain valuable experience in public health and social services, while making a lasting impact.
Member responsibilities include:
- Pick up weekly food and basic needs donations from partners including Portland Food Co-op, Wayside Food Pantry, and Partners for World Health.
- Organize food and basic needs donations at office.
- Plan and prepare healthy after school meals for youth mentorship groups.
- Engage with youth in mentorship groups to support social-emotional learning and resilience building using research-based best practices.
- Assist in planning and executing a public-health related program for all mentorship groups with a theme that is proposed by youth as something putting them at risk (e.g. vape use, drug use, gun violence, physical fighting, tobacco use, alcohol use).
- Assist in planning and executing monthly Caregiver Collective potluck dinners.
- Transport donations in 12 passenger van as needed.
- Attend in-house training about research-based best practices for supporting youth with disabilities.
- Consult with the Public Health Representative on the Board of Directors and Executive Director about ways to build trajectories for the economic development of caregivers and implement strategies the group defines as effective using data collected by caregivers from Our Place in April 2025 and the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Survey.
Already have a MyAmeriCorps account and want to apply for this specific role? You can find that listing on MyAmeriCorps here.