MARCH 2026 Access Center newsletter
A Note from our YOUTH CAUCUS ORGANIZER
Dear Maine Recovery Community,
My name is Esperanza Rodriguez, and I am honored to serve as the new ME-RAP Kennebec Youth Caucus Leader. You might even remember me from the Recovery in Maine: Youth Voices movie! For the past five years, I have been involved with the our Caucus as a youth organizer, and I have seen firsthand how powerful it is when young people are given the chance to use their voices and support one another!
At ME-RAP, we believe the future of recovery and harm reduction is already being shaped by young people. Our role is to trust their leadership, invest in their ideas, and create real opportunities for them to lead. Youth leadership cannot just be something we talk about. It requires action. We must actively create pathways for young people to step into leadership roles, listen to their voices, and support impacted communities as they lead the way. I am grateful that ME-RAP is living these values by giving me the opportunity to help continue building a space where youth affected by substance use feel safe, welcomed, and empowered to create change in their communities.
Through the caucus, I have helped organize naloxone trainings, participate in impact projects, designed the ME-RAP youth logo and brand kit, and share my experience as a young person affected by substance use. One exciting initiative that grew out of the Recovery in Maine: Youth Voices movie is our peer-to-peer naloxone training! And honestly, the leadership, and passion we have seen from young people during this process has been incredibly inspiring and gives me hope for the future of recovery in Maine.
Thank you for believing in the power of youth voices and for supporting this work. I hope I will see you at the upcoming MYAN Youth Action Conference on March 19th and 20th in Auburn! We will be presenting out youth led Naloxone training on Thursday afternoon!
With gratitude,
Esperanza Rodriguez
Kennebec Youth Caucus Leader
ME-RAP Youth teach Augusta Teen Center Young People to Administer Naloxone!
In February, the Kennebec Youth Caucus used our peer-to-peer curriculum to train youth at the Augusta Teen Center on how to recognize the signs of an overdose, what to do at the scene, how to call 911, how to administer naloxone, and what aftercare looks like for someone their age.
This was one of the most engaged groups of young people we have ever worked with. While we are proud of the curriculum we developed and the work we put into learning how to deliver it effectively, the real credit goes to the young people themselves. They showed up ready to learn how to save the lives of their friends, family members, and neighbors if an emergency ever happens. If your school or youth group is interested in hosting this training, please feel free to reach out to joe@me-rap.org!
ACCESS CENTER CONTINUES TO GROW!
And guess what! We have been quietly training, developing, and preparing for the rollout of a Recovery Coach Program at the Access Center. To ensure a thoughtful and intentional launch, we are partnering with Healthy Acadia’s Maine Alliance for Recovery Coaching to get started.
This collaboration allows us to build the structure, ethics, supervision, and culture needed to implement peer recovery coaching with integrity and long term sustainability. You can now submit a request for recovery coaching at the Access Center here!
Once we receive it, a member of our team will reach out to schedule a quick onboarding meeting and get you added to the volunteer schedule. Seriously, the Access Center exists because of the service of our volunteers. They open doors, make coffee, run the snack counter, facilitate meetings, clean spaces, provide support for events, and most importantly, they show up consistently. They are the steady heartbeat of this place. We hope you'll join us! 💛
Can you believe the Access Center has already been open for 8 months?! This time last year we were just starting to renovate the space. It somehow feels like yesterday and also about 800 years ago, but definitely not eight months!
In those short and very long eight months, we have registered 780 participants, welcomed more than 10,000 drop-ins, hosted 302 recovery support meetings, provided 6,041 snacks (yes, of course CGA counts snacks, she loves snacks!), offered 646 showers, distributed 660 hygiene kits, and helped more than 82 people access treatment or secure housing! Wow!
At the same time, we expanded our hours and launched two new Saturday recovery support meetings, creating even more opportunities for connection and community. The response has been incredible, with more than 70 people already coming through the doors on Saturdays. And we could use your help!
We are looking for more volunteers to help staff shifts at the Access Center! We have recently expanded our volunteer opportunities to include a new breakfast shift from 7 AM to 11 AM, evening shifts from 5 PM to 9 PM, and Saturday shifts from 11 AM to 3 PM. The first step to getting involved is to fill out our volunteer application.
Check out all the ways you can get involved:
- Snack Counter: If you love to interact with people and give out snacks, this is the job for you at the Access Center!
- Cleaners: If you love to clean and get satisfaction out of making things sparkle, we need you to join our cleaning crew.
- Bakers: Love to bake, yet no one to bake for this winter? We would love to serve fresh bakery with our coffee on these frosty mornings.
- Drivers: We need drivers to bring people to detox and rehab. We are happy to reimburse for mileage if you need it!
- Community Clean Ups: We follow the rule of being a good neighbor by sending out a crew to clean up our local neighborhood everyday (that it's not snowing..)!
- Closet cleaners: If you are cleaning closets out this winter, drop off your clean clothes to keep our participants warm this winter.
- Kit Making: If you love harm reduction and want to help save lives, you can come make kits for us anytime!
- The "Truck People": If you have a truck, want to come pick up about a million cardboard boxes and take them to Hatch Hill, we would be forever grateful!
- And well.. just about anything else you can think about... we LOVE volunteers (and coffee!). We especially love volunteers who bring coffee!
We are now hiring a Volunteer Coordinator. Applications for the Volunteer Coordinator are open through March 9. If you share ME-RAP’s values, believe in community organizing, and want to help build recovery-friendly communities across Maine, we encourage you to apply. This is a full-time position based at the Access Center responsible for coordinating our volunteer program and Project Doorstep. You can apply here!
OUR CENTER CALENDAR!
VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Clayton Zimmerman is the Access Center Volunteer of the Month. He has, with the help of others in his sober house, brought one of the biggest recovery meetings, along with numerous other volunteers to the Access Center on Saturdays. His enthusiasm for life and recovery is absolutely contagious. He says his role at his house is always changing. He builds community by networking by going out and meeting other people and organizations. He helps get people involved by showing through his actions that we are all in recovery together. We are just one big recovery community!