1 Billion Rising Events

Next Step has been proud to support local V-Day events in the 2013 "1 Billion Rising" Campaign. Basically it has been yet another great opportunity to raise awareness about international (and local) violence against women and girls. The events for the campaign occured on Valentine's Day. In Hancock County, the MDI YMCA hosted a 1 Billion Rising zumba party, with proceeds to benefit V-Day international and Next Step. In Washington County, the BeeHive Collective arranged a 1 Billion Rising celebration at the Machias Valley Grange. Some local bellydancers came to make this a particularly festive occasion! Next Step is very grateful to our local community for all the support and activism that goes on all year round. To find out more about V-Day International or 1 Billion Rising, check out www.vday.org

Next Step now has a Facebook page!

In an effort to keep up with the social media that folks are using, Next Step now does have a great Facebook page. Please friend us at: https://www.facebook.com/NextStepDVProject

Giving Thanks for our Supportive Community

Next step is grateful to the great members of our community who help us with holidays each year! Here are just a few Thanksgiving donations that have come in today, alone.

Donating old cell phones

Quite often we get calls from kind folks who want to know if we can use donations of old cell phones. The answer is yes! Next Step participates in a national program where, when we send in enough old phones, we get a voucher or an in-kind donation of a new and useable phone. So recycling your old models with us will definitely help abuse victims in Hancock and Washington counties. Phones can be dropped off at any of our locations (Machias, Calais, Ellsworth). Call for hours and directions at 667-0176. Thanks!

Ellsworth Moose Lodge Makes a Generous Donation

The Ellsworth area Moose Lodge brought over $1268 worth of food for our little, emergency food pantry. Just as awesome as the donation itself was their help in carrying it all in on a super hot day! We really appreciate the support and generosity. We shared the food between our centers in both counties (Washington and Hancock).

Hats Off to our Volunteers! Literally.

For our annual volunteer appreciation dinner, staff and volunteers met at China Hill for a buffet, as usual. A new twist, however, was Kelly's idea for staff to bring cool hats and reasons to say "hats off" to our volunteers. Thanks, Kelly. No really, it was fun and an interesting twist. Maybe we should do it again next year!

No More!

In one year alone 12.7 million men and women in the U.S. are physically abused, raped or stalked by their partners. That is approximately the number of people in New York City and Los Angeles combined. That is 24 people every minute. These are people we know. It is time to end the silence and shame for good. I want to let you to know about a new overarching symbol to unify all people, organizations, companies and communities around bringing an end to domestic violence and sexual assault. It is called NO MORE. Like the peace sign, the yellow “support our troops” ribbon or the red AIDS ribbon, the goal of NO MORE is to raise visibility for these issues, challenging the stigma that surrounds them, and taking the first step toward broader social change. We encourage you to check out NO MORE online at www.nomore.org and also on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NOMORE.org) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/NOMOREorg). There are many ways you can start spreading the word – adding your photo to the “We Say NO MORE Photo Gallery” at www.nomore.org, adding NO MORE to your website and e-mail signature, making NO MORE a part of your program materials and fliers, talking about NO MORE on Facebook and Twitter, purchasing products with the symbol from Shop NO MORE, or making your own. We are saying NO MORE to domestic violence and sexual assault by using this symbol and sharing it with everyone we know. We hope you will too. If you have any questions please contact nomoreproject@gmail.com

Chocolate Fest Thanks

Hi there and happy Spring! Next Step really wants to thank everyone for a successful Chocolate Fest and Silent Auction once again.

Chocolate fest is our annual all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet, paired with a silent auction of an average of 200 items per year.

This year we again had great support with donations from local businesses for the auction items and chocolate to eat. We had many great business sponsors as well. We thank Camden National Bank for being the anchor sponsor to make sure we didn't have to pay for event costs and could take in more money for the agency. Darling's, Hannaford, and many others provided this kind of sponsorship as well.

This year we raised about $8000 and we could not have done it without all the donors, event volunteers, staff, and attendees. So thanks again! And if you missed it this year, keep an eye out for us next year. We try to hold the fest on the Saturday before Valentine's Day annually.