What is The Gathering Place?
The Gathering Place is a day shelter to give friendship, respect and hope to the materially poor and homeless.
What is your mission?
To provide a safe, welcoming and comfortable space for our guests to gather in downtown Brunswick, offering them respect, encouragement , companionship and hope.
Who does The Gathering Place serve?
Our guests are a diverse group that includes many wonderful people. Many if not most, suffer from physical, mental or emotional disabilities. A few are able to work part time, low skilled, minimum wage jobs. Many suffer from chronic health issues. Despite these conditions, there is a remarkable atmosphere of graciousness, mutual generosity, and good humor. On a typical day, we welcome between 50 and 70 guests. In addition, we have approximately 45 committed volunteers, 3 of whom are always on duty. They are well trained and are comfortable managing sometimes complicated situations. Our Volunteer Director provides training for each volunteer and they meet periodically to discuss any issues that may need to be addressed.
Where is The Gathering Place located?
The Gathering Place is located at 5 Tenney Way across from Hannaford on the same campus as the MCHPP.
How long has The Gathering Place been in operation?
The Gathering Place opened in February 2011. On our first day, we received seven visits. In the years since, the number of visits has grown to more than 60,000 as people gather for snacks, to socialize, search for jobs and apartments on our computers, work on puzzles and above all, to be safe, welcome and treated with respect.
How can we keep up to date on what is going on at The Gathering Place?
We will be updating the website from time to time, as well as posting links to relevant press articles.
Click on the links below to read two recent articles:
How does The Gathering Place benefit the community?
The Gathering Place fills a critical gap in our social safety net. Before it came into existence, neither Tedford Housing, nor Mid Coast Hunger Prevention were able to provide a place during the day for people who live on the margins. Curtis Library became the default location for the poor and homeless, and this became a severe burden to the library and its patrons. The Gathering Place provides a safe, secure and welcoming place where our most vulnerable citizens can spend the day while the patrons of the businesses and institutions of the community are relatively undisturbed by large numbers of people loitering in front of and within places of business.
Is there any cost to the taxpayer?
The Gathering Place is funded entirely by the generosity of private individuals and organizations and receives no government support.
