About us

Sign up here to join the email list to receive periodic updates and opportunities related to our shared Vision.

Since March of 2020, dozens of Maine-based organizations and hundreds of individuals have contributed their expertise, insights, and perspectives to build each section of the Vision.

The pandemic laid bare underlying problems and inequities in our systems and laws. We knew that things would not and should not be the same following COVID-19 and that significant reforms would be needed to address the stark inequalities we are living with in Maine. We knew that the new normal should be more equitable and more just.

Responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic will require policy reforms that fix the underlying problems in our economy, systems, and laws. Rather than pursuing these reforms in our various silos, we decided to build a shared Vision that spanned issues and constituencies and looked holistically at the system and policy changes that can build an Equitable Maine.

Over the course of 2020, more individuals and organizations joined our effort. At least 34 Maine-based organizations and 155 individuals helped build the sections of our Vision, and a broad array of organizations, coalitions, groups, and individuals from across the state contributed their expertise, insights, and perspectives to each of those sections.

After drafting the Vision, we sought more community input, reaching out to groups and individuals most impacted by inequitable systems and policies. 135 people representing diverse interests and perspectives completed a community survey weighing in on the various components of the Vision and proposing new ideas and thinking. We incorporated their feedback into the Vision. Our process was iterative and collaborative and the end result incorporates the thinking and ideas of many.

Our larger network decided on the scope and content of the Vision, but a planning group made up of a smaller subset of groups and individuals helped coordinate and shepherd this process. Current members of the planning group include:

  • Adam Goode, AFL-CIO
  • Kate McClellan, Maine Voices Network
  • Kathleen Meil, Maine Conservation Voters
  • Kathy Kilrain del Rio, Maine Equal Justice
  • Malory Shaughnessy, Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services, Maine
  • Michael Mosely, Maine Parent Advocacy Network
  • Richard Hook Wayman, Volunteers of America Northern New England
  • Robyn Merrill, Maine Equal Justice
  • Safiya Khalid, Gateway Community Services Maine & Community Organizing Alliance
  • Vice Chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Darrell Newell, Wabanaki Alliance
  • Will Hayward, League of Women Voters of Maine/Maine Citizens for Clean Elections


If you are interested in joining the planning group, please contact rmerrill@mejp.org.

We joined forces to advance a Vision for an Equitable Maine with these shared goals:

  1. Reimagine systems and policies in light of COVID-19 and the inequities it has laid bare. While the crises we face demand short-term responses to meet peoples’ immediate and growing needs, they also call for bold, long-term investment and systemic reform. Preserving the status quo or tinkering around the edges will not meet the demands of this moment. Had the systems and policies that existed prior to the pandemic been more equitable, there would have been far less harm. This is a time to take stock, learn from the pandemic, and work toward and invest in systemic change. Our actions as a society, as a state, and as individuals can move us closer to our shared vision of justice and equality for all.
  2. Create more alignment among organizations that share the goal of making Maine a more equitable place to live. We are stronger together than we are apart. We aim to break down the silos that can isolate us even as we fight for common goals. For example, some advocacy organizations focus on health care; some focus on workers’ rights; others focus on climate change. But all these issues are inter-connected, and there is strength in standing together to demand cross-sector, multi-dimensional change. We hope that the Vision will provide an opportunity for groups to work across sectors, issue areas, and constituencies.
  3. Shape the public policy discourse when it comes to our collective response to inequities laid bare by the pandemic. Our Vision is supported by data and the daily lives and experiences of Mainers who have been most impacted by COVID-19. Those are the things we want to shape peoples’ thinking about how to meet the challenges we face now and into the future.
  4. Inform and guide policymaking at multiple levels (local, state, federal/legislative, administrative, organizational); build support for the changes we are seeking. This Vision is intended to outline the systemic changes and investments we need and to provide overarching goals we can work toward together. We hope that articulating a shared Vision based on our common values will build support for existing initiatives that align with the shared Vision, will inspire people to get involved in those efforts, will lead to new initiatives that seek to make more parts of the shared Vision a reality, and will shape and guide advocacy in these areas.

The following organizations have joined us.