Healthy Acadia NNLM Outreach and Community Engagement Project

Through the proposed project, Healthy Acadia will work across Downeast, Maine, including Washington and Hancock counties, to plan and conduct community engagement activities, centered on increasing access to and awareness of National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources. A primary focus of our work will be to reach three audiences: 1) those experiencing substance use disorders; 2) those using languages other than English, and 3) those in rural areas. Since our entire service region of Downeast Maine is rural, we will be including general public outreach as part of our work to reach those in rural areas.

We will reach those with substance use disorders by engaging with our robust recovery support teams in each county, providing NLM online resource training to staff so that they will be well prepared to incorporate these resources with their clients in recovery through individual outreach, group trainings, and events (virtually and in person as able). We will reach our growing community of non-native English speakers through our Community Outreach and Equity Coordinator and by working in partnership with Mano en Mano to provide training and community engagement events (virtually and in person as able) for the Latinx community Downeast, as well as potentially others. Finally, we will reach rural populations (which includes our entire population) by coordinating multiple educational programs, including virtual and in-person offerings, primarily in conjunction with community partners, as well as through current COVID-19 education, Tai Chi for Health, National Diabetes Prevention and Cancer Patient Navigator programs that we offer to the public. Healthy Acadia will build on past successful NLM outreach efforts, deepening and broadening our engagement with community members throughout the region.