Our Mission
Maine Youth Thriving (MyT, pronounced “mighty”) helps communities promote research-informed resilience practices that foster positive experiences, relationships and environments, ensuring a flourishing future for all our young people.
Our Vision
MyT envisions a future where every young person in Maine can flourish in a healthy, supportive community.
Our Strategic Goals
We are committed to weaving the science of the positive into Maine’s communities especially during times of struggle and uncertainty. This is why our strategic goals are to:
Elevate Youth Voices – so we can promote what actually matters to Maine youth.
Care for Caring Adults – because youth can only thrive if the adults in their lives can too.
Convene a Statewide Movement for Systems Change – because we must move from surviving to thriving by transforming the conditions in which youth live, learn, work, grow, and play.
We believe that by investing in young Mainers today, our communities can go from surviving to thriving.
What We Do
MyT is dedicated to fostering resilient communities that prioritize the positive. We do this by building awareness, education, and partnership. Our team of experts provide healing- and equity-centered professional development, comprehensive programs, resources, and individualized consultations to youth-serving professionals, healthcare providers, educators, caregivers and community members.
Through these grassroots efforts, we aim to make a positive and lasting impact on the lives of Maine’s future generations. By translating the latest research to provide awareness, education and support to communities and systems of care (including families, schools, healthcare facilities and youth-serving organizations), MyT can positively impact the conditions youth grow up in, fostering their resilience and increasing mental and physical wellbeing.
Our Approach
MyT changes the systems that impact youth from birth to emerging adulthood and empower those youth with the tools they need to successfully navigate life’s challenges. Our work is resilience-focused, trauma-informed, equity-centered and based on an upstream prevention approach.
Our innovative, research-based services and programs are fueled by the science of Positive Psychology and Positive Childhood Experiences. As prevention specialists, MyT serves Maine communities as facilitators, trainers and consultants. We leverage research to educate, empower and partner with larger community systems (families, schools, healthcare facilities, organizations), thereby dramatically increasing the impact we have on youth thriving across the state. We also develop programs and events that serve as grassroots resources for families and youth-serving professionals seeking to be more effective and inclusive in supporting young people along the path to thriving.
Our Commitment
MyT’s pursuit of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as a moral imperative is integral to our mission of fostering resilience and wellbeing in Maine’s communities. Shaped by input from MyT’s stakeholders and approved by our board of directors, this commitment guides our efforts. MyT affirms the inherent dignity of every person we engage with, and works to dismantle inequities within our policies, programs, and services. We strive to create an environment where all individuals can flourish and reach their full potential.
As an organization, we hold ourselves accountable to the ongoing learning and actions required for effective achievement of these goals. We are intentional in our partnerships and stand in solidarity with movements supporting historically marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities. The staff at MyT humbly acknowledge and honor the Indigenous communities whose ancestral homelands and resources were taken and colonized in the creation of this nation and state. We recognize that we operate on land that is held sacred by the Wabanaki Confederacy. We honor them as the ancestral and spiritual stewards of this land and their descendants who continue to breathe sacred life into this land and all lands across the country.