An interim report on the Aspirations Incubator, an innovative six-year pilot program to raise the educational and career aspirations of young people in rural Maine, is showing promising evidence that the initiative is helping students feel more connected to their community, more open to new experiences and people, more engaged in school and more confident about their high school graduation and post-secondary education.

The I Know Me program of The Game Loft in Belfast is one of six programs from around the state taking part in the Aspirations Incubator.

“We are on the right track in terms of helping young people aim higher and dream bigger,” said Don Carpenter, senior program officer for the Lerner Foundation which created the Aspirations Incubator and provides ongoing support to the program and its partners. “The strong mentoring relationships that are developed through this program and the new people and experiences students are exposed to are having an impact on how they see themselves in their communities and the larger world around them.”

According to Carpenter, more than half of the school-aged population in Maine lives in rural areas, and these students face different challenges than those faced by their urban and suburban peers. They are more likely to feel lonely and disconnected and often lack the opportunities to help them see the career and life opportunities open to them through education and training beyond high school.

At a time when 21st Century jobs increasingly require education and training beyond high school, only 32% of Maine residents over the age of 25 hold bachelors, advanced, or professional degrees compared with the rates in the neighboring states of Massachusetts (44%), Vermont (38%) and New Hampshire (37%), the report notes.

Moreover, almost 121,000 Maine adults – about 11% of the adult population – started post-secondary education but did not complete a degree or certificate. This low post-secondary attainment rate threatens the future of Maine’s rural communities and further limits the prospects for Maine’s rural youth.

The Lerner Foundation created the Aspirations Incubator in 2016 to address these challenges. After several years of traditional grantmaking to organizations in Maine, the foundation’s board of directors made the decision to spend all of the foundation’s resources on a single effort to raise and sustain the aspirations of young people in rural Maine.

“We put all of the Foundation’s assets on the line for this one initiative,” said Erin Cinelli, executive director of the Lerner Foundation. “Our single focus is creating a model that will raise aspirations and change the direction of young people’s lives in rural Maine and beyond.”

After three full years of programming with more than 250 students, the data show many positive outcomes for Aspirations Incubator participants from around the state:

 93% agreed that the program had helped them feel connected to their community.

 More than 70% reported positive growth on measures related to learning and school engagement.

 95% reported that the program helped them to experience new places and 98% said the program helped them accept people who are different from them.

 70% reported positive growth on at least four measures of resiliency.

 99% of 8th graders believe they will finish high school – and 88% believe they will pursue a post-secondary degree.

In addition, Aspirations Incubator students in the program’s first two cohorts were half as likely to be chronically absent (missing 18 or more days of school in a year) compared with others at their grade level – an important measure since chronic absenteeism is linked to a cascade of negative outcomes, including dropping out of school, and experiencing poverty, poor health, and involvement in the criminal justice system later in life.

The Aspirations Incubator model is based on a set of Youth Programming Principles developed by Trekkers, a successful youth development organization in Midcoast Maine that was led for many years by Carpenter. The program design features strong mentoring relationships with adults and peers over a six-year period from 7th grade through high school, coupled with experiential learning, travel, and outdoor adventure.

“Programs in and of themselves don’t change lives, but the relationships built within programs do,” said Carpenter. “What is so unique about the Aspirations Incubator is that not only does it last for six years, but it also allows us to build these relationships from the start, starting in 7th grade, a critical time in youth development.”

Six partner sites from around the state were chosen to be part of the Aspirations Incubator initiative. In addition to the Game Loft, they are: the EdGE Program of the Maine Seacoast Mission, Cherryfield; the Old Town/Orono YMCA in Old Town; Chewonki, Wiscasset; the UMaine 4-H Center, Bryant Pond; and Apex Youth Connection, Biddeford.

Using the Aspiration Incubator model design, each partner has designed a mentoring program best suited to its own organization and they all have formed a close partnership with the local school district. Each site centers its program on four areas of program practice – mentoring experiential learning, social and emotional development, and college and career readiness – while also reflecting the unique characteristics of their home community.

The Lerner Foundation provides both financial support and technical assistance to its partners. Each program receives $600,000 from the Foundation over the six years, intensive training from the Trekkers Training Institute, and ongoing coaching.

The evaluation of the Aspirations Incubator’s first three years was conducted by the Data Innovation Project (DIP) at the University of Southern Maine’s Cutler Institute. It covers the period from September 2017 to August 2020. As it has from the program’s inception, the DIP provides independent monitoring and evaluation of the program’s successes and challenges.

Lerner Foundation support for the Aspirations Incubator will end in 2023 when all of its financial resources have been expended, but it is the foundation’s hope that the aspirations-raising model it is creating can live on and be adopted by other youth development programs in Maine and other places around the country.

“While most foundations seek to perpetuate their grant-making ability, we have chosen a different path,” said Eliot Cutler, president of the Lerner Foundation board of directors. “We are confident that our big bet on raising aspirations of rural Maine youth will pay off and inspire others to help take up this challenge.”

A full copy of the Aspirations Incubator interim report can be found here.
To learn more about the Aspiration Incubator, please visit www.aspirationsincubator.org.