Under the leadership o, and in partnership with the United Way of Mid Coast Maine, our Bath-Brunswick-Topsham Regional Chamber of Commerce had a stellar pilot of the Connecting to Tomorrow workforce programs this past spring. The work culminated in a celebration in May at Union + Co. where the students and businesses who participated in both the Connecting to Tomorrow Internship Program and the Connecting to Tomorrow Video Project were celebrated. The success of the pilot program this spring led to additional funding that will fund these two programs through the full 2025-2026 school year. Along with that, we are currently applying for additional grants and are developing new levels of fiscal support to continue growing and expanding our local workforce program efforts, which I see as a major focus of this chamber of commerce over the next five years. A key part of our next success is the public getting informed on exactly what we have been doing and what the next steps are.

To start at the beginning, our chamber of commerce has been doing workforce programming since late 2020. We built a collaborative network with Morse, Mt. Ararat and Brunswick high schools; Retail Association of Maine; Maine Tourism Association; and Midcoast Youth Center. Four years later, we continue to devise ways we can plug students into different career paths (we have even added Freeport High School) and are garnering statewide recognition for the work we are doing.

The early work began with some American Rescue Plan funds that jumpstarted our initial internship program and career exploration bus tours programs for students. Once those funds were expended, we continued to identify ways we can work together, get businesses in the classroom, find additional funding for field trips, etc.

About that time, the United Way of Mid Coast Maine reached out saying they had some grant funding and a group of business leaders and workforce experts they were working with and wanted to see if we wanted to collaborate on programming. I met with Maggie Cummings from the United Way team and saw our visions were aligned, and we began to work together almost immediately. Somewhere in that meeting (Maggie swears) I blurted out the phrase “connecting to tomorrow,” and it has stuck.

The current grant funding is from the Working Communities Challenge grant, administered by the Boston Federal Reserve. There were six grant recipients in Maine, and the priority for our grant is to reduce teen hopelessness (which was identified through mental health surveys). Our theory is that by showcasing the incredible career opportunities that they can experience in greater Sagadahoc County region (the region identified in the grant) we can reduce the hopelessness of local youth. This is tracked by pre- and post-surveys the students take before and after having the Connecting to Tomorrow program experiences.

We piloted the two programs in the spring of 2025 through four area high schools (including Richmond!), and with that success, we are expanding them for the full school year of 2025-2026 with the additional funding.

This next step is where we really need your help.

When we piloted the internship program this spring, we found that about half of the students had an idea of which career pathway they wanted to explore, while the other half asked for a list of opportunities that we had cultivated from local businesses. We expect the same ratios this school year, and so through July and August, Maggie and I want to collect as many potential internship opportunities as we can so that when we meet with students in the fall, we can say, “Hey here are 30 different internship experiences that are available.”

For business leaders, signing up to be an internship host site may sound daunting — trust us, with this program, it is not. Maggie and I will meet with you and smooth out any concerns you have. The biggest piece for the host sites (be those businesses or nonprofit organizations that are also eligible) is to think about if you had an intern, what experience would you want to give them to showcase your industry?

Ask yourself these questions: 1. What days of the week would I want to have an intern? 2. Which employee would be the best trainer for this student? 3. Do I want the focus to be on one role with more in-depth experiences in that vein, or should it be multiple roles with a broader knowledge of our work?

Here’s the thing: You can make these experiences whatever works for you as the host site. If you want someone only on Saturday mornings, great. If you want to have it just during winter school break, great. If it is a single project you want them to help with, great. If you want them to do five hours in eight different departments, great. There is no wrong way, it’s whatever fits.

Here’s what you need to know:
• Internships are paid by the grant, not the host site.
• Internships are either 20 hours total or 40 hours total (student will receive $275 or $550 depending on which they choose to complete).
• We ask you to do three main things: conduct an entrance interview and an exit interview, and don’t have them sweeping the floor for 20 or 40 hours — they want to learn about your industry, so show them.

As far as the video project goes, that’s for organizations to sign up to have a student video crew come in for one day for about an hour and interview you on camera about a policy you have that “connects to the workforce of tomorrow.” Basically, it’s free promotion, and the students get to learn about your business, they get the experience of setting up and doing and interview, and a video that showcases your business gets produced.

Want to find out more? Then please email cory@midcoastmaine.com, and Maggie and I can come for a chat.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick-Topsham Regional Chamber of Commerce.