Dear
Readers,
The Maine Community
Action Association (MCAA) is pleased to present: Poverty in
Maine 2006. This is a follow up to the first profile
produced in 2003. Like that effort, this profile presents a
picture of poverty in the state based on the most current,
reliable data available from state and federal sources. We are
excited to highlight and illustrate trends that will help Maine’s
leaders at the local, state and federal levels more fully
understand the issues and scope of poverty by seeing at a glance
where we were and where we are headed. More important, we hope
they will use that understanding to design policies and programs
that are most responsive to the needs of Maine’s most
vulnerable citizens and most depressed communities.
This profile was
developed with the generous support of the Maine Department of
Health and Human Services and all ten members of the Maine Community Action Association. We would like to
thank the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University
of Maine for organizing and analyzing the data and for preparing
this publication. We also would like to thank staff of the Maine
Department of Health and Human Services Office of Integrated
Access and Support and the Maine State Housing Authority for
their cooperation, and for providing the Margaret Chase Smith
Policy Center access to information from their reports and
databases.
Respectfully,
Fenwick L Fowler,
President,
Maine Community Action Association
