Focus
In 2017, the Rural Futures Fund launched the Aspirations Incubator, a six-year pilot program focused on raising student aspirations and changing lives through mentoring and relationship building with young people in rural Maine communities.
This initiative is the sole focus of the Fund’s philanthropic activities through 2023, and we no longer consider unsolicited proposals.
The Aspirations Incubator invests in middle school students when they are at a critical developmental stage that offers a unique window of opportunity for mentoring and support. This support can broaden a sense of possibility, impart and nurture social and leadership skills, and create interest in and access to higher education and career possibilities.
The Aspirations Incubator supports pilot sites in five rural communities and small cities around the state of Maine. Each site is a partnership between a community-based youth development organization and a local school district. At each site, the partners are designing and implementing a six-year program model for 7th – 12th grade students that adapts Trekkers’ Youth Programming Principles in a way that meets the specific needs and interests of the local community. The Rural Futures Fund provides financial support for capacity building, training and evaluation support, opportunities for convening, and coaching or technical assistance to each pilot site.
The Rural Futures Fund’s approach to grant-making is deeply rooted in our belief in the power of relationships to change lives, and so the Aspirations Incubator is designed to foster and strengthen relationships at multiple levels:
Between students and their communities
Between community-based organizations and local schools
Among the youth-serving organizations in the Aspirations Incubator
Between youth development practitioners at our sites and the broader Positive Youth Development field
Between the Rural Futures Fund and our grantee partners in the Aspirations Incubator
