History

Dedicated to Furthering Opportunity

The Rural Futures Fund was created from the estate of Emanuel and Pauline A. Lerner, philanthropists and owners of a successful business in the Washington, D.C. area. Mr. and Mrs. Lerner loved Maine, and they were frequent visitors to the state. The Lerners believed deeply in the importance of equal opportunity. The Rural Futures Fund, through our grant making activities, is dedicated to furthering opportunity for people in Maine.

Following several years of making grants to a variety of organizations throughout Maine, in 2017 the Rural Futures Fund announced our decision to direct its resources to raise and sustain the aspirations of students in rural Maine through a pilot project called The Aspirations Incubator. The pilot expands the reach of a youth development program model pioneered by Trekkers, an outdoor-based mentoring organization in midcoast Maine.  Trekkers has developed an evidence-based set of Youth Programming Principles that inform the design and implementation of their programming.  After a lengthy solicitation and vetting process, we announced our grantee partners, and each site went to work learning about the Trekkers Youth Programming Principles, designing a mentoring program model suited to their own organization and community, and implementing that program with small cohorts of students.  Now in its final year of programming, the Aspirations Incubator currently engages students in Grades 7-12 at five sites across the state of Maine.

As we look ahead to the final year of the Aspirations Incubator, our guiding question is: What are the conditions necessary to successfully launch and maintain a long-term, aspirations-building model that can change lives for adolescents in rural communities?  We will be sharing our findings and reflections as the pilot program unfolds on the Aspirations Incubator website, and we invite you to follow along.