Encouraging Maine students to aim high and go far with the Aspirations Incubator
Important Announcement from the Rural Futures Fund: A New Chapter Ahead
After 18 years of investing in Maine’s young people and working to close the aspirations gap through innovative grantmaking and programs - including our signature Aspirations Incubator - the Rural Futures Fund will be sunsetting on December 31, 2025.
But don’t worry - our work continues!
The Aspirations Incubator will have a new home at the Rural Youth Institute, where it will continue to grow and flourish. At the Rural Youth Institute, the Aspirations Incubator will serve as a driving force for innovation in youth development, helping to shape the field through training, research, and advocacy.
We’re excited for this next chapter and invite you to follow our ongoing work here: www.ruralyouthinstitute.org
Together with the board and staff at the Rural Youth Institute, we remain committed to ensuring that every young person in rural Maine - and beyond - has the opportunity, support, and relationships they need to pursue their aspirations.
The Aspirations Incubator invests in students in Maine’s rural communities starting in middle school.
The Rural Futures Fund and our Aspirations Incubator partners believe that relationships matter – between a grantmaker and grantees and among young people and their mentors. That’s why in 2017, the Fund committed all of its assets – more than $8 million -- to focus on one big bet: The Aspirations Incubator.
The Aspirations Incubator is grounded in the beliefs that:
Middle school students are at a critical developmental stage that offers a unique window of opportunity for mentoring and support that can change lives
Mentoring, support, and broadening experiences, when provided to students during the 6 critical years between middle school and high school graduation, can broaden a sense of possibility and resiliency, impart and nurture social and leadership skills, and create interest in and access to higher education and career possibilities
More students will go on to receive post-secondary degrees, advanced degrees and career training as a result of their long-term mentoring relationships
Mission
The exclusive mission of the Rural Futures Fund is to support the Aspirations Incubator, a six-year pilot initiative created by the Fund that is designed to raise and sustain the postsecondary aspirations of students in Maine’s small cities and rural communities.
We are focused on determining the conditions necessary to successfully launch and maintain a long-term, comprehensive aspiration-building model for 7th-12th grade students in rural communities.
Looking to the Future
We are evaluating our progress on the Aspirations Incubator program. An interim evaluation of Years 1-3 was published in Spring 2021, and provides a comprehensive analysis of program implementation and student outcomes from the first half of the Aspirations Incubator pilot.