25th Anniversary!
Support our 25th Anniversary Fund!
We hope you will consider making a generous donation to our 25th Anniversary Fund to help us meet the rising demand and need for our evidence-based violence prevention programs. We need gifts at all levels, from $10 to $10,000. Thank you!
On October 5th we enjoyed a wonderful 25th Anniversary Celebration event. Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us, our Community Courage Awardees, corporate sponsors, auction donors, and supporters. Such a grand seed was planted 25 years ago!
Community Courage Awards
Meet our 25th Anniversary Community Courage Award recipients!
Chris Kelleher
In his eight years as Program Manager, Chris has delivered our Reducing Sexism & Violence Program (RSVP®) to thousands of Maine youth. His commitment has shaped our focus on empathy, connection, and belonging as a core foundation of violence prevention. Chris embodies everything that Maine Boys to Men is, and we want to shout that to the world!
Chris originally hails from New York with a decade or so stop off in New Hampshire before finding his way to Maine where he resides in Freeport with his partner and newborn daughter Lyra. He is passionate about building relationships and engaging with youth and youth serving adults in Maine in unique and transformative ways. Chris finds value in investing his time in the communities he lives in to encourage safety, connection, and growth in promotion of inclusive spaces where folks can feel they can be their authentic selves. He is inspired and humbled by the work at Maine Boys to Men and grateful for all that he has gleaned from the organization around his own relationship to his masculinity as he sets off on his next journey as a stay-at-home father.
Michelle Shupp
In her role as an educator at Scarborough High School, Michelle has led one of our strongest and longstanding school partnerships. Over the past eight years her leadership has allowed thousands of SHS students to access our Reducing Sexism & Violence Program (RSVP®). She is truly a champion of changing school culture in a positive way.
As a queer, Asian child of an immigrant, Michelle grew up feeling unsafe in school and the world. She became a teacher with one goal in mind: to provide a safe space for kids to exist as their whole selves. Kids across the gender and sexuality spectra suffer from the stereotypes and boxes imposed upon them by society. For 23 years, Michelle’s passion in education has been to provide a place wherein students can take the lead and seek out truth regarding healthy communication and boundaries. Their bodies, their voices, their rules.
Alex Wu
Alex is a Junior at Scarborough High School who has been involved with our Youth Advisory Council for the last two years. A staunch advocate for gender equity, Alex has dedicated much of their time and energy to advancing our mission by appearing on The Youth Take: A Maine Boys to Men Podcast, helping us team facilitate violence prevention workshops, and advising our team on keeping our curricula relevant to young people.
Apart from Maine Boys to Men, Alex is involved in Democracy Maine, the League of Women Voters, debate team, GSA, and civil rights club. For fun, Alex is currently fixated on origami, random research projects, and legislative advocacy.
Alex’s commitment to creating safer, stronger communities is inspiring!
Donna Brown
Donna is the Executive Director for the Wabanaki Women’s Coalition, a non-profit tribal domestic and sexual violence coalition that serves the Wabanaki tribes of Maine. Donna is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation of Indian Island, Maine, and the Algonquin First Nation of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg located in Maniwaki, Quebec. Donna’s pronouns are she, her, and hers.
Donna earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 2007 and her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Maine in 2012. Her desire to support and advocate for the rights, health and safety of others led her to serve in a variety of positions over the past 25+ years including adult case manager; trainer; research assistant; grant writer; domestic violence shelter aid; and consultant to develop Healing to Wellness Court programs.
Donna is a traditional dancer and master beadwork artist who carries on the traditions of her people, through elaborate beadwork on regalia and modern-day garments. Her work has appeared in various exhibits, museums, and galleries. Donna also helps to teach community members the fine art of regalia making and traditional dances as a form of healing and to promote resiliency.
As Executive Director of Wabanaki Women’s Coalition, Donna led the expansion of our programs into Maine’s five tribal communities over the last three years. She is a heart-centered leader who is always thinking about ways to create partnerships that are based on relationships and authentic connections.
Guy Mpoyi
Guy Mpoyi Tshitoko has been a contractor for Maine Boys to Men since 2019, facilitating violence prevention groups of immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking men in the Men Connect for New Mainers program. This work draws on Guy’s extensive experience and provides a safe space for men to discuss complex masculinity, healthy relationships, self-care, and identity issues.
Guy serves as Senior Human Services Counsel at the City of Portland’s Resettlement Program. He also advocates for accessible transportation for the immigrant community and has served as a Community Transportation Leader for the Mobility for All campaign of the Greater Portland Council of Government (GPCOG) where he coordinated with GPCOG, Metro and South Portland bus services to create the Bus Ambassadors Program to help new riders learn how to use public transportation in our region. He is on the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee and the project advisory committee for “Connect 2045”.
Guy is a community garden assistant, cultivating access to land and fresh food for the low-income community in the Portland area. He is also a student at USM who speaks and reads English, French, Lingala, and Swahili. Guy lives in Portland since seeking asylum from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013. While he is joined here with his sister, brother-in-law and niece, he misses family members that are still in the Congo.
Many thanks to our 25th Anniversary Sponsors!
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
BronzE Sponsors
Bangor Savings Bank
Prevention. Action. Change.
A few highlights of our quarter century of impact:
In partnership with the US Department of Justice, we’ve created the most comprehensive gender-based violence prevention curricula for youth in the nation.
15,000 youth have been empowered as leaders and changemakers that take action to make their schools, athletic teams, peer groups, and whole communities safer and stronger for all people.
Organizations across the country are seeking out our programs. We’re no longer Maine’s best kept secret and our new Training Institute is greatly increasing our impact!
When youth feel supported and seen by the adults in their lives, they create positive change. That’s why we now work with hundreds of youth-serving adults each year, providing them with professional and personal development that ripples through our communities.