Maine Initiatives is thrilled to announce the Immigrant-Led Organizations (ILO) Fund’s 2025 Grantee Cohort, ten immigrant-led organizations whose work advances immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeker flourishing in Maine, unceded Wabanaki Territory. 

The missions of the 2025 ILO Fund Grantee Cohort exemplify the diverse, robust, and highly-skilled immigrant-led ecosystem operating statewide, leading vital efforts across a range of fields including education, gender justice, food access and sovereignty, community building, cultural preservation, health services, healing and movement practices, media production, and youth empowerment. 

• Early Math and Language Initiative
  EMLI creates and supports research-based intervention programs in math and language skills development for children and families in under-resourced communities.
  
• Empowered Immigrant Women Unite
  We inspire empowered immigrant and refugee women to take charge of their lives to provide for their families, experience new places and people, and improve their socio-economic living standards. We equip them with the necessary resources, support, and personal and professional development opportunities. The aim is for these women to improve their well-being and provide better care for their families.
  
• Food For All Services
  FFA’s mission is to provide food-insecure new immigrants with respect, dignity, and appreciation through culturally relevant programming that offers and celebrates cultural food and access to resources.
  
• Gateway Community Services Maine
  Gateway Community Services of Maine (GCSM) seeks to encourage, support and build healthy connections within oneself and others in order to promote vibrancy and wellbeing, along with welcoming communities where all people feel accepted, valued and have a sense of belonging.
  
• Mano en Mano
  Mano en Mano’s mission is to work with and support farmworkers and immigrants to thrive in Maine. We envision a stronger, more inclusive Maine where the contributions of diverse communities are welcomed, access to essential services, education and housing are ensured, and social justice and equity are embraced.
  
• Intercultural Community Center
  The Intercultural Community Center (ICC) in Southern Maine supports immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers by providing no-cost education, social, and health services and opportunities Our goal is to promote a diversity of cultures while equipping individuals with the skills and support they need to thrive in Maine.
  
• Ladder to the Moon Network
  Our mission is to educate the public about Africa and immigration and to advocate for the well-being of all immigrants through various multimedia platforms and events.
  
• Maine Afro Yoga Project
  Our work is rooted in healing through movement, offering a space where individuals can reconnect with their bodies, minds, and spirits. By weaving together yoga, mindfulness, culturally relevant practices, and the joy of dance, we create pathways for transformation, resilience, and self-discovery, particularly for immigrant communities and people of color in Maine.
  
• New Roots Cooperative Farm
  New Roots Cooperative Farm is a worker-owned farm growing fresh, culturally important food for our communities. We build food sovereignty and economic opportunity for immigrant and refugee farmers in Maine. Our mission is to nourish communities while building a cooperative future.
  
• United Youth Empowerment Services
  United Youth Empowerment Services empowers immigrant and refugee youth and their families by providing culturally relevant programs focused on leadership, wellness, and community building. We create safe spaces that foster personal growth, healing, and advocacy. Through recreation, arts, mentorship, and education, we support the next generation of leaders in Lewiston-Auburn.

These organizations were selected by the 2025 ILO Fund Grantmaking Advisory Committee, a 25-person decision-making body with aligned lived experience, wisdom, and expertise in the immigrant-led sector. Hundreds of volunteer Readers also supported the participatory process, reading and evaluating organizations’ applications to the 2025 ILO Fund. 

This is the second cohort of organizations supported through the Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund’s participatory grantmaking program, joining 10 other grantees who receive multi-year, unrestricted $45,000 grants and access to peer learning, training, capacity-building, and community outreach activities over the course of their 3-year grant period. 

Join us in celebrating and supporting these organizations’ essential and transformational work, building self-determination, cultural preservation, capacity-building, and organizing power for immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeker communities in Maine.  

---

The Immigrant-Led Organizations(ILO) Fund at Maine Initiatives is a participatory grantmaking program that funds, strengthens, and convenes immigrant, refugee, and migrant nonprofit organizations in Maine, unceded Wabanaki Territory. The Program seeks to organize people and resources in support of efforts across the state that intervene on persistent issues experienced by immigrants of color: xenophobia, racialized discrimination, and insufficient support from municipal and state governments. For a three-year period, beginning in 2024, the ILO Fund has committed to providing $1.35 million in multi-year, unrestricted, general operating support to immigrant-led organizations. 

Photo: Empowered Immigrant Women Unite