During this year’s Maine Fishermen’s Forum, I was fortunate enough to sit on a panel for the Island Institute as they launched their Strengthening Maine’s Fishing Futures toolkit. The toolkit is a collaboration of local business support and workforce development organizations, including SCEC, and includes resources, assistance, and financing available to fishermen and their families. The aim of this program is to provide tools and services crafted to the needs of our local commercial fishing communities to help make fishing more profitable and/or diversify fishermen’s income. My role on the panel was to represent some of the work we do in Washington County. I look forward to seeing how these new tools and programs can be used to increase income for fishermen in our region.
This week, the TIDE Webinar series, a collaboration between the Island Institute and the Small Business Development Centers of Maine, will launch. This webinar series covers a variety of commercial fishing-related topics from budgeting and bookkeeping to tax preparation, credit building, and financing. One of the tools covered throughout this series is the Profit Decoder – an online financial management tool, that was customized in partnership with the Island Institute, to fit the needs of those in the commercial fishing industry. You can learn more about the Profit Decoder tool here.
Additional programming is being done in collaboration with the Island Institute and the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs includes the Fishing Plus Program, which focuses on providing assistance and business support to fishing families looking to diversify their income through new business ideas. This program involves connecting directly with fishermen and their families so that business supports can be tailored to the needs of our commercial fishing communities. This assistance involves hands-on guidance including workshops and training, as well as an ongoing peer support network to help build economic resilience in our fishing communities.
In addition to the business support offerings highlighted here, panelists from other communities along our coastline attended the Forum to showcase the awesome work they’re doing in their regions including the DISCoHub in Stonington and the St. George School CTE/Makerspace, as well as the Rural Aspirations projects happening throughout our state. If you’d like to learn more about any of the resources mentioned in this article, please reach out to me directly at asmith@sunrisecounty.org.
