The non-profit organization Youth Promise has closed its Newcastle office and moved into a vacant mother-in-law apartment in the Damariscotta home of executive director Mary Trescot.
The state government forced the move with a 45 percent cut to the funds the agency receives from the Fund for a Healthy Maine, Trescot said.
The move will allow the organization to continue all its programs and retain all its employees, Trescot said.
Exact figures on the cuts were not immediately available, as the organization’s files are in boxes while the new office is set up.
“We thought we were going to take a 30 percent cut,” Trescot said.
She said she thinks the legislature was under the same impression when it passed the budget in question.
The mission of Youth Promise is “to develop and support the continual growth of the well-being of our youth and families through education and outreach,” according to the agency’s website.
The organization works with juveniles in the criminal justice system and other “at risk youth,” according to the website.
The Youth Promise office had been at its location at 597 Rt. 1 for 11 years, Trescot said.
She said Youth Promise would have been able to pay the rent, but it would have required the organization to cut a program.
“I’m not willing to do that,” she said.
The apartment has adequate office space for Youth Promise’s six employees, including Trescot, one other full-time employee and four part-time employees who work 20-24 hours per week.
She said meetings will likely take place in other locations, such as a room at the nearby headquarters of the Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service or a local church.
Trescot said she expects Youth Promise to remain in the new office for 1-2 years while it builds new partnerships in the community and eventually looks for another home.
For now, anyone who wishes to contact the agency should call Trescot at 380-6075.
District Court Judge Michael Westcott organized the Lincoln County Juvenile Task Force in 1994 to develop resources for Lincoln County youth in the criminal justice system, according to the Youth Promise website. The organization was renamed in 2000.
Trescot said the change will not affect her campaign for county commissioner.
Trescot (D-Damariscotta) is running against incumbent Sheridan Bond (R-Jefferson).