About us

Our Mission 

We empower people and organizations as we build healthy communities together.

Our Vision

We envision vibrant communities where people thrive and healthful resources are easily accessible.

Our Service Area

We serve Washington and Hancock counties, and we provide additional community health support and leadership across Maine.

Our Guiding Values

  • COLLABORATION: We are committed to collaboration and partnership across sectors and throughout our service area, knowing that we do our best work by building trust, listening to one another, partnering together, and sharing resources, knowledge, and skills.

  • COMPASSION: We demonstrate kindness, respect, and humility in our work with the individuals and groups we serve, as well as our colleagues, partners, and supporters, and ourselves.

  • EXCELLENCE:​ We strive to excel in all that we do and to confront each challenge with a determination to seek the knowledge and skills that will help us achieve our goals.

  • HEALTH EQUITY: We believe that all people must have access to resources and conditions that support their best health and wellbeing, regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, immigration status, age, income level, religion, lived experiences, and more. We commit to continually learn, to create opportunities and environments that help all people thrive, and to address health disparities and inequities within our organization and across our communities.

  • INTEGRITY: ​We operate with integrity and honesty in all that we do.

  • SERVICE: We are community-centered and work in ways that are creative and responsive to community needs.

  • STEWARDSHIP: We take full responsibility for the proper and ethical use of our resources.

Our Work

Healthy Acadia is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that works on a broad range of community health initiatives that help Hancock and Washington counties to thrive. Since 2001, we have worked to identify priority health needs and to address root causes. We convene and facilitate numerous collaborative community efforts with shared leadership from many sectors to develop plans and take action to improve health and wellbeing, and to rapidly respond to critical and emergent health needs in our communities. 

The scope of our work encompasses seven general areas of focus:

  • Strong Beginnings to support healthy development and resilience from birth to adulthood;

  • Healthy Food for All to ensure that all people have access to nutritious, affordable food, and to make the healthy choice the easy choice;

  • Active and Healthy Environments to ensure that our indoor and outdoor spaces are safe, healthy, and promote physical activity and wellness;

  • Healthy Aging to ensure that all of us can age well — with strength, dignity, comfort, and grace;

  • Substance Prevention and Recovery to support people of all ages to live lives free of substance misuse and substance use disorder, and to support individuals throughout their recovery journey; and

  • Health Promotion and Management to improve community supports across a wide range of health needs, from cancer patient navigation and stress reduction to barrier removal for health challenges and chronic disease and pain self-management.

  • Basic Needs to address adverse social conditions that contribute to poor health and health outcomes by improving access to resources that address unmet health-related social needs, including housing stability, safe transportation, nutritious food and safe water, resource navigation, barrier removal, and related supports.

Our History

At Healthy Acadia, we believe that every person must have a fair and equally accessible opportunity to attain their highest level of health.

We are a community health coalition, working since 2001 with hundreds of partners and thousands of community members across our region to address a wide range of locally-identified health priorities. Working together, we build partnerships, coordinate education and public health services, and improve policies, systems and environments to create lasting positive changes to the health and well-being of our communities.

Click here to see how we’ve grown together in our first 20 years.

For the past 20 years, and into the next twenty, you lift our work to greater and greater impact on a mission to make the healthy choice the easy choice for all. Together, we are truly building health resources and wellness across our communities. Community health connects us all, and together, we make health happen.