About Us
Our Values
The Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) is a statewide Network of support for youth and adults who are striving to effect positive change. We strongly believe in the power of youth and adult partnerships, and the capacity we all have to change the world we live in.
What makes the Network powerful is the community of individual members with their unique skills, ideas and experiences. MYAN acts as a tool for connecting people and programs throughout Maine so that we are each part of something larger than ourselves. Together we can change our state, and the world, for the better.
Our Mission
The Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) trains, supports, connects and advocates for youth organized to effect positive change through school and community-based peer programs. We are a partnership of youth and adult staff working with youth groups, adults who support those groups and organizations interested in involving youth to assist them all in making a difference through youth and adult partnership. Groups and programs of all types can be part of MYAN, including social action, prevention, education, peer listening, mediation, mentoring, health promotion, civil rights and others. If your group is working to make a positive difference, join the network to gain ideas, support and information from other young people and advisors from across the state.
Our History
MYAN is an initiative of the Youth Resiliency Project at the People’s Regional Opportunity Program (PROP) and was initiated in 2001. PROP is a community action agency and was founded in 1965. MYAN was born out of the Statewide Network of Peer Programs (SNPP), a program that had been in existence for only a few years offering limited trainings and technical support to youth groups in Maine and planning and hosting the Peer Leadership Conference. The SNPP program was funded by the Teen and Young Adult Health Program at the Maine Bureau of Health for one staff position and was limited in the amount of support and training it could offer.
In 2001 MYAN renamed SNPP the Maine Youth Action Network to more accurately reflect our belief that the strength of the youth groups working in Maine to create change was not focused on the information, resources or training that one staff person could offer them, but instead the strength was in the experiences, information and resources within the diverse groups all across the state. It felt essential to us to switch the hub of the program away from the staff person and create the infrastructure of a Network of groups of youth partnering with adults to create positive change.
In the first few years, MYAN grew to have funding from the Fischer Foundation and then from a collaborative grant from the Maine Bureau of Health, including 4 programs (Partnership For A Tobacco-Free Maine, Teen and Young Adult Health, Cardiovascular Health Program and Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program) to expand to regional work where we brought groups together across the state to share ideas, information and resources. MYAN also continued offering technical support and training to groups. MYAN partnered with the Institute for Public Sector Innovation at the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine during this time.
Throughout MYAN’s history we have valued meaningful youth involvement, offering opportunities for youth to partner with us to guide, plan and implement our work. As MYAN grew, we added more adult staff, but also added paid youth staff positions. This was an important next step for us in walking our talk. Currently, MYAN has youth volunteer opportunities, youth planning teams for our events, high school internships and college age positions and we continue to challenge ourselves to find additional ways to elevate youth voice at MYAN and in the world.
