Golden Opportunity

At A Glance

Location: 

Lewiston, Maine

Primary Issue Area:

  • Living Economies
  • Food
  • Environmental Health

Active since:

2019

Core volunteers:

8

Our Purpose

Our purpose is to help older immigrant men and women, from 45-75, stay healthy, upscale their skills, obtain employment and remain employed, volunteer in the community, overcome trauma, and live a fruitful, and satisfying life. This is a very difficult challenge because it is precisely these individuals who have skills that were useful and economically viable in our home countries--nomad families moving their herds across vast expanses of land--but in Lewiston Maine, these people are marginalized, even disliked openly by others in the host community both on the job and in the community. Few of these constituents speak English fluently and many still not at all. There are about 200-300 people in this category, either living alone or with children and grandchildren. They are lonely, isolated and have few places to go and enjoy their American lives. Their children all work and have become Americanized. Their grandchildren are technology rabbits and don't even have time for them anymore. Of all the ethnic based community nonprofits in Lewiston-Auburn, there was not a single one that cared about or offered assistance to people in the 45-75 category. Five of us came together--men and women aged in our fifties and sixties and organized Golden Opportunity in November 2109. We received 501c3 status in December of 2019. We are actively helping this group: we started Learning Circles to engage our consituency in designing a course of action to improve their futures. Now?