MaineBusiness.com

Employees of the Northeast State and Local Government/Education Division of Cisco’s Public Sector Segment are helping some Maine families get a new start. For the past four months the employees, who work in Cisco sales offices from Maine to New York, collected donations of new and gently used household items for families graduating from Stepping Stones Family Services, a residential family services program with locations across Maine.
On Friday, October 23, Cisco employees will deliver a U-Haul truck of goods to the StepUP! residence at 15 Fenderson Street in Saco and will erect a small building to serve as the "Hope Chest Store", where families in the program earn credits toward basic household and child care supplies that they need as they move into their own homes and toward stability, self-sufficiency, and lives free of government assistance. Lowe's in Scarborough donated supplies and materials for the building. The employees will work on the building from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Stepping Stones is a program of MAPS Worldwide, a non-profit Maine organization founded in 1977 with a focus on permanency and stability for children. The intensive family reunification program has locations in Bangor, Machias and Fairfield in addition to its Saco residence. Services include infant/child assessment and mental health intervention; teaching and assessment for parents; evaluative services for mothers and fathers; life skills classes; nurturing/parenting groups; on-site childbirth education; and other programs to meet the needs of homeless, pregnant, parenting, and at-risk young people and their children.