Commonspace

The Portland Peer/Perry center will be closed this Wednesday, May 27th, and Friday May 29th for staff training. Our doors will be open during our normal hours on Tuesday and Thursday.

Right back at you Community Housing of Maine! We are so grateful to be in partnership with you, and so thankful for the housing solutions you are providing for our community!

Join us this Friday, May 22nd at the Portland Peer Center for a Peer-Led variety showcase from 4:30–6:30 PM!

Come share your talents or cheer on others in the community during this open mic-style event featuring music, poetry, comedy, art, and more! Whether you want to perform or just enjoy the atmosphere, you're welcome here. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Perry center will be closed this upcoming Wednesday, May 13th for the HOPE conference in Augusta! We will be back open on Thursday 🐝

We are so grateful for our partnership with Community Housing of Maine, and we love Mike!!

We recently visited one of our communities and had the chance to spend time with Mike – and we’re so glad we did.

He was all smiles, welcoming, and clearly at home. Seeing that made it even more meaningful to reflect on how far he’s come.

When Mike first moved into one of CHOM’s homes, he kept to himself.

Referred from a transitional housing program for people experiencing homelessness, he was navigating more than just finding a place to live. Day-to-day responsibilities and processes felt overwhelming, and for a time, it was hard for him to fully engage.

But with stable housing and consistent support, things began to shift.

Over time, Mike found his footing. He became more connected, more confident, and more comfortable in his community.

Today, Mike has stepped into a peer leadership role – working alongside CHOM and our service provider partner Commonspace to help support the house and the people who live there.

From someone who once stayed on the margins, to someone helping lead – his journey is a powerful reminder of what stability and opportunity can make possible.

This is what housing can do.

💙 We hope you’ll consider helping us create more stories like Mike’s: www.chomhousing.org/donate

We’re excited to announce the launch of our brand-new Portland Peer Center website!

Our Portland Peer Center site makes it easier than ever to explore resources, stay connected, and find the information you need regarding Commonspace's peer work—all in one place.

Whether you’re looking to get involved, meet with our intentional peer support specialists, learn more about our peer programs and groups, or connect with the community, we’ve built this site with you in mind.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Peer Center newsletter while you’re there! It’s the best way to stay up to date on upcoming events, new resources, and community highlights from our peers at the center.

Check it out today and let us know what you think!

Get more website visits

Commonspace is a place of hope. Our central philosophical position is a belief in each other, in ourselves, and in our community. This purposeful outlook of optimism and hopeful expectation, tempered but not deterred by the experience of supporting our peers through the wreckage of harmful policies and broken support systems, derives from the hundreds of examples of recovery and transformation we have witnessed and supported over many decades.

We are a place of hope, even in times of severe darkness. Today, it is dark in Maine, and it is dark in this country. Our unhoused peers face immense challenges in trying to find housing due to policy-setting and decision-making that has reduced affordable housing units and subsidies. Historic percentages of us are impacted by mental health and substance use challenges at a time when funding for treatment and recovery resources are being cut, and stigmatizing language and practices of the dark past have begun to re-emerge. Our immigrant peers are being targeted for harassment and kidnapping by lawless federal agents, following orders from a federal government that has our country on the precipice of authoritarianism.

Commonspace is not a political entity in any sense, and none of the above statements are political. They are factual assessments of a community and a country in crisis, and an honest acknowledgement that we are living through an era that feels like one long, dark winter.

But our candles are lit in this place of hope. There will be a sunrise, and we will be there to greet it.

Send a message to learn more

Check out our January group calendar for our Portland Peer Community Center--come join us!

We are so grateful to City of Portland, Maine and to MaineHousing for developing and funding this effort. Through the efforts of Commonspace and our partners, many of our previously unsheltered neighbors now have a place of their own and connections to supports. So proud of our community ❤️

A year in, Portland’s pilot housing first program helped house dozens of people The city and MaineHousing hope to continue the program for at least another year.

We are so grateful to Caravan Beads and to everyone who donated to support our unhoused neighbors on Community Day! ❤️

With your help we were able to raise $442 to donate to to support the unhoused in our community! Thank you again to all who attended our community day❤️ Stay tuned for future events ✨

Dear friends of Commonspace--thank you for all of the love and concern shown towards us and the families we are supporting at our YMCA Family Shelter, as we face the program's potential closure due to a significant delay in promised federal funding. We are going to do everything we can to maintain this space of shelter and safety for as long as possible. We are overwhelmed and grateful by the offers of support we have received from our community. We do not engage in self-promotion, but we recognize that many people are seeking to help us right now, and to help the families supported in our emergency shelter. Any effort to support this work would be deeply appreciated, and can be made at this link on our website: https://www.commonspacemaine.org/donate
Our community is so much stronger than the forces of fear and hate that are making lots of noise all around us. Love always wins in the end.

Donate — commonspace DONATE commonspace is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization & contributions are tax deductible. Support our work.commonspace is committed to maintaining the spirit of our grassroots origins and staying people-centered and human-scale, while supporting changes and outcomes that are transformati...