For many families across Maine, making ends meet is becoming more difficult. The everyday costs of food, transportation, housing, clothing, and other necessities can strain already-tight household budgets. For people experiencing behavioral health challenges, those pressures can create another barrier to getting the care and support they need.
This past year, Spurwink staff saw growing demand for support in making ends meet. Rising costs of living and disruptions to public benefits—including the temporary SNAP benefit freeze in November 2025, rising gas prices, and unfolding changes to MaineCare eligibility—place additional strain on families. In Feeding America’s 2026 Elevating Voices Report, 48% of respondents said that they delayed paying bills like rent, utilities, medical expenses to afford groceries.
At Spurwink, we see how closely basic needs and behavioral health are connected. When a family is worried about putting food on the table, keeping a car on the road, finding safe housing, or paying for medication, focusing on treatment and recovery becomes that much harder. Client Assistance Funds allow Spurwink to respond quickly with modest, practical help when it can make the greatest difference.
Small investments remove big barriers
Supported by generous community partners and grant funders, Spurwink’s Client Assistance Funds provide flexible resources that staff can use to address immediate needs that insurance, government contracts, and other traditional funding sources may not cover.
Sometimes that means groceries, a winter coat, or a tank of gas. Other times, it means solving a very specific problem standing between an individual and greater independence, safety, or participation in treatment.
Recent Client Assistance Funds have helped provide grocery gift cards, gas cards and transportation passes, medication co-pays, winter clothing, temporary lodging, fuel assistance, moving expenses, identification cards, safety equipment, and other necessities. Funds have also helped clients participate in educational and community activities that promote independence, resilience, and connection.
Client Assistance Funds recently supported an individual who was leaving a domestic violence situation and needed immediate support to secure a safe living environment. Securing funds created a more stable footing for the individual to move forward and remain engaged in care.
In another example, Client Assistance Funds helped pay for driver’s education for a young person whose parents both work full-time but could not afford the entire cost of the course. Earning a driver’s permit opened the door to greater independence and future access to school, work, social connection, medial and therapy appointments, and other community resources.
Meeting people where they are
Basic-needs assistance is central to Spurwink’s holistic approach to behavioral health. Spurwink serves more than 10,000 Mainers annually through programs including Behavioral Health Homes, Outpatient and School-Based Counseling, Assertive Community Treatment, and two 24/7 Living Room Crisis Centers.
The reach of these funds is extensive. In Cumberland and York Counties alone, over the past year, Client Assistance Funds generously provided though our United Way of Southern Maine partnership connected 62 youth clients—and an additional 157 of their household members—with resources, services, and supports that helped address basic needs and barriers to care. With the generosity of our funding partners, Spurwink works to maintain the availability of Client Assistance Funds across our statewide services area.
More than a gift card
One of the most powerful things about Client Assistance Funds is their flexibility. A person’s biggest obstacle to treatment may not be something that appears in a traditional treatment plan. It might be groceries. It might be gas. It might be safe temporary housing. It might be an overdue medication co-pay, winter clothing, or transportation to work. Or it might be a piece of equipment that allows someone to participate fully in their own care.
Recently, when a Spurwink clinician noticed that a participant with hearing loss was struggling to participate in a therapy group, Client Assistance Funds provided by The Kendal C. and Anna Ham Charitable Foundation were used to purchase an audio amplifier for her. After receiving it, the participant described the immediate difference it made:
“…A simple thing as hearing becomes isolating when lost. I was spending our meetings exhausting myself to just follow along. I often isolate from the outside world because I simply can’t regulate the noise. Last Thursday was proof that I’m not alone and I am seen for WHO I AM. I was valued right along with a need I was struggling to adjust. You went the extra mile to remind me what exactly inclusiveness felt like as a receiver of a simple gift. To hear…Getting that device, I didn’t expect the event to make such a huge change in a single moment for me. I put it on, adjusted that volume with testing, and BOOM. Like thunder, my mind felt quieter. My ability to follow along was easier once again. My cry was joy, gratitude, and finally some calmness. I have used it every day since. I am extremely grateful!”
Meeting a basic need can do much more than solve an immediate problem. It can help someone feel included, maintain their connection to treatment, regain independence, or take another step toward stability.
Grants in Action
As the cost of everyday necessities continues to put pressure on Maine households, flexible resources like Client Assistance Funds give Spurwink staff another tool to respond to the realities clients are facing.
These dollars may be modest, but their impact can be significant. They address the circumstances surrounding behavioral health care, helping people overcome immediate barriers so they can stay engaged in treatment, pursue education and employment, and move toward greater safety and stability.
Spurwink thanks our funding partners who have made Client Assistance Funds—and critical, foundational basic needs supports—possible over the past year:
- The Margaret E. Burnham Charitable Trust
- The Kendal C. and Anna Ham Charitable Foundation
