Social grace | Casey Bromberg, development director, Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, Waterville
Photo/Tim Greenway
Casey Bromberg stands in a classroom at Educare Central Maine in Waterville
Ask Casey Bromberg about her job, and the first thing you’ll notice is her passion for the people she works to serve through the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program in Waterville. Regardless of the program she’s discussing — whether existing or in the works — her energy is infectious.
It’s this energy, enthusiasm and big-picture mentality that make her a valuable asset to KVCAP, where she’s served for the past year as its first development director. In that time, she’s brought in more than $600,000 in new funding and has played a major role in launching or expanding several new programs.
Bromberg, who grew up in Brewer and attended the University of Maine, says her time as a legislative aide in the Maine House of Representatives helped create the passion she brings to her position. During that time, she saw how politics often got in the way of providing true assistance to Mainers in need. The gubernatorial race has served only to underscore her desire to help others.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the people who rely on social service programs being a burden on the state,” she says. “But when it’s your neighbor, or someone you know, it’s a lot harder to see them as a line item.”
Among her efforts has been helping launch Educare Central Maine, a novel preschool, child care and early learning center in Waterville, which is drawing attention throughout New England. And she’s re-energized existing programs.
When the nonprofit’s low-income energy assistance program received more than 14,000 applications last year, Bromberg knew the organization lacked the capacity to help everyone, so she investigated alternatives.
With homeowners making up more than half of the applicant pool, Bromberg seized on an opportunity to involve KVCAP’s Foreclosure Prevention Program counselors in the process and provide homeowners with financial tools and advice to help them better manage their household budgets.
“If we provide budgeting skills and information about available resources at those appointments, we’re putting power back into the hands of homeowners to not only get assistance, but be proactive,” says Bromberg. “Financial literacy hasn’t been well developed here in Maine, mostly because people have always had that ‘the job will always be there’ mentality.”
As those once-reliable jobs disappear, many of the newly unemployed find themselves in the job market for the first time in years, if ever. Bromberg was instrumental in developing a program to help ease them through this jarring transition by providing them with training and resources to find new jobs. She worked with others to create the Kennebec-Somerset Transition Team, which received federal stimulus funds to hire a full-time coordinator.
KSTT offers career counseling in public libraries or town offices in areas of the state that don’t have a Department of Labor CareerCenter. Like many employment organizations, it also holds job fairs throughout the two counties — but with a twist. In order to participate, companies have to demonstrate that they have positions currently available.
Additionally, KSTT offers employment training in the form of a “boot camp,” a sort of adult education program that teaches necessary skills to those who may lack the education and experience to fill available jobs. Bromberg has been a major contributor to the program’s success at helping people — particularly low-income individuals — earn a livable wage and become valuable, contributing members of Maine’s job force.
The program is seeking continued funding, but Bromberg doesn’t let its tenuous financial footing stand in the way of her vision for its future. She’d like the program to expand to provide information and resources to help people advance. Rather than just a job, she wants them to find a career.
Derek Rice
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