$1.2 Million for Augusta Teen and Community Center Secured by Senator Collins in Funding Bill

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that she secured $1,200,000 to expand the Augusta Teen and Community Center in the Fiscal Year 2023 Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill.  As the Ranking Member and lead Republican on the Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Collins secured funding for this project. 

The omnibus funding package passed the Senate by a vote of 68-29.  It will now be passed by the House before heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

“The Augusta Teen and Community Center is a wonderful program that provides at-risk youth with a safe, structured environment to learn new skills, make friends, and have fun,” said Senator Collins.  “I advocated for this project to make improvements to a new building that will allow the Augusta Teen and Community Center to serve more young Mainers and prepare them for a lifetime of success.”

The Augusta Teen and Community Center is a satellite Boys & Girls Club of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Waterville.

For 22 years, the Augusta Teen and Community Center has been the only Augusta-area organization providing free after-school programming for at-risk, low income teenagers.  The program helps these teens learn marketable skills and healthy living habits, increase developmental assets, enhance academic success, and engage in community service.  With growing enrollment, the program is in need of a larger, more functional space.

This funding will renovate a bigger, better-situated, and more functional facility in downtown Augusta to continue to expand and enable new programming.  The space will allow the organization to more than double its capacity and serve 500 teens in the first year of operation as well as provide 20 new jobs immediately.

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