New home, more jobs, expanded services on horizon for Port Resources

SOUTH PORTLAND — After 32 years, social service agency Port Resources is finally getting a home of its own.

Founded in December 1979, Port Resources opened its first six-bed group home for developmentally disabled adults in July 1980. Today, it operates 20 homes staffed round-the-clock in the greater Portland area, providing 120 adults and children with residential care and serving another 50 via outreach programs.

“Our mission and goal is to help these wonderful people we work with achieve their independence,” said Dianne Procida, president of the company’s board of directors.

Housed in cramped quarters on John Roberts Road in South Portland, Port Resources broke ground Friday on a 20,000–square-foot facility on Gannett Drive that should open in July at a cost pegged by Procida at “more than $2 million.”

“It’s been the board’s vision for years that we wouldn’t rent, that we’d have our own space,” said Karen MacDonald, executive director. “This allows us to continue thrive and grow in tough times when a lot of organizations are taking a wait-and-see approach, which is a hard choice because there already are not enough resources for the services we provide.”

MacDonald said Port Resources has “about 1,000 people” on a waiting list for its developmentally disabled and mental-health services. The new facility, she said, will allow the company to “double and quadruple our mental-health programs over time,” with increased revenue from expanded offerings making construction costs “a wash.”

“We’re looking for ways to support ourselves rather than wait for the state to solve our problems,” she said, referencing recent and expected cuts in funding from Augusta.

In addition to providing space for administration and mental-health programming, the new facility also will serve as a training center for those who work with the mentally challenged, not only at Port Resources but also throughout the industry.

“Our primary goal is to service folks with developmental disabilities, but we’ve taken it a step further,” explained Procida. “We dealing with not only training those folks with disabilities [for life skills and job placement], but training the staff that works with the folks, as well as developing software programs that help other agencies with billing.”

The new building also means new jobs.

MacDonald said Port Resources now employs 10 people in mental health outpatient services – providing assessment and evaluations, dispensing medications and counseling, as well as family and group therapy. As the new building gets up and running, that “could double in a year’s time.”

“This new building is going to allow us to take it to another level, and provide the training that now we have to give in shifts, because we don’t have the accommodations to handle every one,” said Procida. “This is going to open up a whole new world for us.”