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For anyone unfamiliar with this area of Maine, Isle au Haut is a small, island community in Penobscot Bay in Knox County, accessible by ferry from Stonington. With a year-round population of around 71 inhabitants, the island is home to portions of Acadia National Park and boasts a landscape made up of blooming trees and oceanfront views. During a recent trip to Isle au Haut, Island Institute summer intern Anastasia Sapirstein takes us on a tour, shares her experience visiting the island for the first time, and highlights some of the key features of this community and its residents.

This legislative update, provided by the Maine Broadband Coalition, highlights the most noteworthy advances for broadband in Maine and summarizes the final outcomes of bills passed and bills that have become law during the first regular session of Maine's 129th Legislative Session. It also highlights bills to watch for during the second regular session beginning in January 2020.

Last month, we wrote about the business structure of B-Corporations (Benefit Corporations), also known as a B-Corp. B-Corps are businesses that go through a voluntary certification process to ensure that the company not only maintains a healthy bottom line, but is also responsive to the community and the environment in which it operates. Craig Olson of our Small Business team notes that through his experience of running various nonprofits in the past, he knew about B-Corps, but he hadn’t heard much about social enterprises until recently.

On June 25, 2019, Island Institute staff facilitated a meeting co-hosted by the Maine State Library and held at the Rockland Public Library to discuss the digital inclusion work happening in libraries throughout Maine. Attendees representing fifteen libraries from Washington County to Wells, Maine, shared experiences and exchanged resources for meeting the needs of communities in a world increasingly dependent on the internet.

The first session of the 129th Legislature wrapped with a flurry of activity. This blog post captures few of the important energy and climate change related outcomes for island and coastal communities.

On June 18th, twelve students from four Maine islands, and their families, gathered at Thomas College in Waterville to celebrate the high school graduation and send-off of the MAP class of 2019 and welcome the newest MAP cohort. The event also kicked off the annual MAP Leadership Intensive.

Residents from five Maine islands and two coastal communities joined the Island Institute in May 2019 for a community broadband tour of the Cranberry Isles. During the exchange trip, members of the Cranberry Isles Broadband Group shared what it took to connect their five islands, and guests exchanged ideas with the other island and coastal communities represented. In this guest blog post, Keith Harriton of the Swan's Island broadband group reflects on the trip and the benefits of building connections and learning from each other.

On a recent trip to Scotland, Craig Olson of the Island Institute’s Small Business team was inspired by the Social Enterprise businesses in the UK. So, we decided to use the next few Commercial Currents to explore the concept of “business for good.” This month, we are going to talk about Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, and then next month, we’ll tackle the Social Enterprise concept.

Much has been written about why Maine needs to expand access to broadband, but less has been written about where the state has made investments and where they are likely to be made. In our latest policy update, Senior Policy Officer Nick Battista looks at why state funding is a critical piece in bringing broadband to the rural parts of our state and investing in infrastructure that is critical to their future.

According to the Center for Workforce Research and Information, Maine sees a 3% spike in employment for June, July, and August. To put a number on it, Maine’s seasonal businesses are employing around 20,500 more people each month in the summer. As anyone who runs a seasonal business in Maine knows, that number is not high enough. t’s a struggle for Maine’s seasonal businesses to get fully staffed each spring, and it seems to get harder and harder each year. Mainland businesses, particularly in high traffic tourist destinations like Bar Harbor and Ogunquit, rely heavily on the H-2B visa program, which allows a predetermined number of out-of-country workers to work seasonal jobs in the United States.