BRUNSWICK
Portland attorney Daniel Lilley is offering a $50,000 donation to support Sweetser’s Learning and Recovery Center in Brunswick, Sweetser announced in a press release Monday afternoon.
The donation will keep the center open for another year.
“My wife Annette and I are donating $50,000 to Sweetser to cover their funding shortfall at the Learning and Recovery Center, which has provided treatment to thousands of people who depend on the services there to get through life,” Lilley said in Sweetser’s release. “We are assured that with this gift, this facility will remain open for another year and provide the peer support service to those people with health issues that have stalled their lives. The services that include an alternative to formal hospitalization will now not be closed for lack of money. We are making this donation in memory of our son, David A. Lilley, whose life was cut short in an automobile accident when he was 18 years old.”
In its release, Sweetser appeared to indicate that the mental and behavioral health organization is still looking at ways to keep the center open in the long term, stating: “Sweetser leadership are still coordinating the grant-funding support with DHHS leadership and are grateful to be in a more forward-looking position.”
“We could not have been more pleasantly surprised to receive the call from Mr. Lilley, as his incredible gesture now puts us in a better position to continue working with the state and most importantly to better serve our clients,” Cindy Fagan, Sweetser’s vice president of programs, said in a statement.
Last week, Sweetser announced that the center, which has operated on Mere Point Road for 10 years, would close June 30 due to lack of funding from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
About 1,000 clients engage in programs at the center every year.
The center costs about $300,000 to run annually. The state was contributing $200,000, with Sweetser contributing the rest. Sweetser was to contribute $40,000 annually according to its contract with the state, but costs have increased during the last 12 years.
DHHS countered that it had been in discussions for nearly a year regarding additional funding for the center, as well as Sweetser’s desire to revamp the program and provide different services, and that the state couldn’t justify “providing additional funding to a program that was under spending in its current contract by more than $40,000.”
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