COVID-19 Prevention

Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness has the following programs to support our communities during the pandemic. Some programs that have begun in response to the pandemic:

Color Paper Project

The color paper project provides food deliveries, masks, hand sanitizer, and water deliveries to Elders in in both Passamaquoddy territories, Sipayik and Indian Township. The goal is to ensure our communities have the necessary supplies for the pandemic, such as food, water, masks, and hand sanitizer. Click here to read more about our Color Paper Project.

Love & Literacy Program

As we live through this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wabanaki Public Health is focused on support, service, and love. Through this initiative, we provide literacy care packages for Wabanaki youth, people in recovery, community members in active service, and students in college and vocational training programs. To date, we distributed over 250 literacy care packages to our communities. Click here to read more about our Love & Literacy Program. 

Virtual Language Classes

Though unable to engage with each other in person, to bring together our elders and our younger generations under the same roof, we adapted quickly to providing cultural connections to our people through weekly virtual Passamaquoddy-Maliseet language classes. These classes take place every Tuesday at 2:00 PM and are taught by Newell Lewey, our Cultural and Language Manager. Click here to register for Virtual Language Class.

Intertribal Community Smudges

Wabanaki intertribal smudging events have been a cornerstone of our efforts to support spiritual practices and healing during the pandemic. Trucks with pipe carriers and singers travel slowly through all of the neighborhoods offering smudge to people who come out on their porches or wait by the street, while being live-streamed over Facebook. Click here to watch previous community smudges on our Facebook.

Vaccination Public Health Campaign

In November of 2022, we implemented an ongoing media campaign using Wabanaki artwork on Portland and Bangor buses to share our COVID-19 prevention message with our communities and the people of Maine. Click here to learn more about our Vaccination Public Health Campaign.