PI Boys & Girls Club director
heading statewide network
After almost a decade with the Boys & Girls Club at the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Nicole Francis is leading the organization overseeing the community youth clubs in northern Maine.
In June 2015, Francis assumed the job of CEO of the Penobscot Boys & Girls Club, the parent organization of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs Boys & Girls Club of Presque Isle, the Maliseet Boys & Girls Club, the Passamaquoddy Boys & Girls Club and the Sipayik Boys & Girls Club in Eastport. Francis replaced Joseph Knapp and takes the job while continuing as director of the Presque Isle club, housed at the Micmac tribal center near Northern Maine Community College.
“Our native boys and girls clubs are unique because often times they are positioned as the only boys and girls clubs in their communities,” Francis said. “As such, we offer a wide range of prevention, confidence building, and academic-based programming to all of our 5-18 year olds both native and non-native.”
Altogether, the Penobscot Boys & Girls Club and its extensions serve more than 450 youth in Aroostook County, Downeast and greater Bangor with after-school programming in everything from healthy eating and craft to drumming, skiing and gardening.
The Penobscot Boys & Girls Club (PBGC) was created in 2000 and was the first Native American boys and girls club in the Northeast. It’s also the funding route from the national club to the four chartered club extensions.