The Dorcas Learning Center [DLC] supports the library’s mission of being a proactive center for lifelong learning.
- For families and children, the DLC is a space to playfully explore science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Children can pursue their own interests: create, tinker, invent, explore. Parents, guardians, grandparents can learn new technologies from the younger members of the family!
- For young adults, or older adults transitioning from one career field to another, the DLC is a space to practice and master 21st century creative, technological, and collaborative skills.
- For seniors, the DLC is a place to experience new technologies in a risk-free way.
Sadly, not every citizen has free and equal access to resources for skills training, practice, and mastery. While schools, art centers, museums, adult education centers, and state labor agencies provide limited access to some of these resources, most are not open to the general public with any regularity. Schools and government agencies are closed evenings and weekends; art centers and museums charge high fees.
The Dorcas Learning Center works with community partners to fill information and resource gaps in our community-at-large. We will provide free and open access to tools and technologies, training opportunities, resources for practice and mastery, and a playful forum to encourage creativity and innovation.
The Dorcas Learning Center is also home to the Schoodic Entrepreneurship & Business Training Center. This initiative is supported through a grant from the Maine Community Foundation Community Building Program. The Entrepreneurship Center will connect local business owners with those who want to start new businesses on the Schoodic Peninsula. The Entrepreneurship Center will help business owners provide access to on-going employee training; create conversations for mentoring and new business opportunities; enable collaborative partnerships; and, significantly contribute to local economic development on the Schoodic Peninsula.
