Healthy Acadia

Healthy Acadia, doing business as Central Car, is a tax-exempt community-based public health nonprofit based in Ellsworth, Maine, that delivers substance use disorder prevention, recovery services, and rural healthcare network development as a federal grant recipient. The organization operates as a prime grant recipient on federal awards (49% of recent awards) and as a sub-recipient under pass-through grants from state agencies and universities (51%), with no federal contract footprint.

Healthy Acadia's capability portfolio centers on rural behavioral health and substance use prevention in northeastern Maine. As prime recipient, the organization recently received a $250,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention under the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.492) for the Sunrise County Partnerships for Success initiative, running through September 2031. This award implements community-driven collaborative efforts to prevent and reduce substance use throughout rural Washington County and the Passamaquoddy Tribe, with activities including convening the Washington County Substance Use Response Collaborative, establishing a Youth Advisory Committee, conducting needs and community readiness assessments, and engaging with prevention technical assistance centers. Healthy Acadia also received a $100,000 Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (CFDA 93.912) for July 2025 through June 2026 to develop and expand the Downeast Housing Collaborative, a multi-sector rural health network addressing housing insecurity and homelessness in Hancock and Washington counties. A third prime award, a $270,000 project grant from the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (CFDA 10.766), supports construction and improvement of community facilities delivering essential services to rural residents, with ultimate completion in September 2025. As sub-recipient, Healthy Acadia performs recovery coaching coordination, peer recovery center management, and public health prevention services under pass-through sub-awards from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services spanning substance use prevention, tobacco prevention, and recovery services for individuals with substance use disorder and co-occurring addictions across five Maine counties.

The organization's customer concentration reflects specialization in federal behavioral health and rural health funding. The top five funding entities, comprising 69% of recent awards by count, are dominated by the Department of Health and Human Services: SAMHSA (12 awards), HRSA (6 awards), and HRSA again (4 awards), with SAMHSA and DHHS accounting for a combined 19 of the 39 total awards. The Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service rounds out the top-five set with two awards. Healthy Acadia operates exclusively in grant programs; it holds no seats on federal contract vehicles. Activity has grown from one award in 2022 to nine in 2024, with only one award scheduled for completion in the next twenty-four months (by October 2027), indicating minimal recompete exposure in the near term. Most awards carry five-year completion horizons, typical of federal public health demonstration and network development grants.