Episode 15: Maine Recovery and Workforce Community: A Dignified Job Makes All the Difference

Host: Elise Kiely
Guest: Margo Walsh, Founder of MaineWorks and Co-Founder of United Recovery Fund

Episode Summary:
In this compelling episode of Elegant Maine Living, Elise Kiely sits down with Margo Walsh—founder of the groundbreaking employment company MaineWorks and co-founder of the nonprofit United Recovery Fund. Together, they explore the intersection of Maine’s workforce, real estate, and recovery communities.

Margo shares her inspiring personal journey—from Wall Street to rehabilitation, and ultimately, to her calling in Maine. Learn how she turned a volunteer role at the Cumberland County Jail into a bold business model that helps people transitioning from incarceration and addiction find dignified, paying work in Maine’s construction industry.

Elise and Margo also discuss:

• Why MaineWorks hires exclusively from the recovery and reentry population
• The logistics, risks, and rewards of employing people from pre-release programs
• The critical role of housing, transportation, and basic necessities in helping people rebuild their lives
• The genesis and growth of United Recovery Fund, which helps bridge the gap with direct financial support for essentials like rent, steel-toed boots, and bus fare
• How Maine’s values and tight-knit communities create fertile ground for meaningful reintegration and employment
• Why every community member deserves the chance to add value and reclaim their place in society

Featured Quote:

“A good job makes all the difference.”

Resources Mentioned:

• MaineWorks
• United Recovery Fund
• Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty

Connect with Elise

🌐 Website & Listings: Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
📸 Follow Elise on Social Media:

• Instagram: @elisekielyrealestate
• Facebook: Elise Kiely Real Estate
• LinkedIn: Elise Kiely

Have Questions or Topic Suggestions, e-mail Elise at

• Elise@EliseKiely.com
  
  

Subscribe, share with a friend, and join Elise every other week to discover what makes Maine not just beautiful—but beautifully lived.

Please remember this podcast is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not create an attorney client or real estate advisor client relationship. Please reach out to me directly if I can assist you in your real estate journey.

Transcript

Maine Community and How A Dignified Job Makes All The Difference

Elise Kiely: [00:00:00] Welcome to Elegant Maine Living, where we explore the beauty, charm and sophistication of life in Maine. My name is Elise Kiely, your host, and a real estate advisor with Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty. On each episode, we dive into Maine's residential real estate market, sharing key trends, inventory, insights, and notable sales, while also highlighting the extraordinary lifestyle that makes Maine such a special place to live, work, and play.

Elise Kiely: Whether you're seeking a coastal retreat. A vibrant community or an escape into nature. Elegant main living is your guide to the home and experiences that defined our great state. Let's get started. [00:01:00] The phrase of the day is a good job. Makes all the difference. I am excited about today's episode and I want to introduce you to my good friend, Margo Walsh, founder and owner of MaineWorks.

Elise Kiely: MaineWorks is a pioneering employment company helping individuals overcome barriers to workforce, reentry due to incarceration and substance abuse. Margo was also co-founder of the nonprofit United Recovery Fund. On today's episode, we're going to explore how Maine works is changing lives. We'll explore the mission of United Recovery Fund and the broader conversation around workforce reentry and Maine.

Elise Kiely: And before we get started, full disclosure, I am a board member on United Recovery Fund, and I wanna share what attracted me to support MainWorks and to support in any way I can United Recovery Fund. Now, it is not only Margo's. Impressive [00:02:00] story, which we're going to get into very shortly, including her growing up in Maine and moving to New York, and then coming back to Maine and starting this company.

Elise Kiely: But it is a deep seated belief that I have that everybody needs to contribute. Everybody needs to add value for their own sake and for the community at large. As my father used to say, there are no free rides. Everybody has to row the boat. And a good job does make all the difference in someone's life, giving them independence and self-confidence that comes from that independence.

Elise Kiely: And with that said, Margo, welcome. Thank you for coming in this morning. Thank you so much for having me, Elise. I. Margo, I think we've known each other, I wanna say over 20 years. Both raised our families in Falmouth. We would meet each other in the grocery store or the post office, and we always would run into each other.

Elise Kiely: And you're one of those wonderful women that gives a great hug and is always so welcoming when I see you [00:03:00] out in the community. Margo, if you could share your background with us, I think you do have the honor of being a Mainer. 

Margo Walsh: Yes. Thank you so much, Elise, and it has been nothing but a pleasure also being your friend over these years and to have you involved with United Recovery Fund.

Margo Walsh: I'm deeply grateful for that. I went to school in Cumberland as a child and then went to Waynflete which I loved, and graduated in 1982. From there, I went on to New York, which I think a lot of people try being in New York for a while to see what the lifestyle is there and from if we're missing anything.

Margo Walsh: And I had the incredible opportunity of working within Goldman Sachs in the investment banking division, doing college and MBA recruiting before moving back to Maine to raise my children. 

Elise Kiely: I'm just, stop you there, Margo. That's such an impressive resume that you have. Having grown up in Maine and then ending up in Goldman Sachs was with such a obviously strong reputation, very intense work environment.

Elise Kiely: I can only imagine. And [00:04:00] then what, what made you decide to leave New York and come back? You could have gone anywhere with Goldman Sachs in your background. You could have gone anywhere. Why come back home to Maine? 

Margo Walsh: Thanks, Elise. The values of being in Maine were really what drew me, especially to raise children here so that they could have the same experience growing up that I did when I was a child.

Margo Walsh: I happened to take sailing lessons at the Portland Yacht Club. I ended up teaching sailing there, and I also taught skiing at Sunday River. So my whole life was. The outdoors in Maine, and I really wanted my children to have that experience. 

Elise Kiely: I couldn't agree more. That's one of the reasons we decided to stay in Maine.

Elise Kiely: And you come from a, you don't come from a small family, do you? 

Margo Walsh: No, my parents actually were recruited. Both were doctors. I. They were working in Ireland at the time, mercy Hospital for people that might be Portland centric. Recruited a lot of Irish doctors through this, the Catholic church, the Catholic hospitals all shared recruiting from across the ocean. So my parents came here in nine, the year before I was born. You 

Elise Kiely: know what's so funny, Margo, interrupting your [00:05:00] beginning and your introduction, but whenever I'm out with you, you always know everybody. And everybody knows you. And I think that's from your grow, your personality of course, and your leadership.

Elise Kiely: But having grown up here, you have friends everywhere in this community. 

Margo Walsh: To your point earlier, Elise, I am one of six, so between all of us, we knew a lot of people that span the ages that my family spans. Yeah. So it's been nothing but a lot of fun to reconnect with people from every. 

Elise Kiely: Part of your life.

Elise Kiely: Yeah. Yeah, totally. And so you decided, you and your husband decided to move back to Maine and to raise your children. ' You wanted them to have the lifestyle and the upbringing that you had being in this wonderful part of the country. And so how did that develop? Did you start working right away when you moved to Maine or did you take some time off?

Elise Kiely: So 

Margo Walsh: I also had two ailing parents, so that was very important as part of the timing of why I decided to move back to Maine. And at the same time, I was still consulting. So I had started my own consulting firm back in those [00:06:00] days working as a recruiter within. Other companies, investment banking divisions.

Margo Walsh: So I had a little consulting practice going and I love that, but it kept me busy. But a very important part of the story, Elise, is that in 1997, I personally pursued my own recovery journey. So coming back to Maine. It is actually where I ended up coming to rehab in 1997, and so we finally moved to Maine in 2000, and I was really yearning for that sense of connection to the people that I had established a different friend base within the program of recovery.

Margo Walsh: I'm not sure how much you might know about that, but the recovery program is extremely binding in terms of socializing. You meet a lot of new people who have shared a similar path, and that was really the impetus for my return to Maine as well. 

Elise Kiely: Got you. And you created a new community, you who already had a huge community in Maine when you moved here for rehab.

Elise Kiely: And first of all, Margo, thank [00:07:00] you for sharing all of this. It's a very personal story and I know you've shared it in other venues and I'm very grateful for it. 'Margo you never know who you're touching and. I think everyone around the world knows somebody in their family, in their friend, they themselves who have exposure to addiction and the impact of that.

Elise Kiely: And it's a tough journey to go through. My hat is off to you for going through that journey. And so you move to Maine, went into rehab and then moved, you were, went back to New York. 

Margo Walsh: Yes. So for a couple of years was trying to straddle both places, and again, with my parents here and both Ill there was a lot of reasons to come up here.

Margo Walsh: And then finally when my children were six months and four, we moved to Maine for good, and that was in 2000. And then part of my recovery. Journey was that I was volunteering because I don't know if you're familiar with the 12 steps of any kind of recovery program is basically boils down to give up the substance.

Margo Walsh: That's the [00:08:00] problem. Clean up your act, figure out what you can do to make amends to people that you might have offended, and family members and all of that. And then the third quadrant has to do with. Getting busy doing some social work and some volunteering. So give up, clean up, give back is really how it boils down.

Elise Kiely: And your give back was at the county jail 

Margo Walsh: That's right. 

Elise Kiely: In Cumberland County? 

Margo Walsh: Yes. Yes. 

Elise Kiely: And so what sort of work did you do at the Cumberland County Jail at the 

Margo Walsh: and thank you for asking Elise. It's really funny to talk about it because it was so instrumental in the beginnings of Maine works in 2004, I'd started volunteering at the wet shelter, which is where people go overnight. If they the police have to make a decision. Do this person who's drunk and disorderly, is it bad enough that we need to bring them to jail, or can we bring them to the wet shelter? I. 

Elise Kiely: Sort of an interim step. 

Margo Walsh: An interim step.

Margo Walsh: So I volunteered there and I also volunteered at the jail. So the wet shelter had more to do with meeting clients' needs, like folding towels and or, folding [00:09:00] towels and folding laundry. Wow. That's what I did as a volunteer. 

Margo Walsh: Wow. And 

Margo Walsh: then in my other volunteer work at the Cumberland County Jail, I would go and quite literally gather a group of people that had all worked really hard to get to this pre-release employment setting.

Margo Walsh: I was just really talking about recovery because if they were gonna get out of jail or prison, which it was a clearing house for both jail and prison, a lot of people don't even know the difference of those two things. But I won't get into that right now. At the end of the day. They do have a pre-release setting, but I was holding AA support groups.

Margo Walsh: So basically that was in the jail. That was my intention for, to be there. And I noticed at the same time that a lot of these young people were, frankly, had worked really hard to get to this setting, and then they were being sent across the street to work in fast food restaurants. And as a recruiter, I could see how short how much of a dead end that was.

Margo Walsh: So that's where I had this idea of what could be Maine Works. 

Elise Kiely: So you were at, so you were volunteering in the jails? Helping people as they were in the process of being released from jail out into the community. Did you have exposure [00:10:00] to, after they were in that pre-release section of the jail and then they were fully released, did you have any exposure to their situation after they were released and what was happening with them?

Margo Walsh: So the best chance for success in that phase is the more work that they do while still incarcerated. I could see that there was at least some effort being made to give people some skills. For example, helping them get their driver's license back, getting IDs basically. That was the type of stuff that this jail program happened to be doing, which was very future looking of that particular program in that time.

Elise Kiely: And that was with when Dow Mayor Dion was Sheriff Yes. Of Cumberland County? Yes. 

Margo Walsh: And so I had an idea that I thought if I could bring these inmates to the bridge construction project that's going on between Portland and Falmouth, maybe I could just employ them. 

Elise Kiely: And what year was this, Margo?

Elise Kiely: Roughly 2010. 

Margo Walsh: 2010. Okay. So in 2010, I asked them, the sheriff, for permission to [00:11:00] take this group of six to 12 inmates to the job at the bridge. And then bring them home at night and I had to go and ask him for permission. 

Elise Kiely: 'Margo that was unprecedented. 

Elise Kiely: Otherwise you would've been an accessory to That's right.

Elise Kiely: Exactly. Aiding in ab beding betting. 

Margo Walsh: Exactly. 

Margo Walsh: And el that was only the beginning. I had no idea what I was doing. I just, 

Elise Kiely: I want to pause there, Margo, because. Here you are, you're volunteering in the jail in an aa type of group setting, and some light bulb goes off that you see this construction project happening.

Elise Kiely: That was that, and that construction project was for months. I remember the bridge was restricted. And how much you could, so it was an ever present journey that you would take in and out of Portland on that bridge. But the light bulb went off for you. That here's a resource. These people that are incarcerated could help.

Elise Kiely: Yes. And did you know their skills? Were they skilled, unskilled? 

Margo Walsh: No, but I again, they had earned their way there. So they had been working within the jail or prison setting during their [00:12:00] whatever their particular length of sentence had been, 

Elise Kiely: and in jail. So it's under a year if you're in jail.

Margo Walsh: But this particular that's a great question, Elise, but that this particular setting was bringing inmates from both the county system and the state system.

Elise Kiely: Okay. So some were in jail some were in prison. 

Margo Walsh: Yeah. So in other words, they'd been in for quite a while and they had earned their merit to be in this setting. So they had at least demonstrated that they were interested and capable of working. So I had that kind of clearance and I could also just tell physically whether someone was physically capable of general labor.

Margo Walsh: And we would ask those questions of course, before hiring them, because that was the next thing. How do I hire people and what do I do? And all of that. But the first thing I had to do was connect the supply of people that wanted to work to the demand. And the demand was the very conservative construction companies.

Margo Walsh: That don't normally go out of their way to hire for diversity or difference. At all. And here I was saying, here I have this group of currently incarcerated inmates. Would you be interested? And the response was [00:13:00] resounding. It was so positive. I was blown away. Wow. He said, of course.

Margo Walsh: And in fact, one superintendent said isn't it funny that you should be coming over today? because last night my nephew got arrested up in Gardner, Maine. And he said he and a bunch of buddies went in and tried to steal something from the local store, probably cigarettes, and it was also a post office, but he didn't get, he didn't get arrested.

Margo Walsh: He didn't get any like criminal charges because many people with money don't. But it would've been a federal offense. So he said, I totally relate to how vulnerable this population is. And it really is a socioeconomic divide. 

Elise Kiely: So the first step was you went to go talk to Sheriff Dion.

Elise Kiely: Yeah. I can't imagine what he thought when you, A suburban woman. Comes into the jail first to volunteer. He is probably had some experience with that. And the incredible work that you were doing, was he shocked when you said he was shocked? I want to put them all in my car. He laughed and drive them to the bridge, [00:14:00] have them work, and then I'll drive them back to jail at night.

Margo Walsh: He laughed and he said, it's so crazy that if you really think that you can do that, you're welcome to try. 

Elise Kiely: That's incredible faith because if this had gone wrong, it would've been. 

Margo Walsh: Devastating for him because the last thing a sheriff needs is anyone walking off. That's why the career out outcomes, until I started that had been so limited.

Margo Walsh: 'because it was, you could visually see the people walking across the street and coming back from quite literally a McDonald's and a Dunking Donut. 

Margo Walsh: It was a huge risk, but I have an unbelievable confidence in people. In fact, my father, you mentioned your dad at the beginning, Elise, my father used to say, Margo, you're like a brick wall for clinging vines, and he was being derogatory, and I thought that was a compliment.

Elise Kiely: I think it's a compliment too. 

Margo Walsh: Thank you, Elise. But he was not complimentary. He said, you have to just stop being Velcro for people with troubles and problems, but I am fueled by that. Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: And I think it's obvious, a [00:15:00] passion of yours. And I think when you find your passion, you lean in hard on it.

Elise Kiely: Yes, thank you. And you do everything you can to further that passion. So you pick up these all men at the time? 

Margo Walsh: No, actually there were a couple of women there too. 'because it was a mixed there was men on one side of the dormitory setting Uhhuh and women on the other. So we'd had a couple of women in there too.

Elise Kiely: So you popped them in your car? Yes. Minivan every day. Every day. Drop them off at the bridge. Did you stay and wait for them? 

Margo Walsh: No, I, because I lived right up the road and they didn't know that I lived right in Falmouth. Of course. But then also when it got to be too much, I recruited my teenage son.

Margo Walsh: To help with the driving.

Elise Kiely: I love this story. 

Margo Walsh: He would go to the jail every morning and he'd just gotten a new subwoofer in his ancient Subaru, but he had a lot of noise and it was so much fun 'because the guys would get in the car with him and he would drive them to the job site and then he would go off to Falmouth High School, which is one of the nicest high schools in Maine.

Margo Walsh: So it was incongruous to have Jack. Pulling up with, guys from the prison pre-release and [00:16:00] then he would go off to Falmouth High School. 

Elise Kiely: I think he had a different experience than most of his friends. He did that morning when he would do that, which is incredible, 

Margo Walsh: and he's now our CFO, which is every, all these years later, after he went and pursued a degree in finance, he came back and said, mom, it's a great business idea.

Margo Walsh: It actually has a lot of potential as an income generating business, but it just needs to get a few processes and procedures tightened up 

Elise Kiely: And he's a dynamic force and was recognized by Maine biz recently as under 40 40, under 40 for strong leadership, which is wonderful. So well done on raising him.

Margo Walsh: Thank you, Elise. So this idea then grew into a company, a for-profit company? Yes. And that was in 2010? 2011. 2010, yeah. 

Elise Kiely: And I think Margo, I may have been one of your first clients at that, A property I owned in Portland. 

Elise Kiely: Oh, Elise The painting project. 

Margo Walsh: The painting project with Shannon Smith. Yes.

Margo Walsh: Shannon is still doing well and she is phenomenal, but. Oh my gosh, [00:17:00] Elise, that was, that's a long time ago. Thank you for your confidence. 

Elise Kiely: That was, it was a huge resource to have at the time. We had a big painting project on a property we owned in Portland, and your guys showed up and did a great job.

Margo Walsh: Thank you Elise 

Elise Kiely: at a time when it's hard to find, it has been for a long time and it's only getting harder Yes. To find labor and people who will work. 

Margo Walsh: Which is why I think Elise, it's so important because we look at this as not a way to solve the labor problem. Ours is not really a a numbers game, it's more about providing dignity and in you as a person. And your family was a really welcoming place for people to land, so they felt connected and wanted to do a really good job, but it wasn't like hiring a whole, like it's not about how many people you can hire is how can you help them.

Margo Walsh: In my opinion. 

Elise Kiely: Margo, let's talk a little bit about that because I think the dignity piece is so important. And again, going back to my my strong belief, my ethos is that everybody needs to contribute. Everybody needs to work. And if you feel that [00:18:00] way, and if you agree with that thesis, then it is incumbent upon us to create an environment that allows people to fulfill that need for themselves and for the community.

Elise Kiely: At large you can't say everybody needs to work, but we're not going to hire you. Exactly that. That doesn't work. And if you, people can either be a producer or as my father would say, people either can be a producer and they add value or they can consume and they take value and everybody should have the opportunity to add value because it feels so powerful when you can do that.

Elise Kiely: Yeah. And it provides self-confidence, which at a, I would imagine people at, in this part of their life, coming out of incarceration, struggling with addiction. Self-confidence is low. 

Margo Walsh: Lifters and leaners is what we have said in my family, and I will tell you this opportunity to help people really changed my life and my perspective on what to expect of other people, because people who show up wanting to [00:19:00] work and eager, they've already met a lot of the criteria that we have imposed as a community.

Margo Walsh: Do they want to work? Can they work? Are they physically capable of working? Do they have the wherewithal to, because there, by the way, there are a lot of programs out there that are, that exist for people who are unable to function in the normal economy. 

Margo Walsh: But everybody needs economic viability regardless of capability.

Margo Walsh: So at MaineWorks, because we went into the construction sector, we were really then further narrowing the field to people who could also work from seven to three. That's actually quite a long work day. Be present and keep going all during those hours. But they needed help outside of work, the job is only the beginning.

Elise Kiely: So let's, that's the point. Let's talk a little bit about that. So you grew this company Yes. And this was your workforce. Were people coming mostly out of incarceration? Yes. And some, I think all of had to be exclusively at the point. 

Elise Kiely: I think that may be a job requirement now it, so to work at Main Works.

Margo Walsh: Back then it was a total paradigm shift because [00:20:00] I was so furious that people would not hire, it was systematically accepted that we wouldn't hire a felon. So I started a company and only hired felons. 

Elise Kiely: And that was in 2010, 2011. 

Margo Walsh: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: And it's now 15 years later and your company is thriving. 

Margo Walsh: Thank you, Elise.

Margo Walsh: But you've been so helpful because in 20 13, I discovered B Corp, which is something I would love to discuss for anybody who's listening that knows about the structure of a B corporation. It's a for-profit company with a social or environmental mission. 

Margo Walsh: So that was in 2013, we discovered that, and there's so much around that in the United States and the world.

Margo Walsh: And MaineWorks has been considered one of the top. B Corp Worldwide, 5% of B Corp worldwide. 

Elise Kiely: And you got your B Corp certification 

Elise Kiely: 2013. 

Margo Walsh: 2013. 

Elise Kiely: And one of the first in Maine, I think 

Margo Walsh: we were the first in Maine. 

Elise Kiely: You were the first company in Maine to be B Corp. 

Margo Walsh: Yes. 

Margo Walsh: Certified B Corp. 

Elise Kiely: That's so impressive.

Margo Walsh: Which is and it was accidental how that happened too. But that's a separate story. In 2017, my sister Elaine Walsh, Carney and I started United Recovery Fund in order to provide transportation mostly. 'because that [00:21:00] was a huge expense outerwear, rent assistance, a phone, all these basic things that you would expect people would have naturally.

Margo Walsh: And without that help, they were really treading water. So MainWorks is the job. United Recovery Fund is the assistance. And thank you for your board membership. Oh, Elise 

Elise Kiely: I have to say it, it gives me so much joy to be a part of it and to see the good work that's being done. And so let's talk about that a little bit, because your employees come out of incarceration, often suffering with addiction, but on the road to recovery, if not recovered, I guess it's always a road to recovery and the job is part of it, but unless they can get there, unless they have the steel toed boots and the Carhartt pants or whatever else, you need to work outside in Maine, in a construction site in winter, they're not going to be successful.

Elise Kiely: And I think in the beginning you may have been funding a lot of those efforts personally, and it was then realized that. To be [00:22:00] sustainable. This, we had to create a nonprofit. 

Margo Walsh: Yes. 

Margo Walsh: I'm really grateful for my sister because she was the one who said, this is obvious, and she also knew how to fundraise and knew how to, put together a nonprofit with all the, getting the state to agree and all that.

Margo Walsh: There's, it's a process, but we are so grateful and we've had unbelievable board members and a founding board member of United Recovery Fund was my dear friend Maddie Corson, who is a giant in philanthropy in the state of Maine, and it has attracted, helped us attract other unbelievably philanthropic families.

Margo Walsh: I. And organizations and a few other places like financial institutions, especially Androscoggin Bank, who's another B Corp. So we love our community partnerships. But a lot has come from this nonprofit and the fundraising world is a totally different entity than the commercial world. But I've loved being able to put those two things together for-profit and non-profit.

Margo Walsh: Synergy is really the way forward.

Elise Kiely: And it's been impressive to me as a board member to look at the [00:23:00] growth of the organization, United Recovery Fund. It's been really interesting for me to see the trajectory of the systems and processes that have been put in place for that nonprofit and to see the growth of the organization.

Elise Kiely: And where the resources are going. So many times people are concerned that if they contribute to an organization, is it going to the overhead or is it not going directly to, to meet the stakeholder, the person that's intended to benefit. And when I can see the line items of what's going to clothing, outerwear rides, rent assistance for a sober house, because sober housing is such an important part of this equation that these men and women are coming out of incarceration and need the support. And a sober house, which is a group home designed to support somebody's journey to recovery. And sobriety is a critical part of the equation to make sure that they show up to work on time and they can do the work that they're employed to do.

Elise Kiely: So what [00:24:00] would you say are the biggest needs that you're seeing of this community right now? 

Margo Walsh: You've hit a lot of them. Elise and our current executive director, Karen Stanley, has just done a great job. She actually ran a major nonprofit in the Greater Richmond, Virginia area, where they brought people from homelessness to employment. So she has an unbelievable perspective and we're really grateful for her leadership and that of the board. But the biggest need that we see over and over is transportation. 'because if you don't have a way to get there, you're dead in the water. And increasingly sober living rent assistance, because as you suggested, Elise, there's a huge sober living community, but accessing first and last month's rent is impossible for people who have no credit history.

Margo Walsh: Then also, a lot of people are blocked from traditional renting because a felony will eliminate your candidacy 

Margo Walsh: in an environment where housing is already Yeah. We're facing a huge shortage for housing. Yep. So that's such an important part of the work of United Recovery [00:25:00] Fund and Maine Works.

Elise Kiely: Yes. To support these people.