The Maine Children’s Alliance is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2023 Giraffe Awards, which honor community heroes who “stick out their necks” for Maine children, youth, and families. Giraffe Award winners are individuals, organizations, and businesses who go above and beyond, demonstrating leadership in making Maine a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

The awards will be presented at MCA’s annual Champions for Children event , at Maple Hill Farm in Hallowell, on Tuesday, November 14 ^th , 2023.

The winners of the 2023 Giraffe Awards:

Senate President Troy Jackson, Legislator Award. Senator Jackson is a fifth-generation logger from Allagash, serving as Senate President in his fourth and final term. Senator Jackson has remained steadfast in his commitment to young children by championing legislation to strengthen Maine's child care system. He sponsored legislation to help bring Help ME Grow and First 4 ME programming to Maine, aimed at supporting families and their children’s healthy development. He also championed historic child care investments, recently providing $60 million in the state budget. His leadership was critical to the passage and funding of this historic bill, which will help our state take a big step forward to raise the wages of child care providers and make child care more affordable for working families. Senator Jackson’s dedication to helping children and working families has marked his entire legislative career.

TimberHP, Business Award. TimberHP, the first wood fiber insulation manufacturer in North America, is a Maine-based business supporting the working landscape, sustainable forestry, and the rural economy. After learning of their employees’ difficulties in finding and paying for child care, TimberHP responded by contributing $5,000 in a Dependent Care and Medical Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for their employees who need child care. TimberHP has earned the 2023 Best Place for Working Parents® business designation in recognition of their commitment to supporting working parents through their family friendly policies and practices.

Midcoast Community Collaborative, Community Collaboration Award. The MidCoast Community Collaborative is a new backbone network of community members and organizations – healthcare, behavioral health, schools, community-based organizations, business leaders, families and youth - focused on supporting the growth and development of healthy children, healthy families and strong communities in Lincoln and Knox County. The leadership team has brought together over 60 partner organizations to participate in the Collaborative, with a vision of creating regional partnerships that coordinate, expand, and sustain resources for children, youth, and families.

Crystal Cron, Individual Award. Crystal Cron is the founder and director of Presente! Maine, which works to empower displaced indigenous and afro-Latinx peoples of Maine through survival programs, community power building, cultural celebration, and transformative healing practice. Crystal and the Presente! team have worked hard to ensure Mainers in the Latinx community have food security and access to health care regardless of their immigration status. Over the past year, the Presente! team did additional outreach to pregnant people and people under 21 who gained coverage through MaineCare regardless of their immigration status. They continue to speak truth to power about the barriers people in their community are facing and the systemic solutions to address them.

Safe Harbor Recovery Home for Women and Children, Organization Award. Safe Harbor is a collaborative effort between Healthy Acadia, Downeast Community Partners, Community Caring Collaborative, and Aroostook Mental Health Center, to respond to the impacts of substance use on mothers and children in Washington County. In the early planning stages of 2019-2020, this team remained steadfast that the Maine Association of Recovery residences certified recovery home needed to include children. Safe Harbor took on the task of ensuring moms and their children could remain together in a safe space to help facilitate recovery from substance use challenges. With the partnership and collaboration of the supporting organizations, this home has been able to provide a warm, nurturing environment to many mothers who are healing on their recovery journey with their children, reunified mothers and children, and provided a safe refuge for visitation for mothers and children.

Adryanna Viles, Youth Award. Adryanna Viles became a participant in the Lewiston-based Maine Community Integration program in the summer of 2022, first with their summer program and continued with the year-round youth groups. Adryanna is passionate about speaking up against injustice and advocating for her fellow youth. When she was concerned about certain student needs not being met, she and another young person went to speak to the local School Committee. She has also participated in advocacy efforts around housing equality. Adryanna is president and student representative to the School Committee for her junior class.

Congratulations to this year's winners! The 2023 Champions for Children event, featuring the Giraffe Awards, is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased here . We hope you will join us to celebrate these community heroes on November 14th.