Tree Street Youth recently presented Androscoggin Bank with its Heartwood Award for service and support of the organization over the last several years. According to Tree Street Youth, the heartwood section of the tree represents the tree’s “core,” the section that provides support for the tree as it grows and becomes firmly rooted.

Bank President Neil J. Kiely accepted the award on behalf of the Bank. “Tree Street Youth is an incredibly dynamic, mission-driven, values-based organization that is having an outsized impact on students in our community,” he said. “As a similarly mission-driven, values-based organization, it is a privilege for us to support them in doing such valuable work.” 

In 2018, the Bank supported the youth center in a number of ways, including donations and sponsorships totaling $36,000, with a substantial contribution to help them launch their alternative high school learning pilot program. 

Tree Street Youth is a full-service youth center that serves 750 Lewiston-Auburn youth, ages 4 through 25, in one of the most economically challenged neighborhoods in Maine. Operating primarily during the vulnerable after-school hours, Tree Street supports youth by providing a safe space that encourages healthy physical, social, emotional, and academic development while building unity across lines of difference.