Mackey Andrews to be honored

The Maine Children’s Alliance is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2015 Giraffe Awards, which are awarded to heroes in the community who “stick out their necks” for Maine children, youth and families. Among this year’s recipients is Sue Mackey Andrews of Dover-Foxcroft, who is the Director’s Award honoree.

Giraffe Award winners are advocates, service providers and policy-makers who routinely go above and beyond their job description, investing precious time, energy and talent in Maine kids. “The Giraffe Awards celebrate Mainers at their best,” said Claire Berkowitz, executive director of the Maine Children’s Alliance. “It is a great way to say thank you to some incredible people and organizations taking incredible actions on behalf of Maine children, youth and families.”

Mackey Andrews has dedicated her career and life to making Maine a state where children and families can thrive. From her early work at the Maine Department of Education to her Solutions Consulting Group, Andrews’ 30-plus year career and volunteer services have been about “sticking her neck out” for children and families. While the understanding of early child development and Maine’s own policies and practices have greatly improved over the years, Andrews continues to seek out ways to make Maine a better place to be a kid and raise a family.

“I feel this very genuine sense of urgency right now about what we are doing, or not doing for kids and families in Maine … and, it isn’t just in Maine – but nationally,” Mackey Andrews said. “We seem to have lost our ‘center’ about what really matters and how we go about supporting our most vulnerable populations.”

In 2012, Mackey Andrews co-founded and continues to serve as co-facilitator for the Maine Resilience Building Network (MRBN), a collective impact network focused on better understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and promoting resilience in children, families and communities.

The group began as a project for the Maine Children’s Growth Council and takes a statewide, cross-sector and community-oriented approach to providing support for children with ACEs and their families. Mackey Andrews has been immensely successful in increasing awareness, informing policies and training educators to address and support children with ACEs.

“Sue brings unrivaled passion, work ethic, and dedication to issues of early childhood adversity, early childhood screening and the impact of poverty on families … It is rare to find an advocate with her level of consistency, policy knowledge and evidence-informed practice,” said Leslie Forstadt, PhD University of Maine Cooperative Extension and co-founder/facilitator of MRBN.

It is clear that Mackey Andrews is so passionate about her work and has been instrumental in moving the needle on this critical issue for Maine children, families and communities. Her impressive career in the field of child and family development and policy has truly been defined by recognizing emerging issues and moving quickly and comprehensively to address them. Mackey Andrews does not just work at improving policies and practices for children and families, she lives it.

“I am so very proud to be a recipient of this year’s Director’s Award from the Maine Children’s Alliance,” Mackey Andrews said. “This is for not only my state level work, but also for the advocacy for our county’s children and families. We live in a great place and it needs to be great opportunity for everyone who lives here.”

The awards were scheduled to be presented Oct. 27 at the Maine Children’s Alliance’s annual Champions for Children Event in Lewiston. “This year, we were overwhelmed by the diverse range and roles of the nominees,” said Margaret Leitch Copeland, chair of the Giraffe Awards committee and Maine Children’s Alliance board member. “Each year, the Giraffe Awards remind us that it takes all efforts from all different sectors of our community to create enduring change for Maine children.”