LEWISTON — Androscoggin Bank’s MainStreet Foundation recently announced that Preble Street Teen Center has been named the 2016 recipient of its annual $25K for Kids grant. The award was presented at the foundation’s annual meeting held on Nov. 17 at Cheverus High School in Portland.

Focused on its mission of providing the three essentials of life — food, shelter and security — to as many children as possible, the $25K for Kids award was presented to Preble Street Teen Center to help it maintain and expand its many services to children and teens.

Preble Street is a statewide organization aimed toward providing accessible, barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, housing, hunger and poverty, and to advocate for solutions to these problems. The Preble Street Teen Center focuses on the youth and teens of Maine who have been forced to leave home, often battling mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness.

Elena Schmidt, chief development officer of Preble Street, said, “It’s hard to overstate the importance of MainStreet Foundation funding for Maine kids who really need it. It means safety around the clock, meals, health care, counseling, education and employment. And most important, it gives kids who have been abandoned and abused — who are in the hardest times of life, whose futures hang in the balance — a chance to begin to trust, to dream, to reach their goals, and to find a place to call home.”