2022 Award Recipient
AnnaSiegel
Project Maine Youth Action
Project Maine Youth Action
Anna’s work ensures that the voice of youth climate activists is heard by local leaders, embracing a model of partnership with fellow climate organizations across generations and societal divides. Maine Youth Action is pursuing both short-term and long-term legislative and campaign goals that make a difference in the lives and futures of Mainers.
Anna has recruited student volunteers and helped put in place leadership structures to make the organization impactful and efficient in pushing for legislation to confront climate change. Her work has raised awareness about the climate crisis among the Maine public and provided an opportunity for young people to engage in the legislative process and create change in their own communities.
Anna founded ME Strikes in 2019 to have a Maine presence in the global climate strikes that occurred in March and September 2019. ME Strikes worked with seven municipalities to have them declare a climate emergency. At the same time, she was a founding member of the Maine Youth for Climate Justice (MYCJ) coalition, helping to build the coalition and set visionary goals for municipal and state climate policy. ME Strikes and the MYCJ coalition rallied support for legislation that would divest state funds from fossil fuels in 2021. Her work, along with an intergenerational coalition, contributed to the success of the first-in-the-nation legislation, a $1.3 billion divestment of fossil fuels which serves as a model for other states. Anna co-founded Maine Youth Action in 2021, an organization that is taking on new tangible, bold, and equitable policy efforts centered around the goal of repairing the world.
