2023 South Australian Volunteer Awards Nomination Guide

Nominations will be assessed by an independent judging panel chaired by the Department of Human Services.

Submit your nomination online

Nominations for all Awards close 5 pm, Friday 7 April 2023.

Our partners

Department of Human Services is partnering with Volunteering SA&NT to deliver The Excellence in Volunteer Management Award

Department is partnering with Volunteering SA&NT and the Youth Affairs Council of SA to deliver The Young Volunteer Award.

Any volunteer, volunteer manager, community organisation or business for their exceptional achievements and significant contribution to the South Australian community. Organisations may include, but not limited to:

• Not-for-profit organisations
• Local and state government agencies
• Business groups.

Any South Australian or any South Australian organisation can nominate eligible recipients for one of the four categories listed below. Self-nominations are accepted.

The 2023 South Australian Volunteer Awards recognise excellence in the following five categories:

1. Joy Noble Medal
2. The Young Volunteer Award
3. ‘The Andamooka’ Community Project Award
4. The Excellence in Volunteer Management Award
5. The Premier’s Award for Corporate Social Responsibility.

The judges will review the nominations to consider the nominee’s achievements in relation to their commitment, level of service and how their work benefits the South Australian community. Judges will then make their recommendations to the responsible Minister.

Presented in celebration of an individual who has made an outstanding commitment and who through their volunteering has positively impacted on the lives of others.

The Award honours the late Joy Noble AM. Joy started the SA Volunteer Centre, now known as Volunteering SA&NT in 1982 alongside Mavis Reynolds OAM. Joy’s career was in social work and community development and she held positions in Australia and New Guinea. She was the first person in Australia to author books on volunteer management and co-edited the Australian Journal on Volunteering for its first three years. Joy was a powerhouse in the volunteering sector and a truly inspirational woman.

Contribution

• Describe the type, range, depth, consistency and duration of the nominee’s voluntary activities and how they have contributed as a volunteer.
• Explain the activities undertaken and the individuals/ groups/ organisations/ communities/ or causes supported.
• Identify what is unique or outstanding about the nominee, their best attributes and how are these demonstrated.
• Provide examples of challenges overcome and significant achievements and successes.

Benefit

• Describe who has benefited from nominee’s volunteering activities, and the nature and extent of the impact of the nominee’s work.
• Provide specific examples of how the nominee’s work has impacted on others, individuals, or groups, and how far reaching the benefit and impact is felt. For example, locally, regionally or state-wide and whether it will have long term impact.
• Explain how others have shown appreciation and recognition of the value of the nominee’s volunteering, for example, certificates and accolades received.

Leadership

• Describe how the nominee has shown initiative and provide examples.
• Describe leadership and visionary qualities of the nominee and provide examples of how this is demonstrated.
• Describe how the nominee has inspired and encouraged others.
• Describe, with examples, how the nominee has contributed to capacity-building. For example, developed processes, resources, skills, knowledge that will sustain and grow the volunteering activity.

Presented in celebration of a young person, 12 to 25 years old, who has made an outstanding commitment and who through their volunteering has positively impacted on the lives of others.

This award has been introduced for 2023 to honour an outstanding young volunteer. Young people don’t always recognise themselves as a ‘volunteer’, but we know they generously devote their time and resources to activities and causes to great effect.The award is a collaboration between the Department of Human Services, Volunteering SA&NT and the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia (YACSA). Representatives from all three partners will form the panel to determine the inaugural winner of the Young Volunteer Award.

Contribution

• Describe the type, range, depth, consistency and duration of the nominee’s voluntary activities and how they have contributed as a volunteer.
• Explain the activities undertaken and the individuals/ groups/ organisations/ communities/ or causes supported.
• Identify what is unique or outstanding about the nominee, their best attributes and how are these demonstrated.
• Provide examples of challenges overcome and significant achievements and successes.

Benefit

• Describe who has benefited from nominee’s volunteering activities, and the nature and extent of the impact of the nominee’s work.
• Provide specific examples of how the nominee’s work has impacted on others, individuals, or groups, and how far reaching the benefit and impact is felt. For example, locally, regionally or state-wide and whether it will have long term impact.
• Explain how others have shown appreciation and recognition of the value of the nominee’s volunteering, for example, certificates and accolades received.

Leadership

• Describe how the nominee has shown initiative, visionary qualities and/or leadership and provide examples.
• Describe how the nominee has inspired and encouraged others.
• Describe, with examples, how the nominee has contributed to capacity-building. For example, developed processes, resources, skills, knowledge that will sustain and grow the volunteering activity.

Presented in acknowledgement of volunteer projects of significant community benefit, innovation and resourcefulness.

The Award honours the inaugural winner, the inspiring Andamooka Progress and Opal Miners Association, whose extraordinary efforts helped to deliver a 29 kilometre water pipeline to Andamooka.

Contribution

• Describe the activities undertaken to deliver the project, giving details of time and frequency of volunteer involvement and/or coordination by a volunteer involving organisations, and description of the work done.

Benefit

• Describe the transformational impact of the project on a local area or to the community.
• Describe how the project will provide a lasting legacy following completion of the project.

Leadership

• Describe how the project demonstrated leadership and innovation, for example, the uniqueness of the project and the creative approaches and strategies used.
• Describe how the project is delivering, or will deliver, better outcomes for the future.
• Describe how the project boosted partnerships and or/ encouraged and enhanced collaborative partnership approaches on the local area

Presented in acknowledgement of an individual salaried or non-salaried volunteer manager who has demonstrated good practice in the management of volunteers and the delivery of volunteer programs by those volunteers.

The Award, a partnership between Department of Human Services and Volunteering SA&NT, honours a volunteer manager for their outstanding contributions to the profession and for their promotion of quality volunteer experiences.

Contribution

• Describe the type, range, depth, consistency and duration of the volunteer manager’s role and activities, including the number and nature of volunteer programs, number of volunteers involved, and organisations supported.
• Describe what is outstanding about the way the nominee manages volunteers and volunteer programs. Describe their best attributes and how are these demonstrated. Provide examples of challenges overcome and significant achievements and successes in volunteer management and delivery of volunteer programs.

Benefits

• Describe who has benefited from the volunteer manager’s contribution, including the volunteers, recipients of the volunteer programs, and volunteer organisations involved.
• Describe how the volunteer manager has made a difference, and the impact of good practice volunteer management on the volunteer involving organisation, the volunteers, and the community they serve.
• Describe how far reaching the benefit is felt. For example, locally, regionally, or state-wide and whether it will have long term impact.
• Describe how important the role of the nominee is to the volunteer organisation
• Explain how organisation and others have recognised the value of the nominee’s work

Leadership

• Describe how the volunteer manager has shown initiative and provide examples of innovation in volunteer management practices.
• Describe leadership and visionary qualities of the volunteer manager and provide examples of how this is demonstrated.
• Describe how the nominee has inspired and encouraged others.
• Describe how the nominee has used good practice in volunteer management and built capacity. For example,. developed processes, resources, skills, knowledge that will enable others to sustain and grow the volunteering programs and individual volunteers.

Presented in recognition for the invaluable contribution of South Australian for-profit businesses to the community.

The Award honours South Australian businesses that lead change in our community through:

• Philanthropy – providing financial assistance
• Partnership – helping communities to deliver support programs and services
• Corporate/employee volunteering – allowing employees time off work to participate in volunteering.

Contribution

• Provide details of the organisation’s historic corporate social responsibility involvement in South Australia.
• Describe how the organisation inspired employees to get involved with the cause and how this affected employee recruitment and retention, along with the organisation’s reputation in the community. Provide examples of amounts and/or staff hours donated
• Describe how the organisation assisted in raising of funds or financial backing of a group or cause and how they did it. Did the organisation put together an event or set aside funds each year to donate?

Benefit

• Describe how the organisations efforts have made a difference locally, regionally, or state-wide and whether it will have long term impact.
• Describe what is happening in the community that would not have occurred without the support of the nominated organisation
• Describe the positive impact has the CSR program has on the organisation and employees

Leadership

• Describe how the CSR involvement has made the organisation a leader in their industry and in the community.
• Describe how the organisation has embedded CSR practices in their organisational strategies, corporate governance, or management objectives.

Step 1: Read this Nomination Guide, including the entry conditions, and review the submission requirements of entry for the awards.

Step 2: Determine who to nominate. Remember to discuss the nomination with the nominee(s) prior to submitting it.

Step 3: Log in to the online submission system and complete the nomination form by typing directly into the electronic form making sure you keep within the allocated word counts.

Step 4: Complete your nomination(s) by 5pm Friday 7 April 2023 through the online submission system.

• Make sure you understand the criteria the judges will be scoring on.
• Ensure you have the permission of the nominee(s) (or if under the age of 18, the nominee’s parent or legal guardian), to have their name made public (for example, on the department’s website or in SA Volunteer Award event materials) should they be a finalist/successful recipient of any award. The department will contact parents/legal guardians of finalists/award recipients who are under 18 years of age, to confirm consent prior to making the finalist/award recipient’s name or other information public.
• Make sure you spell check and keep to the word limit and specifications in the entry form.
• Be clear about the different categories and the category your nomination is best suited to.
• Ask a colleague or a friend to read and edit your nomination before submitting it. This will help ensure it reads well, is grammatically correct and highlights the important information.
• Judges want to be inspired by what they read. A good exercise to perform is to pretend you are telling the judge in person why you would nominate your colleague/friend. What makes them special in their work? All good stories contain elements of who, what, where, when, why and how.
• Think strategically. Look at the impact your nominee(s) has on the community. By relating it to the bigger picture, you show their work has more reach than just doing their job.
• Successful Award entries demonstrate outstanding ongoing engagement and experiences with the community.
• Successful Award entries demonstrate that the nominee(s) has gone ‘above and beyond’. Their work/volunteering is supposed to be inspiring to the community and to South Australians.

Important: Please carefully read the Award’s entry conditions before completing your nomination.

Eligibility

1. Nominee(s) must:
   1. be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, living in South Australia
   2. not have previously received an Award within the last three (3) years in the same nominated award category
   3. be aware of and agree to the nomination
   4. agree to any media publicity and promotion associated with the awards as requested by the Department of Human Services (department) or its nominated media liaison.
2. If an individual is eligible for more than one category, a separate nomination form must be submitted for each addressing the criteria for that award.

Nomination process

1. Completed nominations must be received by 5pm Friday 7 April 2023.
2. Nominations must include up to two references that can support the accuracy of the submission and verify the nominee(s) eligibility for the award.
3. Correspondence for nominations will be sent to the nominator (as listed in the online nomination form) until after the nominee has accepted their nomination.

Judging and selection

1. A judging panel will consider all eligible nominations and rate each against the criteria for the selected Award category.
2. The Minister’s (or the Minister’s representative) and the department’s decisions on all matters pertaining to the Awards are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Awards and recognition

1. Nominees who do not receive an Award will receive a Premier’s Certificate of Recognition for outstanding volunteer service.
2. Winners of the SA Volunteer Awards will be announced and presented at a free Volunteer Recognition event on Monday 15 May.

Nominator’s consent

1. By submitting a nomination, including personal information provided as part of that nomination, each nominator confirms that they consent, and has the consent of any person whose personal information is contained in a nomination, including but not limited to:
   1. the nominee(s) (or if under the age of 18, the nominee’s parent or legal guardian)

      to provide that information to the department, and for the department to disclose that personal information to other parties including, but not limited to, the Award judges and the Minister’s Office for the purposes of conducting the Awards.

   2. references
   3. Each nominator consents to the department using the nomination statements, name, likeness, image, voice and/or participation in the Awards (including photograph, film and/or recording of the same) in any media for an unlimited period of time without further notification, remuneration or compensation for the purpose of promoting, publicising or marketing the Awards (including any outcome).
   4. If the nominator does not agree or have the requisite consent of the nominee, the nominator must not provide their personal information or the personal information of anyone else and may be unable to submit a nomination for the Awards.

Nominee’s consent

1. By accepting their nomination, the nominee(s) (or if under the age of 18, the nominee’s parent or legal guardian) consents to the department using their nomination statements, name, likeness, image, voice and/or participation in the Awards (including photograph, film and/or recording of the same) in any media for an unlimited period of time without further notification, remuneration or compensation for the purpose of promoting, publicising or marketing the Awards (including any outcome).
2. Nominees consent to the department using their personal information, and for the department to disclose their personal information to other parties including, but not limited to, the Award judges and the Minister’s Office, for the purposes of conducting the Awards. If the nominee does not agree, the nominee must not accept their nomination and will be ineligible for the Awards.
3. The department will contact parents/legal guardians of finalists/award recipients who are under 18 years of age to confirm consent, prior to making the finalist/award recipient’s name or other information public.

Privacy statement

1. Consistent with South Australian Government policy and legislation, the department endorses fair information handling practices. Personal and sensitive information supplied will be used by the department, the judging panel, the Minister’s Office for the purposes of considering nominations, selecting Award recipients and awarding awards. Information will not be disclosed or used for any other purpose without the express consent of the person to whom the information relates, unless otherwise required or permitted by law.

Contact us

SA Volunteer Awards

Department of Human Services

P 1300 014 712
E ofv@sa.gov.au