Celebrate Volunteers

In June 2008 Mission Australia launched a new volunteer reward and recognition program: Celebrate Volunteers. The aim is to recognise outstanding volunteer contributions to the organisation, and to say thank you to those who put in countless hours of unpaid, and sometimes unsung work. These awards will be judged quarterly. Volunteers are nominated by managers on the basis of their personification of one of Mission Australia’s organisational values: Respect, Compassion, Perseverance, Integrity and Celebration.

There were four winners - from all across Australia - for the first Celebrate Volunteers awards:

Congratulations to the winners. If you know a volunteer who you would like to see nominated for a Celebrate award, please speak to your manager. The next Celebrate Awards will open in September 2008.

Stephen Matthews – NT Celebrate Winner, July 2008

Our NT winner, Steve Matthews, volunteers with Youth Beat, a Darwin-based youth outreach service that patrols the area, helping the young people who frequent the streets at night. His manager had this to say about the fabulous work he does:

“Steve visited Darwin Youth Beat as one of twenty-two students from Charles Darwin University doing their Cert IV in Community Services focussing on Youth Work.
After visiting us, Steve requested that he do a 40hr placement with Darwin Youth Beat, which we subsequently organised.

After finishing his placement with Youth Beat, Steve sought every opportunity to work as a Volunteer with Youth Beat working almost every night. This involved working night shifts from Monday to Saturday nights, patrolling the streets and engaging youth in known “hot-spots” in the Northern Suburbs of Darwin and Palmerston. He was also actively involved in the Fun in the Park programme that we run on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. He displayed enthusiasm and a passion for this work and developed a good rapport with the young people that he worked with.”

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