Sister Cities Australia National Awards

Each year an important feature of the Sister Cities Australia Annual Conference is the National Awards Program. This program aims to encourage excellence and innovation in sister city activities, to develop a permanent information resource for members and to provide a forum for information exchange.

Entry into the National Awards is easy – there is an essential criteria for each category and any entry, no matter how small or simple, is encouraged. The three independent Judges’ decisions are not made on how much money has been spent, or on how sophisticated the project has been, the Judges’ decisions are based on how well each entry meets the criteria, as outlined category by category in the Handbook. Entrants are required to follow the essential criteria points as set out in the various categories, and in the order in which they appear.

2023 National Awards – Information

The SCA National Awards have been reinstated and will cover the period from 2020 to 2023, with a couple of changes that will be for this year’s Awards ONLY.

The normal 5 categories will be retained and will cover the period from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023.

An additional Category 6 – Special Program Award will be added to cover all activities held between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022 and will focus on innovative ways that Members used to keep their relationships thriving.

Full details of the nomination process will be made available through the official “2023 SCA National Awards Handbook” which can be downloaded HERE.

The Handbook, together with details on how to access the Category Entry Forms, will be emailed to all SCA Corporate Members in March 2023. The Category Entry Forms will be available from the Members Only section of the website. Members can contact Mike Jakins if there is any difficulty accessing the Members section.

For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact SCA’s National Awards Co-ordinator, Christina Despoteris.

Documents & Forms

On the Media/Documents page is a link to the PDF format version of our National Awards Handbook, but as the Awards are open to SCA Members only the relevant entry forms are available from the Members Only section of the website. The Handbook can be viewed either with your internet browser or you are also able to save it to disk or print a hard copy.

Awards Categories & Criteria

Each year Sister Cities Australia holds the National Awards where awards are presented to members submitting the winning entries in each category. Shown below are the categories and essential criteria.

Category 01

Community Involvement

This is a project that demonstrates the widest possible community participation involving cultural differences or sporting activities between sister cities during the relevant period.

Category 02

Youth Project

A significant youth project is such that it encourages and stimulates youth participation in the local sister cities program. An entry in this category may include any number of activities including sporting, cultural, educational and fundraising projects during the relevant period.

Category 03

New Affiliation Project

This award is presented in recognition of new affiliations either completed or well under way during the period under review.

Category 04

Tourism & Trade Project

A Tourism & Trade Project is an imaginative project that furthers the development of tourism and trade between sister cities whilst at the same time promoting the ideals of people-to-people contact during the eligible period.

Category 05

Overall Program

The “Overall Program Award” is presented to the member that has been able to demonstrate continuity of activity, citizen and community involvement at all levels and shown imagination in a wide range of projects and activities.

Full details on each Category and the relevant criteria are in the National Awards Handbook.