The Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) is proud to host the Multicultural Awards for Excellence and encourages all Victorians to honour the remarkable people and organisations that help make our state a multicultural success story.
The annual awards, now in their 20th year, include 15 categories, covering issues such as community harmony, business, education and early childhood, local government, arts, health, and emergency services.
In 2021, the Environment Protection Authority is sponsoring our Business Award.
Our 2020 Business Award winner CareerSeekers program has continued to go from strength to strength since receiving their award. CareerSeekers creates professional employment opportunities for refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia by enabling paid internships. The CareerSeekers model bridges the gap between new Australians and employers seeking to create a more diverse workforce. The biggest cohort yet of university students from a refugee background had the opportunity to intern last Summer.
One of our Media Award winners in 2020 was the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council. On 1 May 2020 the NEMBC launched a Multilingual Radio News Service in seven languages: Spanish, Greek, Hindi, Arabic, Punjabi, Pacific Islander English and Mandarin. News editors collected and provided news scripts at 8.00am every morning, which were translated and produced as audio files for the morning and daily news.
Within two months the news was being distributed in metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria and beyond, from 29 stations. The NEMBC also established a radio player on their website to replay the radio programs. When the second wave of coronavirus (COVID-19) occurred, the Victorian Government provided funding to expand the new service to 22 languages. When the heightened restrictions were implemented for residents in the public housing high rises, the NEMBC partnered with the Federation of Community Legal Centres to record podcasts of critical information translated into 18 languages and distributed them to nine high rises via email, WhatsApp and SMS.
Victorians can be nominated for either paid or voluntary work, and award recipients will be honoured in a ceremony hosted by the Victorian Multicultural Commission later in the year.
For more information about awards eligibility and how to nominate, click here. Nominations close Sunday 5 September, and individuals can self-nominate
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