Volunteer Award Nominations Open
The City of St. John’s values the contributions of volunteers and the impact they have on the community as a whole.
The Building Healthy Communities Volunteer Award recognize residents of any age who contribute to making St. John’s a better place to live, work and play in one or more of the following areas:
- healthy neighbourhoods and people
- social and community connections
- environment and sustainability
- transportation
The award is open to St. John’s residents in categories Youth, Community Group and Adult/Senior. The 2021 nomination deadline is Friday, March 26.
Learn more and find the nomination form on our webpage. For more details email volunteer@stjohns.ca or call 576-8630.
Award recipients are recognized during National Volunteer Week April 18-24, 2021.
2020 Building Healthy Communities Volunteer Award Winners
Youth lead “Fridays For Future St. John’s” was founded in March of 2019, following in the footsteps of the global movement “Fridays For Future” started by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. The ultimate purpose of the group is to fight climate change through strikes and various local events. Fridays For Future St. John’s has hosted five climate protests thus far, their most successful taking place on September 27 where over five thousand strikers took part. The group continues to fight for climate justice and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Barbara Albrechtsons is a retired public health nurse. She volunteers with The Association for New Canadians (ANC). Along with the dedication of many other volunteers and staff, they created "Fresh Start", a breakfast program which takes place at the ANC Language School and serves refugee adults and their children.
Jude Benoit is a youth advocate for inclusivity, decolonization, and anti-racism in the community, particularly as a leader and mentor in the 2SLGBTQ community. Jude is being awarded the Building Healthy Communities Volunteer Award for building neighbourhood based support systems for trans and queer youth and other marginalized persons during the COVID-19 pandemic.