City of Greater Bendigo Youth Awards 2026

The nominations period ends: 15 September 2026

Eligibility Criteria

• Nominees must be aged between 12 - 25 at some point during the time period of September 15 2025 - September 15 2026.
• A nominator may choose multiple categories in which to be considered for a Youth Award but must submit a new nomination for each category they are nominating for, ensuring that each nomination is relevant to each category.
• Nominees must live, work, and/or study in Greater Bendigo.
• The activity/work being nominated must be voluntary and cannot be part of any paid employment (note: this excludes honorarium payments and grant funding).
• An individual may receive multiple nominations but can only be awarded one Youth Award per year.
• If someone is nominated as part of a group, they can also be nominated for an individual award—provided the group and individual nominations are for different volunteer projects/activity.
• Nominees must have been actively volunteering at some point during the 12 months leading up to September 30, 2025, even if they started the work earlier.
• City of Greater Bendigo Youth Councillors are not eligible to receive a Youth Award.
• Nominees who live in the City of Greater Bendigo are also eligible to be nominated for the Young Citizen of the Year Award, which can be done as part of the City of Greater Bendigo Youth Award Nomination subject to meeting eligibility requirements for Young Citizen of the Year.
• Nominees cannot nominate themselves.

Assessment

• Nominations will be collated and assessed after the nomination period has closed.
• Nominations will be assessed by a panel against the relevant category criteria. The Panel will consist of a City of Greater Bendigo Youth Councillors and City of Greater Bendigo staff.
• Nominees will be split into two age groups: 12-17 and 18-25. There will be one winner in each category for each age group.
• In the case of multiple high-quality nominations in a category more than one Youth Award may be given at the discretion of the assessment panel.

Note, all nominees must be informed that they are being nominated for a City of Greater Bendigo Youth Award before submitting the nomination and have given permission to have their contact details provided.

When did the nominee complete the work described above? If you don't know the exact dates, please estimate.

Please include someone that can be contacted about the work the Nominee has undertaken.

Please ensure they are made aware that they have been listed as a referee.