Nominations for the Prime Minister’s Work for the Dole Achievement Awards 2003 are now open. This is an opportunity for you to nominate who you think are the best Work for the Dole participants, supervisors, sponsors, hosts and Community Work Coordinators in your community and give them the opportunity to receive the recognition they deserve.
Across Australia there is recognition of the contribution that the Work for the Dole programme makes. This is demonstrated by the outstanding number of nominations received for the Work for the Dole Achievement Awards in previous years.
These have represented a wide range of innovative activities and outstanding participants and supervisors.
The Prime Minister is expected to present the awards at a dinner at Parliament House, Canberra, early next year.
The awards night, attracts very positive media coverage and strong community interest in Work for the Dole, and highlights the great work being done across Australia by the Work for the Dole programme. The awards night is then followed by presentations by local Federal MPs to the highly commended nominations in their local communities.
The Work for the Dole programme gives unemployed people opportunities to help them to develop their confidence, broaden their experience and improve their chances of finding a job. Since 1997, the programme has supported over 50,000 job seekers.
In the past year, the programme has developed initiatives such as Drought Force that provides local solutions to farmers and communities affected by drought, and Community Action Groups that respond to communities in crisis as a result of natural disasters and other emergencies.
Recent examples of Community Action Group activities include bushfire assistance, where participants helped clean up Canberra properties after the fires swept through suburbs; flood relief in Central Queensland where participants helped clean mud from properties; and in South Australia, participants packaged first aid supplies for shipment to Bali after the devastation of the Sari Club bombing.
The Work for the Dole programme continues to provide real assistance to unemployed people and their local communities. Support the continued good work achieved through the programme with your nominations.
For more information please visit www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/wfd
