The Rotary Junior Community Award brings the ideals of Rotary into the hearts and minds of many young people and their families.
The Rotary Junior Community Award program was launched 29 years ago, when Rotary Club of Mitchell River, Vic, and Bairnsdale 754 Primary School school principal David Hawkey had a vision for a program for young children that would give them a feeling of self-worth in their community.
The Community Relations and Education Project (CREP) – a government partnership program between local communities and schools, designed to provide a strategic response to community concerns about the presence and impact of racism, discrimination and violence on the wellbeing of communities and particularly that of young people – gave him the opportunity to implement his vision.
The Junior Community Award was seen as a way of giving young people real experiences in their communities and a better knowledge of what their own place could be, taking into account their interests and skills.
In the initial meetings in 1996, the four Bairnsdale school principals, led by David, met and finalised the program in the style of the Duke of Edinburgh Award program, with the activities aimed at children in Year 6 or the last year of primary school. After a trial year, the Rotary Club of Mitchell River, Vic, took over the program, which it still sponsors and manages today.
PICTURED: Almost the entire Year 6 of Gippsland Grammar School completed the awards last year.
The program’s success can be measured by the number of Rotary clubs that have implemented it in schools, not only in Victoria but in Queensland and NSW, where thousands of students participate. The program has also spread internationally, with schools in England, Wales and Scotland coming on board.
The program is non-competitive and can be achieved by children of all physical and mental abilities. Each participant is given a diary to help design and monitor the program. No two programs are the same. Each activity is assessed by an adult and is expected to reach the child’s level of performance. This is finally determined by the child’s teacher.
There are four parts to the program: community service, social experience, physical recreation, and skills.
The award helps children:
- Bridge the generation gap by helping elderly people
- Learn about the joys and challenges of volunteerism
- Find out that people are different and that’s OK!
- Learn how community decisions are made
- Practise new skills
- Gain confidence and a feeling of self-worth
- Develop healthy attitudes towards physical fitness
- Make them aware of their environment
The culmination of the program is the presentation night, which is arranged by the sponsoring Rotary club and varies from place to place.
The Mitchell River presentation night at the end of the 2024 school year saw well in excess of 250 people attend formal functions over two nights to see 107 children, from 12 schools in communities up to one and a half hours’ drive away, receive their awards from the district governor and the Rotary Club of Mitchell River president, who officiated on alternate nights.
The presentation nights were scheduled a week apart to cater for other activities in the schools, and to keep each night’s function to a reasonable length.
The attending parents showed great pride and enthusiasm for the achievements of their children.
This is a great way for Rotary to show leadership within the community, working directly with a large number of families.
Get your club involved
The Rotary Club of Mitchell River is happy to assist any club that wants to know more about the Rotary Junior Community Award or would like to implement it.
To maintain the integrity of the program all materials used are monitored through the Rotary Club of Mitchell River. This includes the official diary used by participants.
Leaflets are available with more information, including contacts, and starter packs are available for clubs wanting to take part.
For more information, contact Youth Directors Lorna Hawkey on 0429 318 272 and John Butler on 0419 890 139.
MAIN PICTURE: During the COVID lock downs this young man (name withheld) from Gippsland Grammar School developed a list of birds for local walkers to identify along the walking track in his area as part of the environment section of the Rotary Junior Community Award.