SVS

Gold Awards

Friday, 27 April 2007

Leadership - Dedication - Achievement

Student Volunteering Scotland are very proud to run the most prestigious awards for volunteering by students in Scotland – the Student Volunteering Scotland Gold Awards. Sponsored by Volunteer Development Scotland and provided with support from Awards for All.

What are Gold Awards?

Gold Awards are the only national accreditation of student volunteering in Scotland. They offer every University and College in Scotland the opportunity to recognise the achievements of their student volunteers. Awards will highlight the outstanding contributions of a select number of student volunteers and you, the student volunteers and practitioners, decide the winners.

Nationally Recognised, Locally Owned

Gold Awards will be officially recognised by a certificate that will include the Student Volunteering Scotland logo and will be signed by the Chair of Student Volunteering Scotland. The certificate will also have a blank space so that your Student Volunteering Group Coordinator, Vice Chancellor or Principal or other key institution contact can sign the award and include a relevant logo.

Gold Awards will be issued by Student Volunteering Scotland at the end of the academic year but the exact criteria you use to decide on winners is up to you. You also get to decide on the judging process and when and how the Awards are presented. As much as possible we would like to encourage students to be involved in the decision making process, either by engaging a current student committee or by including students on an awards panel. You might like to fit the awards into existing events or “piggyback” onto an existing programme. The choice is yours.

A Prestigious Award

Gold Awards are designed to be a mark of excellence, and to reward only the most deserving student volunteers. Each University and College can award between one and four Gold Awards in each academic year. Student Volunteering Scotland expects Awards will be made to those students who are the real "movers and shakers" within their institution and those who will shape the future of our society. Gold Awards are truly prestigious and are reserved for those who truly stand out.

Criteria

Gold Awards must reward excellence by students in one of the areas of volunteering recognised by Student Volunteering Scotland. These are:

Student Community Action
Student Media
Student Representatives
Student Charity Appeals (RAG)
Welcome Teams
Advice and Support Services
Other – contact us if your volunteering doesn’t fit into one of these.

Gold Awards must also be presented in recognition of Leadership, Dedication and Achievement.

You may choose to focus on just one of these three themes, or reward students who have demonstrated all three. Ultimately, it’s up to you. These criteria are deliberately broad, enabling you to focus in what works best locally, while providing a national coherence and consistency.

Celebrate

How does the process work?

If you want to present Gold Awards in your institution:

Step 1: Work out how many awards you will be allocating (see below for guideline numbers)

Step 2: Decide on your nominees. How you do this is up to you, but it should be a fair selection process, run as impartially as possible.

Step 3: For each nominee, write a nomination. This should be a short (around a page) story about the nominee, what they do as a student volunteer, and why they meet one or more of the awards criteria of Leadership, Dedication, and/or Achievement.

Step 4: Send details of your nominees to Student Volunteering Scotland at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , as far in advance of any planned awards ceremony as you can. As long as we feel the nominations demonstrate appropriate quality of volunteer, you will receive certificates for the Gold Award winners!

FAQs

How many Awards are there?
Student Volunteering Scotland have set up an allocation system to help you decide how many awards to offer each year. The number awarded depends on the number of active student volunteers registered in your institution:
Up to 50 active volunteers             1 Award
51 – 200 active volunteers             2 Awards
201 – 400 active volunteers           3 Awards
400 + active volunteers                 4 Awards

Remember, the idea is that these Awards go to the very best examples of student volunteering, the people that exemplify the qualities of a student volunteer that goes the extra mile for their project, and/or to help others to get involved.

How much does it cost to enter the Awards programme?
It’s completely free. We were given some initial funding to set up the Awards, but the beauty of the scheme is that it requires very little ongoing resource to run.

Can “staff volunteers” receive a Gold Award?
No. The Gold Awards are issued by Student Volunteering Scotland to recognise the contribution of students and are not available to university or college staff. However there is nothing to stop you creating something along similar lines to recognise these contributions.

For any other questions, for more information, and to submit nominations contact: ' ); //--> This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it "> This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Gold Awards are an opportunity for student volunteers to show both local and national decision makers how important, innovative and exciting student volunteering is. We hope the student volunteering sector will celebrate the success of Gold Award winners locally and nationally.

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