About The Urban Hero Awards
The Urban Hero Awards is an annual awards program that recognizes those community members and grassroots level ‘heroes’ whose personal efforts, sacrifices or contributions have made a significant impact to a cause, a person or a group in our local community.
A Toronto Community News initiative, the awards for 2011 are open to nominations in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough.
They are for individuals who stand out in a crowd because they have made a difference in our neighbourhoods. The awards are for groups and businesses that are committed to making our community a better place to live.
Urban Heroes come in all shapes, sizes, ages, backgrounds and professions. They’re teachers, students, family members, mentors, volunteers, leaders, innovators, protectors and caregivers. They may be average citizens, but perhaps their actions inspire, their words motivate, and their character emanates compassion and goodwill.
The Urban Hero Awards provide us an opportunity to thank those individuals, groups and businesses for their extraordinary contribution to our community.
Nominations for 2011 are open only to residents, groups and businesses in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough. Nominations in the categories of Education, Community, Sports, Health & Sciences, Environment, Arts & Culture will be accepted until April 4 for North York and Scarborough and April 15 for Etobicoke.
Semifinalists will be chosen soon thereafter and the finalists announced in May or June at receptions taking place in those three markets. Profiles on the Urban Hero Award winners will be featured in The Etobicoke Guardian, The North York Mirror and The Scarborough Mirror newspapers and online at www.urbanheroes.ca
Categories
Do you know an Urban Hero? Chances are you do.
Maybe it’s your neighbour, your child’s teacher, a local police officer, firefighter or EMS worker. It could be a sports coach, a dance instructor, or just an average Joe or Jill who did something extraordinary.
An Urban Hero can be anyone.
The Urban Hero awards are open to individuals (14+) as well as non-profit organizations and businesses. Nominations are currently being accepted until April 4 for North York and Scarborough and April 15 for Etobicoke for the following categories:
- Arts and Culture
- Business
- Community
- Education
- Environment
- Health and Sciences
- Sports
Read more on rules and criteria.
Nominate an Urban Hero today!
Rules and Criteria
1a. For the INDIVIDUAL component, nominees for the awards must be residents in the program market (Etobicoke, North York or Scarborough) OR the work/ volunteering that they do must take place in that market. The contribution for which they are being nominated must have made a significant impact to a cause, a person or a group in that market. Nominees must be at least 14 years of age during the active program year.
1b. If a nominee is an ORGANIZATION, GROUP OR BUSINESS, it must be currently based and operating in the program market (Etobicoke, North York or Scarborough) and serve the residents of that area. The contribution for which the organization, group or business is being nominated must have a proven impact on that local community. National or international organizations with local offices or branches may apply, but they will be judged only on the work they do locally.
2. Nominees must be living. No posthumous awards will be granted.
3a. The work that a nominee does to inspire a nomination may be part of a nominee’s job (a teacher, principal or social worker, for example) but volunteer work, or the work a nominee does above and beyond their professional role may hold more value during the judging process.
3b. By the same token, the work that an ORGANIZATION, GROUP or BUSINESS does elicit a nomination can be part of their organizational mandate, but the work they do selflessly for the sole benefit of a cause, person or group outside of their work may hold more value during the judging process.
4. The work for which a nominee is nominated must have taken place, at least in part, during the 12 months prior to nomination.
5. Nominators may remain anonymous to their nominee, but they must provide their contact information to the Urban Hero Awards organizers for verification purposes.
6. If a nominee is selected as a semi-finalist, they will need to provide a digital head shot photo of themselves.
Nominations
Nominations for The 2010 Urban Hero Awards will be accepted until April 4 for North York and Scarborough and April 15 for Etobicoke. The semi-finalists will be chosen in April and the finalists announced at a reception hosted in the program market. The nomination forms will be made available at www.urbanheroes.ca
A committee of Toronto Community News staff members will select semi-finalists for each Urban Hero category based on the criteria mentioned above. Where applicable, individual nominations will be evaluated in respect to other individual nominations within a category and organizations/ groups/ businesses will be evaluated in respect to other similar nominations within a category.
The semi-finalists will then be evaluated by an external and independent selection committee. They will choose finalists from each category who will be announced in print, online and at the reception.