Released 25/07/2017
Tonight I was honoured to celebrate our volunteering community by presenting the ACT Volunteer of the Year Award to Juyanti Gupta. The Volunteering Awards recognise the importance of Canberra’s volunteers through nine different categories honouring individual and group achievement in volunteering.
Ms Gupta is an active President, Chair and executive member of a number of associations that strive every day to make Canberra a better and more inclusive city. The support Ms Gupta provides as a volunteer includes facilitating community events, working with the Tibetan, Mon and Tongan communities, and spending her holidays interpreting for people in hospital. In total, Ms Gupta undertakes 20-30 hours of voluntary work per week and she does all this while holding down a full-time job in the Australian Public Service.
More than one in three people in the ACT are volunteers, and they contribute over $1.5 billion each year to the ACT economy. Their generosity, time and skills enable countless cultural events, emergency and health services, and educational, sport and recreational activities to take place.
Volunteers tell me about the many benefits they receive, from building relationships, connecting with the community, developing skills, to simply being able to give back to a city that gives us all so much.
I was also pleased to officially launch of the 2017 ACT Volunteering Statement. Released earlier today, the Statement reflects a whole-of-government and community commitment to supporting our volunteers.
I’d like to thank Ms Gupta, the other award winners, and each and every one of Canberra’s volunteers for their service and dedication.
- Statement ends -
Rachel Stephen-Smith, MLA | Media Releases