ACT Youth Justice Awards
Find out how to nominate a person or team. We present the awards on Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day in October.
About the awards
These awards recognise youth justice workers and highlight the work they do that often goes unseen. The awards are for anyone working with young people in the youth justice sector in the ACT.
We present the awards on Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day in October each year. The awards are run by the Australasian Youth Justice Administrators (AYJA).
There are two awards:
- The Exceptional Practice Award for individuals
- The Exceptional Practice Award for teams.
The theme for 2025 is Upholding Values: Identity, Strength and Resilience.
Youth Justice workers support young people to reconnect with their identity and culture. Embracing strength-based values and nurturing strong partnerships with families and communities builds trust and achieves shared goals. This approach fosters resilience, promotes healing, and creates positive pathways for young people, their families, and the broader community.
Who you can nominate
Nominees for the individual and team award categories must:
- work in the ACT
- work in the youth justice sector or work closely with the youth justice sector
- work in a project, program or policy directly related to youth justice
- be endorsed by their current supervisor.
Nominees must not:
- be under investigation or disciplinary process
- be subject to a professional practice notification, restriction or limitation to practice.
You cannot nominate yourself for these awards.
Award categories
There are 2 award categories:
- The Exceptional Practice Award - Individual
- The Exceptional Practice Award - Team
The Exceptional Practice Awards recognise an individual or team who:
- shines as a youth justice practitioner, leader and colleague
- has shown consistent excellent performance that has been noticed
- has made an invaluable contribution to youth justice that has had far-reaching positive impacts for young people, their families and communities
- applies the AYJA Principles of Youth Justice in day-to-day practice.
The AYJA principles are listed on the nomination form.
This category is open to individuals who:
- inspire excellence among their colleagues and stakeholders and build community confidence in youth justice
- promote collaborative practice that supports and demonstrates positive outcomes for children and young people
- promote and share best practice in strengths-based approaches that focus on strengths, abilities, and potential
- act as a role model in championing diversity, inclusion, safety, and human rights in their day-to-day work
- champion cultural competence to ensure practice with young people, their families and communities from diverse cultural backgrounds is safe and responsive.
This category is open to a team that:
- inspires excellence among their colleagues and stakeholders and builds community confidence in youth justice
- promotes collaborative practice that supports and demonstrates positive outcomes for children and young people
- promotes and shares best practice in strengths-based approaches that focus on strengths, abilities, and potential
- acts as role models in championing diversity, inclusion, safety, and human rights in their day-to-day work
- champions cultural competence to ensure practice with young people, their families and communities from diverse cultural backgrounds is safe and responsive.
How to nominate
Nominations are closed at the moment.
When the awards are open, fill out our form and email it to us to nominate a person or team. You can nominate more than one person, or more than one team. You will need to fill in a separate form for each person or team you nominate.
- Choose the award category.
- Complete the nomination form and save the document.
- Submit your nomination to the email address at the bottom of the nomination form - YouthJusticeWorkAllocation@act.gov.au
Nominations closed at 5.00 pm on 27 September 2025.
How we choose a winner
The nominations are assessed by a panel of senior youth justice professionals and leaders from the ACT Government.
The selection process is confidential and final.
The winners receive their awards at a ceremony on 14 October 2025, Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day.
The winners will go on to represent the ACT in the Australasian National Awards. The national awards on 4 December 2025 recognise youth justice workers across Australia and New Zealand.
About Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day
The theme for the 2025 Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day is Upholding Values: Identity, Strength and Resilience.
In 2025 Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day is 14 October.
We celebrate nominees and award winners on Australasian Youth Justice Acknowledgement Day each year in October.
Past winners
Award recipients from 2024:
- Reeion Murray, Aboriginal Liaison Officer, Canberra Health Services – Exceptional Practice – Individual
- Bimberi Youth Workers – Bimberi Youth Justice Centre – Exceptional Practice – Team.