The 6th Annual INI Awards

The Toronto Youth Cabinet (TYC) and the City of Toronto are accepting applications for the 6th annual Identify ‘N’ Impact (INI) Awards. These awards celebrate the contributions of young people throughout Toronto and value their roles as advocates, visionaries, and agents of social change.  The awards are open to youth (13-24) or youth-led organizations that focus on servicing young people within the city of Toronto. All applicants must demonstrate that they are positive role models for youth and have made an impact in the community.

Applications for the following awards are being accepted until Friday November 15th, 2013:

Building Community through Athletics Award
Awarded to an individual or group who has made an impact in the larger community
through athletic leadership, such as coaching, NLP, organizing competitions, player development
and or mobilizing participants.

Building Community through Entrepreneurship Award
Awarded to an individual or group who has made a significant impact in the community through entrepreneurial leadership, such as starting youth led businesses, providing economic opportunities for young people,  facilitating youth entrepreneurial  training , and creating innovative business models that utilize youth leadership.  Entries are not limited to traditional business models.

Building Community through the Arts Award
Awarded to an individual or group who has made an impact in the larger community
through the arts or literacy initiatives such as creative writing, poetry, music , spoken
word, visual arts and performing arts, this category will also include digital media, game
design, filmmaking, and animation.

Community Impact Award
Awarded to an individual, group, or organization dedicated to creating awareness and
advocating for community safety, youth employment and youth volunteer opportunities.
This would be through working with youth to promote violence prevention and create
positive spaces for youth development. Working with youth to find employment and or
providing volunteering opportunities.

Youth Advocacy Award
Awarded to an individual or group who will remain committed to creating awareness and
advocating for youth issues at any or all levels of government: Municipal Provincial or
Federal for the next 12-24 months after receiving award.

Equity and Diversity Award
Awarded to an individual or group who demonstrate leadership, issue awareness and a
commitment to community engagement and or contributes to creating an inclusive space
for the LGBTTQ/Disabled and or Newcomer communities.

Sexual Health Awareness Award
Awarded to an individual or group who has made a positive contribution to the sexual
health of young people in their communities. This could have been through harm reduction
programs, peer health, and or HIV /AIDS prevention.

Street Level Advocate Award
Awarded to an individual or resident group who has made significant contributions to
building awareness, capacity and independence for street involved youth and or
homeless  youth.

Community Youth Worker of the Year Award
This award honours one community agency based youth service workers in the Greater
Toronto area, who have made outstanding contributions to the social development of
their community or organization. The individual must be nominated by a community
agency and a City of Toronto employee. E.g. Parks and Recreation Youth Outreach
Worker, Toronto Public Library staff, Toronto Public Health staff.

Awards will be presented at Toronto City Hall on Friday December 6th, 2013. Last year’s winners included Chris Williams and Paul Nguyen of Jane-Finch.com and Wiyanna Trevis, Program Manager at the Look at My Life Project.

How to Apply for an INI Award