Apply for Community Chest award
PRE-APPLICATIONS for this years’ Community Chest Impumelelo Social Innovation Awards have been opened.
This annual awards programme, started in 1999, recognises socially conscious innovators who conceive, design and build sustainable responses to social challenges.
The chief executive of Community Chest, Lorenzo Davids, said: “Our dream for these awards is to provide a platform for innovation, deep thinking, social intelligence and impact in a space that so desperately needs to see fresh ideas and have deep thinkers who work collaboratively with civil society.”
The project co-ordinator of Community Chest in the Western Cape, Desiree Goliath, said the Impumelelo Awards programme was built on the foundations of a number of global innovation initiatives.
“The programme was specifically focused on programmes that address the clear inequalities of a newly democratic South Africa. Today, overcoming socio-economic inequalities is still one of South Africa’s biggest challenges and this programme is relevant more than ever,” she said
The call for applications extends to all nine provinces and targets both urban and rural communities.
The aim is to unearth innovative solutions to challenges in sectors such as health, education, infrastructure and housing, arts and culture, environment and conservation, income-generation, community development and social entrepreneurship.
These awards create a platform for shared learning and the scaling up of effective innovations through a holistic approach encompassing leadership, mentorship and coaching, monitoring, evaluation and learning, strategic investment and pragmatic master classes.
The pre-application process closes on April30 and candidates who have completed this phase and the Community Chest due diligence process will be invited to apply for the programme. Successful applicants will undergo a rigorous, independent evaluation and adjudication process before the finalists are selected. This will culminate in an awards ceremony in November at the Artscape Theatre.
To date, the Impumelelo Awards programme has hosted 15 annual awards cycles and has a database of 1 930 innovative projects that address social problems.
Goliath said: “About 351 projects received financial Impumelelo Awards, excluding projects that received certificates, and 21 of these have won international awards as a result of the cycle awards.
Davids added: “We will continue to unearth social innovation and reward creative solutions to public problems through our awards programme and the accompanying mentorship and master-class training.”
● For a pre-application, visit www. comchest.org.za or email awards@comchest.org.za