2025 Pride in Health +Wellbeing LGBTQ+ Inclusion Award Nomination Forms
These awards acknowledge achievements within organisations, role models, and allies for their contribution towards greater inclusion of people with diverse sexualities and genders (LGBTQ+ people), in the health, wellbeing, human and community services sectors.
Consider nominating a colleague or campaign for their outstanding contributions to LGBTQ+ inclusion within the categories listed below.
These awards are announced at the annual Australian Pride in Health + Wellbeing Awards, hosted by Pride in Health + Wellbeing. Each award recognises outstanding advocacy, innovation, support or contribution to LGBTQ+ inclusion within the sector by leaders, role models, allies and more.
Click on the title of each award to download the Nomination Form.
Executive Leadership Award
This nomination recognises the outstanding contribution(s) to LGBTQ+ inclusion from an executive and/or senior leader within your organisation.
Culture is led from the top, so Executive support for LGBTQ+ inclusion speaks volumes across the organisation, internally, and behalf of the organisation, externally. Their contributions should include both internal and external work, sending strong messages to potential employees, servicer users, customers, clients, stakeholders, LGBTQ+ people who engage with your organisation, and the general LGBTQ+ public.
Annual HWEI Survey data shows that the visible, active senior allies have a significant impact within an organisation. This can be regarding employee support for organisational LGBTQ+ inclusive service delivery, and specific support for LGBTQ+ employees. Visible support from executive/leadership teams positively impacts health and wellbeing, inclusion, and acceptance. It reduces incidents of bullying and harassment and contributes to an environment where people feel safer to deal with negative behaviours.
- This nominee may be an Executive Sponsor, but their work should be above and beyond their requirements of the role including:
- advocacy for the importance of networks and their work to senior leaders
- priority-setting based on overall organisation business strategy
- provision of guidance and organisational knowledge to support network objectives
- visible support of LGBTQ+ network and employees to whole of organisation and LGBTQ+ inclusive service delivery
LGBTQ+ Ally of the Year
This submission recognises the outstanding contribution of an individual within your organisation who does not personally identify as an LGBTQ+ individual, but who has made a significant contribution to LGBTQ+ inclusion in the health and wellbeing sectors as an ally to LGBTQ+ people. They have supported both staff and service users (including their family and carers) with LGBTQ+ inclusive service delivery.
Allies can provide LGBTQ+ communities with an opportunity to extend reach and support mechanisms, increase their voice and help reduce the prevalence of homophobic bullying, harassment, taunts, jokes and exclusion that still exist.
An ally can be anyone who actively and visibly supports LGBTQ+ inclusion. People often use the term ally to refer to non-LGBTQ+ support of inclusion. While non-LGBTQ+ allies are important in lifting the burden of inclusion work from LGBTQ+ people, LGBTQ+ people can also be allies for other LGBTQ+ people (e.g., a cisgender gay man can be an ally for lesbians or trans and gender diverse people, etc.).
Active and visible allies are people who tend to want to make positive and effective changes for LGBTQ+ people. Such characteristics of an ally might include but are certainly not limited to:
- general advocacy for inclusion
- equity and respect for all
- understanding important terminology/ies, myths and challenges LGBTQ+ face
- have a strong awareness of language and assumptions made toward LGBTQ+ people
- an ability to focus on and role model person-centred language
- have a willingness to respect privacy and confidentiality
- play a part in addressing negative behaviours toward LGBTQ+ employees and services users
This nominee may be a person with a role in diversity and inclusion, but their LGBTQ+ inclusion work should be above and beyond the requirements of this role.
LGBTQ+ Inclusive Innovation Award
This submission recognises innovation in LGBTQ+ inclusion in the health and wellbeing sectors. This can be focused on internal or external innovation work undertaken aimed at improving LGBTQ+ inclusive service delivery.
Due to the wide variety of services and organisational size, innovation is often required to ensure inclusion is appropriate to the industry, region, and client demographics and cohort. As a result, many service providers must be innovative in their inclusion initiatives.
This award will celebrate the most innovative LGBTQ+ inclusion initiatives from the assessed calendar year.
LGBTQ+ Role Model Award
This nomination is for an LGBTQ+ individual within your organisation who is highly visible as an LGBTQ+ role model and has made an outstanding contribution raising awareness, advocating for, and promoting LGBTQ+ inclusive service delivery within the organisation.
Their contributions should include both internal and external work, sending strong messages to potential employees, servicer users, customers, clients, stakeholders, LGBTQ+ people who engage with your organisation, and the general LGBTQ+ public.
We often hear “you can’t be what you can’t see.” Year after year, data shows that LGBTQ+ role models have a significant on inclusive service delivery.
Having visible role models is even more important for people where they have multiple intersecting under-represented facets of their identities, for example we see LGBTQ+ women in particular value having role models, but they are not seeing them. This is also true for other under-represented LGBTQ+ populations.
Submitting your Award Nominations
2025 nominations can be submitted between Monday, 6th January 2025 – Monday, 3rd February 2025.
For more information regarding these awards, please contact HWEI@acon.org.au
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Sponsorships
Award naming rights sponsorship opportunities are available for each of the 2025 awards – plus more.
If you would like your organisation to be linked with LGBTQ+ inclusion best practice, why not sponsor an award?