Program honors small town civic volunteers

Nominations for the second annual Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award (STACVA) program will open July 15, 2021. The nationwide program is looking to recognize and honor the contributions of 100 public service and public safety volunteers in towns and counties with populations of 25,000 or less.

STACVA is co-sponsored by National Association of Counties, National Volunteer Fire Council, National Association of Towns and Townships, Main Street America, Points of Light and CivicPlus, with representatives from each serving on the STACVA advisory team. Small town and rural America consultancy Barton Russell Group will administer and judge the 2021 program.

Local government representatives can nominate citizens or citizen organizations for the STACVA via the online application. Nominators should describe a candidate’s compelling story of local volunteerism and its positive impact on the community.

The municipalities and counties that are represented by the top 100 nominees will qualify for a complimentary volunteer management module that can be integrated with their website to help engage, recruit and retail community volunteers, in addition to a year of free support services from CivicPlus, which provides technology solutions that enable local governments to optimize citizen interactions. The localities representing the top three national winners will also receive cash awards of $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.

Nominations will be accepted from July 15 through October 15, and winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held in November.