Tabcorp Employee Shines as Volunteer
27 March 2006 at 12:03 pm
A Security Officer at Jupiter’s Casino in Townsville has won gold in Tabcorp’s inaugural Shine Community Spirit Awards for his inspirational volunteer work with a local aboriginal justice group.
Kevin Ngan-Woo has won the top volunteer award for the thousands of hours each year he devotes to ensure the local indigenous community has access to a fairer justice system and on-line educational tools.
Ngan-Woo has been honoured for his outstanding work with the Townsville Thuringowa Community Justice Group Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation, which receives $10,000 as part of the Tabcorp awards.
Tabcorp created the Shine Community Spirit Awards to celebrate and recognise employees who undertake inspiring and extraordinary acts of volunteering outside of work.
Tabcorp committed $100,000 to the relevant community organisations including charities, local community groups, schools, kindergartens and sporting clubs.
Tabcorp’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Slatter congratulated Kevin Ngan-Woo for his inspiring contribution to the local community saying he is a shining example of what a positive impact our people are making in the community. His dedication and commitment to his volunteer work and the local indigenous community is outstanding.
Graeme Hastie, Director of Volunteering NSW and an independent judge on the Tabcorp Group Judging panel says Kevin’s passion and enthusiasm as a volunteer has made an enormous difference in the local community and he has ultimately grown professionally and personally from the experiences that he has shared with the Townsville and Thuringowa communities.
Ngan-Woo, who has been working with Jupiters Townsville for six-years, says he’s was honoured to win the Award.
The annual awards form part of Tabcorp’s Shine Reward and Recognition program – an annual program that Tabcorp says underpins values of teamwork, integrity, performance, customer and innovation.
With the largest population (over 20,000) of indigenous people in Australia, Townsville and its surrounding communities has benefited greatly from Kevin’s community spirit. He has been instrumental in establishing a ground-breaking Community Justice Group that has dramatically reduced the number of indigenous children appearing in the Townsville Children’s Magistrates Court and the number of children in detention.
The work carried out by the organisation allows the Magistrate to make a more informed decision taking into account cultural and traditional family backgrounds of the person or people involved. This happens through submissions from elders during proceedings, a focus on prevention programs and by helping the courts look at other diversionary processes such as mediation, youth justice conferencing and community service orders.
Throughout all stages of the legal process, Kevin and other members of the group provide support to indigenous victims and alleged offenders.
Since the inception of the corporation, Kevin has helped set up the administration, governance, office space, computer system and also designed the organisation’s logo, letter head and other communication materials. He works tirelessly attending meetings, compiling reports and developing strong relationships with the community elders.
Kevin helped introduce a dedicated website for the organisation with a youth friendly online education tutor module that trains the young people in excel, word and PowerPoint.
For more information on the awards go to www.tabcorp.com.au.