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Success in the social service sector arrives quietly.
A woman and her children turning the key on a safe home. An older man back at his Tuesday community group after months on his own. A service redesigning its programs because it asked and listened to the people it supports.
No ribbon cutting. No press conference. Sometimes, not even a lunch break.
Behind each of these moments is a person or an organisation. Frontline workers supporting a family facing homelessness, advocates helping people navigate complex systems, community leaders responding to emerging needs, and people drawing on their own lived experience to create change.
They hold communities together through crisis, hardship and uncertainty.
The outcomes can be life-changing, which is why recognition of the work we do matters.
Nominations are now open for the NCOSS Awards
There are seven awards this year, including two new categories. They recognise small, medium and large organisations, leadership, frontline workers and collaboration, alongside the Amir Bodenstein Lived/Living Experience Individual Honorary Recognition and a Members’ Choice Award.
These awards belong to the whole of NSW and we want to hear your stories.
Recognition matters most when times are hard, and times are hard. Our Voices of Poverty research found close to five in 10 people living below the poverty line in NSW had gone without meals at least a few times in the past 12 months because they were short of money.
Behind those people and their communities is a sector straining to respond.
At a time when demand on social services continues to grow, recognising the people who sustain our communities is especially important.
Celebration does not replace the need for proper investment, strong policy or a sustainable workforce, but it reminds everyone, including the people who write the budgets, that investment is ultimately about people, stronger communities and a better future for NSW.
Finalists will be celebrated at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay on 27 October 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
Before then, I encourage everyone across our sector to think about the colleague, organisation, leader, frontline worker, advocate or partnership whose contribution deserves to be seen – and nominate them.
Because work this important should never be invisible.