TONIGHT, The National and the Scottish Independence Foundation come together to present the first-ever Independence Awards, recognising the achievements of individuals and groups who have been working for the cause of Scottish independence.
Earlier this month, we invited people from across the Yes movement to place nominations for those who they felt deserve some recognition for their campaigning activities.
There are two categories: the Indy Campaigner of the Year and the Indy Group of the Year.
Following the closing date for submissions on December 16, a total of 66 nominations were considered by the judges who have reflected on a wide range of achievements accomplished through tireless efforts from within the Yes movement.
Tonight, we will find out who have been chosen as the winners. The awards event will be broadcast live from 7pm on The National’s Facebook page.
The Scottish Independence Foundation (SIF) has been working with The National on this project for some time, and the awards event, which will be hosted live by Elaine C Smith, will also have contributions from SIF convener Dr Willie Wilson and Callum Baird, editor of The National.
Though there were so many nominations, there has been enough time for our panel of judges – two each from SIF and The National – to look through the nominations.
SIF stated: “We wanted to know what they had done to merit an award and judge if it was compatible with SIF’s aims, such as education or training of activists; design/production of materials; or running events that will increase support of independence.”
As well as revealing who the individual and group award winners are, there will be honourable mentions of other nominees. The National will be publishing details of the winners in a series of articles, which will also describe the excellent work of some runners-up.
It is our joint hope with SIF that pro-indy campaigners will be so impressed with this work that they might consider duplicating some of it in their own area of activity – “spreading good practice”, as the Yes movement likes to do.
As a thank you to them, the winner of the individual Campaigner award will receive £1500 and a trophy, and the group will get £1000 and a trophy.
In each case, that money is to be donated to a pro-independence group or project of the winner’s choice, and which is compatible with SIF’s aims. Note that these cash awards are being provided personally by members of the SIF board, and are not coming from money donated by the public for indy campaigning.
SIF chief executive, Greg McCarra, said: “SIF was founded in 2018 to provide financial support to campaigning for independence – mainly at the grassroots level – and we have invested more than £170,000 in pro-indy projects throughout Scotland since then.
“We have had many challenges in recent times with Covid, but we are now looking forward to the opportunities of New Year and – with the help of SIF supporters and The National readers – achievement of our goal of a Yes vote by the end of 2021.”
Follow this link to watch the awards: facebook.com/thenationalnewspaperscotland
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