The ZEST Awards are the premier event for the Community Sector in Greater Western Sydney.

The Awards, led by Western Sydney Community Forum, have celebrated over 800 outstanding projects and individuals from the community across the past seven years.

The ZEST Awards showcase the great work of the Community Sector across the region, promoting a positive image of Greater Western Sydney region by highlighting our assets, our diversity and our creative and innovative work. This region includes, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith, the Hills, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee.

Nominations for the 2019 ZEST Awards will be opening on the 31st of October 2018, allowing individuals and organisations residing or working in Greater Western Sydney to recognise the extraordinary work which happens in the region. Nominations will close on the 14^th of December, 2018.

All nominees are then invited to attend the ZEST Awards Ceremony, which will be held at Stadium Australia in Olympic Park on Friday 15th February 2019. Over 500 people are expected to attend the ZEST Awards Ceremony, where there will be great food, entertainers from across Greater Western Sydney and plenty of memorable moments.

Begun in 2011, the ZEST Awards celebrate and promote life in Western Sydney and the great things being done by community service sector organisations and volunteers.

The impetus came from a growing awareness in the community sector that it was the image of Western Sydney itself that was holding back the region. This was highlighted in a forum in 2010, Stronger Voice for Western Sydney, a partnership between the Western Sydney Community Forum, WESTIR and TRI Community Exchange. A key aim that emerged from this was to challenge the negative media focus on the region and instead work to promote the innovative, creative work being done.

With previous experience running a community awards program for local government Nancy Nicholson, Operations Manager at the Western Sydney Community Forum initiated the idea of an annual awards presentation that could showcase the positive work being done by the community sector.

With some early supporting and funding from individuals like David Borger, then MP for Granville and Minister for Western Sydney, and a big dose of the partner organisation’s time, the awards were launched the following year.

In 2011, this first awards night attracted nearly 250 attendees. From the start organisers noticed the positive impact being nominated for an award had on individuals and organisations. The awards also changed how organisers have seen the community service sector and how it works at its best, with a high number of nominees being partnerships between collaborating organisations. Also notable is the number of innovative projects being initiated by indigenous and ethnic communities.

Now eight years down the track the awards themselves are promoting new projects each year. A tangible measure of what is working, the awards are also being used to as a promotional tool by government departments to highlight the meeting of performance indicators and by organisations themselves able to promote their own ‘best practice’.