Violet Richardson Award
The Violet Richardson Award is a recognition program for young women ages 14-17 engaged in volunteer action within their communities or schools. The Violet Richardson Award is given to young women whose volunteer activities make the community and world a better place. The award is in honor of the Soroptimist founder, Violet Richardson, a woman of action, whose indomitable spirit and sense of personal responsibility were demonstrated by her life-long commitment to volunteering in her community. All awards are given for activities conducted on a volunteer basis. Volunteer projects can include, but are not limited to, projects that address social problems such as homelessness, violence, drug abuse, unemployment, illiteracy, discrimination, AIDS, and pollution. Projects may assist any group including the elderly, the disabled and mentally or emotionally challenged groups. Projects that benefit women or girls are especially valued. Topics can include, but are not limited to mentoring, sexual harassment, sexual decision making, teen parenting, careers, finances and any other projects that specifically benefit women, young women or girls. Applicants must be young women 14 to 17 years of age. Applicants must be engaged in volunteer activity. Soroptimists, Soroptimist employees and the immediate families of both are ineligible. Previous winners of the award are also ineligible. Please click here for the award instructions and application form.
Women’s Opportunity Award
The Women’s Opportunity Award program was established by Soroptimist International of the Americas in 1972 to assist women entering or re-entering the workforce in obtaining the education and skills training they need to improve their employment status. The applicant must be a female head of household, with primary financial responsibility for supporting her family; must be attending, or have been accepted to, a vocational / skills training program, or an undergraduate degree program; and can demonstrate financial need. Previous winners are ineligible to apply. Soroptimists, employees of Soroptimist, and the immediate families of both are ineligible to apply. Please click here for the award instructions and application form and click here for the reference form.
Ava Crofford Award
The Ava Crofford Youth Citizenship Award is given in recognition of the outstanding contributions made by young people to home, school, community, country, and the world. The award was established in 2000 to honor former Soroptimist Ava Crofford. Ava, a photographer, wrote The Diamond Years of Texas Photography, a history of the first 75 years of the Texas Professional Photographers Association in 1975. Please click here for the award instructions, application and reference forms.
SafePlace
SafePlace is a local organization that is a unified source of hope for women, children and men hurt by sexual and domestic violence. For the past several years, our club and individual members have made donations to SafePlace as well as participated in their annual fundraising Walk. In 2009, the Walk was replaced with the SafePlace Field Day.
Austin/Travis County Family Violence Task Force
The Task Force is made up of public, private and non-profit organizations that provide law enforcement, legal, judicial and social services related to domestic violence. The purpose of this task force is to improve the delivery of services to reduce domestic violence in Austin/Travis County. Soroptimist International of Austin representatives are proud to serve on the task force to better our community. Recently the Task Force held a workshop and our club provided lunches for the 115 attendees.
Zavala Elementary School
Soroptimist International of Austin organizes an annual Easter Egg Hunt for the kindergarten students at the school each year. Additionally, we have provided donations and volunteer assistance for their library and their HOSTS program (Helping One Student To Succeed).