Gunnedah Eisteddfod Society and Jobs Australia will vie for finalist spots in the 2020 NSW/ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards.
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The community organisation and job agency are both nominees for the Australia Connecting Communities Award.
The eisteddfod society is recognised for running the first online eisteddfod in Australia during the COVID crisis, while Jobs Australia has been given the nod for its plans to build crisis housing for women and children affected by domestic violence.
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The society's Marg Amos said the overwhelmingly positive feedback from eisteddfod participants made the hard work worthwhile.
"It's such a unique, innovative concept for the time when everything else was cancelled, we were the first official, Australian, endorsed eisteddfod to go online and we had 670 entries," she said.
Mrs Amos said the society was "very chuffed" that participants gave the event an overall experience rating of 4.6 out of 5.
"We could not have done it without our new website. It was the catalyst, really, for enabling everything to be done through there," she said.
"It was beautifully effective with hardly any hiccups ... we'll be able to now do all of our entries directly through the website.
"Other eisteddfods and societies are getting in touch to find out how we did it so they can emulate our model."
The society is also a nominee in the Australian Event Awards.
Jobs Australia's Tracey Reid is driving the crisis housing project and said that despite years of anti-domestic and family violence campaigns, the issue would not just go away.
"Still one woman is dying a week in Australia and one man is dying a month, and during COVID we've had a 4 per cent increase in domestic violence Australia-wide," she said.
Ms Reid said by getting behind the soon-to-be-built crisis housing, Gunnedah was "in the forefront of taking the first step to show its support".
"All the domestic violence support women can get it's giving them that chance to break away from that situation," she said.
Ms Reid said it was important to have a place nearby where women and their children could stay so they can continue going to school.
She said the pet-friendly element of the project was also "a big thing for us because people have huge attachment to pets".
The house also has the potential to provide options for victims from outside the Gunnedah area.
- Winners of the 2020 NSW/ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards will be announced on November 20.