Best Overall

The 2023 Annual Award application are open!
The Annual Awards Program highlights sister city program achievements and brings international recognition to each community’s contributions to the citizen diplomacy movement. Sister Cities International established the Annual Awards Program in 1962 to recognize exceptional sister city programs. Current dues-paying members of Sister Cities International with at least one formally recognized sister city partnership are eligible to apply for awards. The awards will recognize achievements by sister city programs in 2022.
Winners will be announced at the Annual Business Meeting on July 28, 2023 and will be highlighted on Sister Cities International’s website, social media, and in national and regional press outreach.
Please read the eligibility requirements, rules and regulations carefully before applying. For any questions, email [email protected].Â
Please read the eligibility requirements, rules and regulations carefully before applying. For any questions, email [email protected].Â
Award applications are open in the following categories:
Best Overall (organized by population)
Innovation in Arts & Culture
Innovation in Business, Trade, and Professional ExchangeÂ
Innovation in Humanitarian Assistance
Innovation in Youth and Education
Volunteer of the Year
Youth Leadership
There is no cost to apply for the SCI Annual Awards Program.
The Best Overall Award recognizes outstanding achievement by a city’s sister city program in 2022. Winning applicants will demonstrate some or all of the following:
Best Overall awards are presented to four (4) communities according to the following population sizes:
The Innovation Awards recognize activities by members in 2022 that show originality and impact, challenging preconceived ideas about what is possible through sister cities and international exchange. Applications should show how their activities deviate from typical models, or how changes or improvements have taken their programs to the next level.
In addition, activities should demonstrate success in the fundamentals of sister city programs, including cooperation between various organizations or groups in the community, creating fundraising, and a commitment to Sister Cities International’s mission: to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation – one individual, one community at a time.
Innovation awards are presented in four (4) categories:
Applicants may highlight one or more exchanges in the respective award category as long as those exchanges occurred in 2022.
Innovation awards are presented to three (3) communities in each innovation category according to the following population sizes:
The Volunteer of the Year award recognizes a sister cities individual who has shown exemplary leadership and talent that benefits local sister city programs and the larger sister city network.
Volunteers nominated for this award must be 18 years of age or older.
The Youth Leadership award recognizes a youth who has shown exemplary leadership and talent that benefits local sister city programs and the larger sister city network.
Youth Leadership Award nominations must be under the age of 18 years old.
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