Selection Criteria

Selection Committee:

The Board of Directors will appoint a selection committee annually. The committee can be made up of Board members and other individuals from the community. Typically the committee should be composed of at least one Board member, at least one autistic adult, and at least one parent.  The Committee should have a maximum of 6 members.  No person on the selection committee can nominate or serve as a reference for any of the candidates for that year. The committee members will review all applications received prior to October 31st.  They will have November and December available for their deliberations. Once they have selected a candidate, they should prepare a brief citation explaining the rationale for choosing the candidate.  They will then forward the name, details, and citation to the Board Chair and the Executive Director.  The Chair of the Board will advise the Harris-LaCosta Group of their candidate. 

The award will be given to a person who best meets the selection criteria set out below.  As well the Committee members may wish to consider some of the following panel guidelines listed below.

Selection Criteria:

•  A person diagnosed with autism who lives in the province of New Brunswick.

•  The person nominated will be at least 16 years of age.

•  The nominee has demonstrated exceptional and/or consistent achievements.

•  Specific achievements must be clearly documented in the application.  

•  These achievements may be in any area, but the areas of achievement typically could include academics, arts, athletics, business, entertainment, literature, music, and social enterprises. 

ACF Board members and their family are not eligible during their term of office.

Individuals will not be considered if they have received this award within the last five years.  

Additional Selection Guidelines:

The nominee must demonstrate at least one of the following three criteria:

• The person has demonstrated consistent achievements over an extended period of time, (e.g., 5 years) such as acquiring a high degree of verbal fluency, musical talent, success in an athletic competition, high degree of artistic creativity, etc.).

• The person has demonstrated exceptional achievement in a relatively short space of time (e.g., rescues a person; completes an exceptional work of art)

 •  The individual demonstrates unusual creativity or talent in a specific field.

In addition,  the nominee must demonstrate:

• Excellent references – especially those that are able to list detailed examples of achievements.