Third Community Building Awards Announced, Highlighting Eleven Outstanding Individuals and Groups

The Ministry of Culture officially announced the winners of the third Community Empowerment Awards today. Following a rigorous preliminary, secondary, and final review process, a total of eleven outstanding individuals and groups, including the Da-Er-Jie Cultural Foundation, stood out across four major categories. Regarded as one of the highest honors in Taiwan's grassroots cultural sector, the awards not only reaffirm the core value of community building in contemporary Taiwanese social development, but also bring to the forefront the behind-the-scenes advocates who have spent years quietly cultivating the land, building local consensus, and promoting cultural heritage to receive recognition and tribute from all sectors of society.

According to the judging results released by the Ministry of Culture, this year's Community Empowerment Awards encompass various dimensions of dedication, ultimately selecting eleven well-deserving winners. In addition to trophies and certificates symbolizing the highest honor, each winning individual or group will receive a cash prize of NT$200,000. These awards are established to encourage more local organizations, youth returnee teams, and cultural-historical workers to continuously invest in local revitalization and cultural rooting, using diverse action plans to address severe challenges currently faced by Taiwan, such as an aging population, a declining birth rate, and rural population outflow.

Taking the Da-Er-Jie Cultural Foundation as an example, this organization has deep roots in Yilan County. Through temple fair culture, the excavation of local historical memories, and the establishment of citizen participation mechanisms, it has successfully transformed traditional beliefs into an important source of modern community cohesion. Da-Er-Jie's practical experience demonstrates that community empowerment is not merely short-term hardware construction or festive events, but a social engineering project that requires long-term companionship, autonomous resident participation, and the continuous deepening of identity. This bottom-up local practice is precisely the key to why Taiwan's community empowerment spirit remains enduring and vibrant.

Reviewing the developmental trajectory of Taiwan's community empowerment movement, since its emergence in the early 1990s—evolving from initial cultural space renovations and historical-literary surveys into today's diverse landscape emphasizing cross-sector collaboration, sustainable management, and local revitalization—the continuous injection of resources from central and local governments has expanded the connotation of community building from early environmental beautification to comprehensive issues including social welfare, disaster prevention and relief, ecological conservation, new resident empowerment, and local economic recovery. The establishment of the Community Empowerment Awards aims to honor these trailblazers who walk at the forefront of the times, as they connect the emotions between people and the land through practical actions, injecting a continuous stream of grassroots vitality into Taiwanese society.

Amid the current backdrop of the mutual impact between globalization and localization, community empowerment has been further entrusted with the vital responsibility of strengthening cultural subjectivity and social resilience. The eleven winning individuals and groups demonstrated a high degree of creativity and execution, whether in the revitalization of indigenous cultures, the innovative transformation of local industries, or cross-generational knowledge transmission. Their success stories not only inspire community-building partners in other regions, but also provide valuable practical experience and room for reflection for the future development of Taiwan's cultural policies.

Following the announcement of the third-tranche winners, the Ministry of Culture plans to hold a public awards ceremony to honor these winners for their selfless dedication to Taiwan's land. Through such public recognition and media reports, it is hoped that more citizens will understand the true meaning of community empowerment, thereby attracting professionals from various fields to dedicate themselves to grassroots efforts and jointly safeguard and create a diverse cultural landscape belonging to Taiwan.

(Source: Central News Agency)