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2021 Tim Martyn Memorial Prize
Monday, 27 September 2021
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Congratulations to Jack Bosnjak, the winner of the 2021 Tim Martyn Memorial Prize. In 2019 the family of Timothy Martyn OX 1996 and Xavier College introduced the Tim Martyn Memorial Prize. This prize goes to an Old Xaverian in his 10th year out of the College for ongoing involvement in Social Justice and for continuing to be a Man for Others. Jack is a Senior Constable in the Victorian Police force and Prosecutor for the Melbourne Prosecutions Unit. Throughout his law enforcement career, Jack has undertaken a number of highly complex, protracted and sensitive investigations, and his efforts have been recognised through a number of commendations from superior officers. Jack is particularly passionate about high victim-impact offending, including sexually-motivated offences, crimes against children and family violence. Jack has also undertaken the portfolio of LGBTIQ Liaison Officer since 2015. He is extremely passionate about the proactive policing duties he has performed in his capacity as an LGBTIQ Liaison Officer, including additional roles (one of the 11 committee members of the Victoria Police Pride Network Committee, and the Strategic Project Executive and Victoria Police Liaison of the Emergency Management Pride Network Victoria). These LGBTIQ-related duties involve:
Jack has regularly engaged in external volunteer work, a significant portion of which has been conducted through the Hawthorn Catholic Parish (2003-Current, ongoing); this includes various types of volunteer work with elderly, isolated, vulnerable and impoverished members of the community, and people with disability. In addition to parish-based volunteer work, he has performed regular volunteer duties within the St Vincent de Paul soup van program (2012-2014), and recently re-applied to volunteer with this organisation, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Jack has presented at a number of Winter Sleepout events (2015-2017) as a guest speaker relating to homelessness, in his capacity as a Victoria Police member, and has also performed other volunteering and fundraising duties through organisations such as St Mary’s House of Welcome and the Movember Australia (2012-Current). Jack's association with families confronting violence and other safety matters is similar to the work Tim Martyn did with Jesuit Social Services, both at a practical level, and developing social policy. Tim worked in Samoa for 2 years, Samoa is the nation with the highest level of interpersonal violence in the Pacific. Through his work with the FAO he sought to improve food security so fewer men needed to go to NZ for work, thus reducing some of the family violence risk factors. Tim supported one of the orphanages in Suva (run by the Marists) by getting the FAO and other UN offices to employ the young men leaving the orphanages with work, to work as drivers and in other capacities. This advocacy is paralleled by the work that Jack does and speaks to Tim's concern for people on the margins. Jack’s tackling of the issues around LGBTIA+ people resonates with the young men who are now at Xavier, surrounded as they are by social media and bombarded by conflicting messages. That a Xavier graduate tackles an issue of social concern sends a powerful message about how a Jesuit education, faith and ethics shape graduates who go on to be 'Men for Others' His connection between his work and his care for vulnerable groups that align with Tim's social concerns strongly speak to being a 'Man for Others'. We would also like to acknowledge the calibre of nominees for the 2021 Tim Martyn Memorial Prize making this decision a difficult one. Acknowledgement and thanks must also go to the following members of the Class of 2021 who were excellent nominees. Michael Smyth Matthew Coleman Campbell McKay James Wilkinson Sebastian Reihner |