The ACT's 2017 Australian of the Year award has been presented to former Canberra Raiders captain Alan Tongue.

Tongue has been recognised for his work mentoring juvenile offenders and combating family violence.

Tongue developed a mentorship and rehabilitation program for offenders in youth and adult jails. ( ABC News: Kathleen Dyett )

Since retiring from the NRL in 2011, Tongue created a rehabilitation program that is now used in Canberra's youth and adult jails.

The Aspire program aims to rehabilitate young people and equip them with life skills to make positive choices.

He has also partnered with Barnardos to teach young people how to build healthy and respectful relationships in a bid to tackle domestic violence.

"I don't think I did anything really that extraordinary," he said after receiving the award.

Mr Tongue said his own life experiences had helped him guide others.

"I lived not far away from the juvenile justice centre, I've always had a passion for community and the youth, and I just went over there with a bag of footballs and started a conversation."

"I've just tried to give back to the community that's given me so much."

Loading...

Cystic fibrosis advocate and fundraiser Heidi Prowse was named ACT Young Australian of the Year.

Ms Prowse and her husband Andrew established the inaugural Santa Speedo Shuffle, where participants brave chilly conditions to run around Lake Burley Griffin in speedos and Santa hats.

The event has collected $360,000 in four years.

"I am absolutely overwhelmed, but incredibly excited about this opportunity and what it will mean for our community," she said.

"Cystic fibrosis is a large, rare disease, so we don't get a lot of awareness ... I'm really hoping that this will be an opportunity to address that."

In 2016, a record 101 people participated, raising funding for practical support services, such as equipment, nutritional supplements and sport and recreation grants

Heidi Prowse established the Santa Speedo Shuffle to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. ( Supplied: Ina J Photography )

ACT Senior Australian of the Year was awarded to marathon coach Dick Telford.

Telford has coached distance runners to eight Commonwealth Games medals, as well as coaching Australia's only Olympic marathon medallist, Lisa Ondieki.

As the director of the National Lifestyle of Our Kids Study, Teford's work showed that quality physical education led not only to better health, but to better NAPLAN results.

As a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra's Research Institute for Sport and Exercise and Adjunct Professor at the Australian National, he is working on a plan to implement physical literacy programs into state education systems.

He said he found great enjoyment in working in the field.

"What I do, I do it all for fun, it's not as though I'm putting myself out to do anything ... If I wasn't being paid by the university, I'd do exactly the same thing," he said.

ACT Senior Australian of the Year Dick Telford received recognition for his work in sport science. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

'Soup lady' named ACT Local Hero

Canberra's 'soup kitchen lady', Stasia Dabrowski, was awarded ACT Local Hero for 2017. ( Steve Nebauer )

The ACT Local Hero award goes to 90-year-old Stasia Dabrowski, who has run a mobile soup kitchen for Canberra's homeless for nearly 40 years.

Born in 1926 in Poland, Ms Dabrowski wakes up at 5:00am six days each week, driving her van around Canberra to collect donated food from companies, then distributing it to where it is needed most.

Best known as "the soup kitchen lady, Ms Dabrowski also runs a mobile soup kitchen in Civic — something she has done since 1979.

She said she was thrilled to receive the award.

"Today I am younger 50 years," she said.

On Friday nights, she feeds up to 500 people after peeling and cooking 180 kilograms of vegetables.

Last year, the ACT-nominated former chief of army David Morrison took out the National Australian of the Year award.