He has been a member of the St Patrick's Braddon Conference of the society for 31 years and is its current president.

Mr Kane was humbled and honoured to receive the award, recognising St Vincent de Paul was about fostering human connections, as much as anything else.

"I accept the award for myself but more particularly as being representative of the service being offered by all the men and women who volunteer within the St Vincent de Paul Society," he said.

"[They] provide not just material support to the needy in the community but more to the point non-judgmental interest and friendship to those people, the vast majority of whom invite us into their homes."

His long-term home in Ainslie, close to the city centre, meant he was often the first port of call for people who arrived in Canberra in sometimes dire circumstances.

"I have a special interest in the homeless and those, male or female, who are transiting through Canberra," he said.

"Because I'm so close to the city, I offered to be the person who gets called upon by our call centre to help some individual who say, is moving from Melbourne to Brisbane and they're in Canberra and they've got no petrol and they've got no food and no blankets.

"I go and find them somewhere in the city and help them. I've been doing that for several years and it's extremely interesting, I must say.''

Originally from Melbourne, the retired public servant has been a parishioner of St Patrick's Catholic Church, Braddon (now St Brigid and St Patrick Canberra Central Parish), since 1961.

He was secretary of the Central Canberra Catholic Parish Council from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.