2011 National Winner

Victory Trade School, Springfield, Mo.

VTS director Victoria Queen accepts the award from Marvin Olasky (ABS)

WORLD Magazine and the American Bible Society are pleased to announce the national winner of the 2011 Hope Award for Effective Compassion: Victory Trade School. The Springfield, Mo., ministry received the most votes from WORLD readers in an online poll conducted in August and September.

The winning ministry, WORLD’s Midwest finalist, along with the three other regional finalists–from the East, Bowery Mission Women’s Center, New York City; from the South, Challenge House, Hopkinsville, Ky.; and from the West, Hope Now for Youth, Fresno, Calif.–were honored at a ceremony on Oct. 14 at Houston Baptist University in Houston (see “And the winner is ...,” by Marvin Olasky).

As the national winner of the Hope Award, Victory Trade School won a $25,000 grand prize. All four regional winners received a check for $5,000.

Our sixth annual Effective Compassion competition began in January when we asked readers to nominate local ministries that offer challenging, personal, and spiritual help to those in need. We looked at the nominees' websites and other materials, telephoned some of them, chose finalists for each and then sent out a reporter to eyeball the most promising ones.

Throughout the summer we rolled out the four regional winners, publishing in-depth profiles in the magazine and on the website, where we also included videos and additional photos of the final four. After we named the four finalists in late July, we turned it over to you, our readers, to vote for the ministry program you believed to be the most deserving.

Be sure to read the profiles and watch the videos of all four finalists (see links in each regional section below). We hope that such coverage will spotlight the work of these organizations and suggest to others the opportunity to go and do likewise.

2012 Hope Award

Our seventh annual competition will begin in January, but executive assistant June McGraw will store up any nominations readers wish to send now. Please describe in a sentence or two how you think the local ministry that you recommend is practicing biblical compassion that is challenging, personal, and spiritual. We tend to prefer small groups that don't take money from governmental agencies.

2011 Finalists: South | Midwest | East | West

West Region

2011 Regional Winner

Hope Now for Youth | Fresno, Calif.
'Things a dad would do': WORLD's West Region Winner, Hope Now for Youth, teaches former gang members about how to live and work as Christian men | by Jamie Dean

read article | watch video | view slideshow | listen to radio report

Video and photos by James Allen Walker for WORLD (jamesallenwalker.com)

Midwest Region

2011 Regional Winner

Victory Trade School | Springfield, Mo.
Cooking for Christ: Victory Trade School of Springfield, Mo., is our Midwest Region winner, joining Challenge House of Hopkinsville, Ky., as a finalist in WORLD's sixth annual effective compassion contest | by Mary Hopkins

read article | watch video | view slideshow | listen to radio report

Video and photos by James Allen Walker for WORLD (jamesallenwalker.com)

South Region

The history of compassion | Self-hating evangelicals miss how much good their religion has done | by Marvin Olasky

2011 Regional Winner

Challenge House | Hopkinsville, Ky.
Southern hospitality: South region winner Challenge House brings 'local missionaries' to poor neighborhoods and finds ways for them to help | by Amy McCullough

read article | watch video | view slideshow | listen to radio report

Video and photos by James Allen Walker for WORLD (jamesallenwalker.com)

East Region

2011 Regional Winner

Bowery Mission Women's Center | New York City
Safe house: East Region winner, the Bowery Women's Center, provides addicted women security, stability, and the love of Christ | by Jill Lacey

read article | watch video | view slideshow | listen to radio report

Video and photos by James Allen Walker for WORLD (jamesallenwalker.com)

WORLD would like to thank the American Bible Society for co-sponsoring the 2011 Hope Award competition.

For articles from other WORLD “Effective Compassion” issues, click the links below:

2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006