Thanks to the votes of WORLD’s readers and listeners, Safe Harbor Free Clinic in Stanwood, Wash., has come out on top in the 2021 Hope Awards for Effective Compassion competition and will receive $10,000 to further its work. The other ministry finalists—Christian Encounter in Grass Valley, Calif.; Westside Ministries in Turlock, Calif.; and East County Transitional Living Center in El Cajon, Calif.— will each receive $2,000.
Every year, WORLD readers and listeners recommend ministries for our Hope Awards. Normally, we accept nominations from different regions in the United States and abroad. Due to COVID-19, last year’s domestic Hope Awards finalists all were in the Eastern United States. This year, we focused on the West. In 2022, we plan to resume profiling nonprofit organizations from all four regions: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest.
This year, reporter Charissa Koh parsed through many nominees and chose seven ministries that fit our criteria. Between April and May, WORLD Magazine senior reporter Sophia Lee, WORLD Radio reporter Sarah Schweinsberg, and correspondent Bonnie Pritchett visited the six nonprofit groups that could accommodate a visit and chose to profile four.
All six were worthy of recognition. We picked the four listed below because we thought they best reflected the personalized, challenging, and gospel-centered work of effective compassion. All four are doing the quiet, persevering work of fighting poverty, one soul and one community at a time.
Healing more than bodies
A free medical clinic focuses on the physical and spiritual
by Sophia Lee
Hope in the wilderness
Christian Encounter helps youth who need family, structure, and the gospel
by Sophia Lee
The Word and work at Westside
Westside Ministries’ strategy for helping kids find Jesus and escape poverty brings them back as adults to help a new generation
by Sophia Lee
Finding straighter paths
East County Transitional Living Center challenges residents to see their depravity and God’s sovereignty
by Sophia Lee
