Advance Memphis is Southern Regional Winner of Hope Award

WORLD Magazine and American Bible Society Honor Examples of Effective Compassion

EP News--- Politicians and pundits throw around words such as “compassion,” “social justice,” and “hope,” but what do these words look like in action? At a time when more power is being centralized in Washington, who is celebrating local, decentralized approaches?

WORLD magazine answers these questions on May 18 when it named Advance Memphis the southern regional winners of WORLD’s Hope Awards for Effective Compassion. Advance Memphis received a $5,000 prize, and will become eligible for the national award, to be announced in September in New York City. The national winner will receive an additional $5,000. The Hope Awards are funded by the American Bible Society.

Advance Memphis has its offices in the poverty-stricken Cleaborn/Foote area of Memphis, Tenn. The ministry’s goal is to help this neighborhood heal itself by helping its unemployed residents find work. “God has ordained and called us to work,” Steve Nash, Advance Memphis executive director says. “This is the key to seeing a life change. When you have a high profile drug dealer working and holding a job for the first time in his life, that is a positive witness for change.”

By helping residents find work and manage their money, Advance Memphis addresses a whole host of needs. “If you have direct deposit and a savings account, you can avoid predatory lending,” Nash says. “That has the potential to affect crime because if you have your cash in a bank, it’s not on your body. This is introducing a new paradigm for children and adults: seeing mom and dad going to work is modeling out different behaviors for the community.”

Advance Memphis has six full-time and one part-time staff members, and more than 250 volunteers. Its budget is about $500-thousand per year. More than 300 people have graduated from its program and found work since the group was founded in 1999.

Two other organizations were named as finalists:

• Wears Valley Ranch. Founded in 1991, this Pigeon Forge, Tenn., organization provides a sae residence and school for children from abusive or otherwise troubled families. Wears Valley Ranch has 16 students, 32 staff members, and an annual budget of $1.5-million per year. There are 130 alumni of the program.

• Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministries. This ministry helps prisoners come to Christ and prepare for life after release. It serves 1,200 inmates in three facilities in Forsyth County, N.C. It has six permanent staff members and more than 900 volunteers. The ministry’s budget is $365,000 per year: 40 pecent from churches, 40 percent from individuals, and 20 percent from fundraisers.

WORLD magazine is the nation's most widely read Christian news magazine. WORLD maintains staff writers in Washington, New York, and other key U.S. cities, and has a network of correspondents around the world.
(5/19/2010)

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