COMPASSIONATE
Las Vegas
Comassionate City awards
The Compassionate City Awards celebrate the people whose courage, service, and empathy are helping Southern Nevada become a more caring, equitable, and connected community. Hosted annually by the City of Las Vegas and the Compassionate Las Vegas Network, the awards recognize local heroes who turn compassion into action—strengthening families, advancing justice, improving health and education, protecting the environment, and creating greater opportunity for others.
The 2026 awards ceremony introduced the Compassionate City Shining Light Youth Award, recognizing young people who demonstrate that leadership and compassion have no age requirement.
2025 Award Recipients
Latoya Holman
Education
Compassion means showing up consistently - not just in crisis- with time, resources, and deep listening. It shifts from transactional aid to transformational investment, centering the voices of those most affected. Compassion navigates power imbalances to advocate fiercely, even when unheard. It’s not soft; it’s radical, resilient, and rooted in justice - seeing people fully and acting boldly without losing sight of our shared humanity.
Pauline van Betten
Climate Resilience & Environmental Sustainability
Environmental compassion is the deep care and empathy a person feels toward the natural world, understanding that nature is not just a resource to be used but a living system that deserves respect, protection, and stewardship.
It means feeling a sense of moral responsibility not just toward people, but also toward ecosystems, wildlife, rivers, forests, and even future generations who will inherit the Earth.
It’s compassion in the true sense: seeing the suffering of nature (pollution, destruction, extinction) and feeling moved to act, not out of obligation, but out of love and connection.
Katherine Anderson
Health & Wellness
Compassion is about being able see a need in a community such as the special needs community and being able to use your passion and knowledge in order to help create an environment of positivity and inclusion.
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” -Dalai Lama
Russell Smethers
Housing Security
Compassion means giving yourself a hand-up to someone else. To be concerned about someone else and actually try to help. Being a "Trekkie" and with my ministry focusing on outreach, it would be "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the one," a quote Mr. Spock often says in Star Trek. To me, it means that the needs of those around me outweigh my needs.
Kim Harvey
Human Trafficking
I define compassion as being aware of, sensitive to, and responsive to the needs of others, particularly those in vulnerable situations.
Robert Bush
Restorative Justice
Compassion is the active commitment to recognize suffering in others and find the need and fill it. It means channeling empathy into strategic action while maintaining an unwavering dedication to justice.
Maria Tucker
Strengthening the Family
Compassion is love in action.
"It is a wonderful truth that things we want most in life- a sense of purpose, happiness and hope- are most easily attained by giving them to others." - Isabel Allende
2024 Award Recipients
Billy Allen
Education
To me, compassion embodies the essence of empathy and sympathy towards others. It's about understanding and acknowledging the struggles and joys of those around us, and actively seeking ways to support and uplift them. In the context of libraries, compassion is fundamental to our mission of serving our community. It's about creating welcoming spaces where everyone feels valued and respected, and where their needs and aspirations are met with understanding and care. Libraries are beacons of compassion, offering solace, support, and opportunities for growth to all who walk through their doors.
Ashley Nickerson
Environmental Sustainability
Compassion means lending a hand no matter where someone comes from or what struggles they've had. Everyone deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and like they are part of something bigger to make a better future for everyone. The little acts of kindness you do today in your neighborhood could make a big difference for someone (or everyone!) in the years to come.
Richard Egan
Health & Wellness
Compassionate means being empathic with a passion. Compassion is the motivator to become a mover and shaker in your chosen field related to relieving physical, mental, or emotional pains suffered by others. It is the cornerstone of fidelity to the work we do for our communities - without compassion changes a job to a calling it might just be a job not a calling. I am humbled by the amount of compassion the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention Team Members have, every last one of them past and present.
Heather Engle
Housing Security
Compassionate to me means genuinely understanding and empathizing with the struggles and hardships faced by those we serve. It’s about providing unconditional support, resources, and opportunities for individuals to rebuild their lives with dignity and respect. Compassion drives our mission to create a safe and nurturing environment where everyone feels valued, safe and empowered.
Kimberly Small
Human Trafficking
Compassion means showing understanding, support, and acceptance towards all. It means meeting people where they are and being willing to walk with them through their journey no matter how far or how long.
Mujahid Ramadan
Restorative Justice
Compassion is Constant Unconditional Love.
Evelyn Valdez
Strengthening the Family
Compassion means putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and trying to empathize with their current situation.
It means giving back every little chance you get, because it can mean a lot to the person receiving it and you want them to know that someone cares.
Delivering with Dignity
Organization Recognition
Delivering with Dignity Las Vegas was launched on March 23, 2020, as an emergency response to the healthcare and economic crisis created by the novel coronavirus and has grown exponentially in its effort to help the most vulnerable and isolated individuals in Southern Nevada. Through partnerships with locally-owned restaurants, leading nonprofit agencies, and private corporations, the program delivers meals directly to the doorsteps of residents, keeps dozens of restaurant staff employed, and expands to support community facilities, including domestic abuse and homeless shelters.
Delivering with Dignity Las Vegas was launched on March 23, 2020, as an emergency response to the healthcare and economic crisis created by the novel coronavirus and has grown exponentially in its effort to help the most vulnerable and isolated individuals in Southern Nevada. Through partnerships with locally-owned restaurants, leading nonprofit agencies, and private corporations, the program delivers meals directly to the doorsteps of residents, keeps dozens of restaurant staff employed, and expands to support community facilities, including domestic abuse and homeless shelters.
Just Serve
Organization Recognition
JustServe strengthens the fabric of our community through strong partnerships with over 600 local organizations. Connecting initiatives such as homelessness, blood donations, foster care, outdoor cleanups, and refugee transition, with volunteers makes JustServe a valuable team player.
The JustServe digital platform connects 2200 local projects with thousands of volunteers looking to make an impact by giving time, talent, or substance, all in our Las Vegas area.
Additionally, over 40 community-minded JustServe Specialists act as “service concierges,” helping match the project with the person and vice versa. These specialists teach, connect, and spread the good news of volunteerism.
Through national partnerships with the 9/11 Day of Service, Martin Luther King Service Day, and Global Youth Service Day, over 50,000 hours were logged on those three days in 2023, just in Las Vegas, not to mention the service hours given throughout the rest of the year and the nation.
JustServe weaves the threads that tie us together, making Las Vegas a better place to live.
