Background: Since it was first published in 2011 More God, Less Crime has helped to foster a national debate about how faith-based approaches are making a difference and what future collaborations between sacred and secular groups might look like in addressing problems like youth crime, offender treatment, prisoner reentry, and aftercare. In order to facilitate this national discussion, Templeton Press has decided to host a competition to honor exemplary efforts that all too often go unnoticed. Winners will receive the More God, Less Crime Prize.
Objective: Create a short video or written essay that shares your organization’s most effective practice in using a faith-based approach to combat crime or delinquency. These can be unique new approaches or well-established techniques—the important thing that we want to know is what works? We want to gather stories from people like you who are working hard to make a difference in our communities, but whose efforts tend to be overlooked. We want to see and hear the transformative stories of the people you are serving. Our ultimate goal for these entries is to use them to connect people and ideas across the country and around the globe. The idea you share today could help save a life or heal a community thousands of miles away.
Judging: The primary consideration in judging will be the effectiveness of your practice. If you have an idea that works, tell us the story: show us how it works, show us why it works, and show others how they could integrate your approach into their programs. Judges will consider overall effectiveness, measurability, and the extent to which the practice can be applied in other organizations and replicated in other communities and jurisdictions.
Eligibility: Open to any individual or group using faith-based approaches to reduce or prevent crime and recidivism among vulnerable populations.
Rules: All written entries should be emailed to tpinfo@templetonpress.org and should be shorter than 1000 words (there is no minimum word count). All video entries should be posted on Youtube. Videos should be shorter than three minutes. Privacy settings for each video should be set to public and searchable. You must send a link to your video to tpinfo@templetonpress.org and include the phrase “More God, Less Crime” in the video’s tags. There is no limit to the number of entries that an individual or group can submit, but please only submit one entry per practice. In your email, be sure to include your contact information, including name, name of your organization (if applicable), e-mail address, and mailing address. By entering, you grant Templeton Press permission to use your entry in any way, including for promotional or commercial purposes. Youtube is not a sponsor of this contest in any way and is not responsible or liable for anything related to this contest.
Prizes: There will be two prizes of $5,000. One will go to the best video entry and the other will go to the best written entry.
In addition to these cash prizes, the winning organizations or individuals also receive a free consultation from Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR). ISRwill study the winners and offer their guidance for finding further program funding and increasing the ability of your organization to help more people, based on their extensive research in this area. ISRwill also generate case studies on the winners, highlighting their award winning programs.
Deadline: We must receive the entry or the link to your entry on Youtube (see Rules, above) by 11:59 pm eastern standard time, September 15, 2012.
Suggestions on How to Create a Winning Entry
- Try to include a good mix of inspiration and data. We want to hear the stories of the people you serve, of course, but we also want to see the proof that your good work is working!
- Consider sharing with us how others can replicate your success.
- Could your program be even better if you were to win the More God, Less Crime Prize? Consider telling us how you could use the money to take your efforts to the next level and make an even bigger impact.
- For video entries, give us something more than a static camera shot of one person looking into the camera and make sure we can hear what you are saying in the video. Speak clearly and use audio equipment if the sound is fuzzy.
- Be sure that your Youtube link works before sending it to us. Make sure your privacy settings allow your video to be visible to everyone.