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Caring Magazine Volume 29 is here!
We’ve had a question on our minds lately: What exactly is hope?
Is it optimism? Faith? Wishful thinking? A feeling that comes and goes? Or is it something more concrete—something we can actually build?
Once, we thought hope was something that happened to you. Like when good news arrives unexpectedly. Or when circumstances suddenly improve. But lately, we’re discovering hope might be something entirely different.
What if hope isn’t something you wait for, but something you create?
What if it’s not a feeling, but an action?
This Volume 29 edition of Caring will explore exactly that.
Grab a copy at your nearest Salvation Army newsstand at your corps or service center. You can also read the digital copy here.
Find inside:
My source of hope
Commissioner Douglas Riley shares more about hope
When food is just the beginning
A Q+A with Jenny Hartung, Gillette Service Center Coordinator
These are the hopefuls
Eight individuals making an impact
Walmart helps reach families in need
With Walmart’s help, The Salvation Army reached more families last Christmas
Excellence in housing assistance through social services
10 elements that create transformational environments for those experiencing homelessness
Beyond the stats
Nine Salvation Army programs helping unhoused individuals
Hope markets transform food assistance
How the client-choice model is reducing waste
LA Daycare lifts burden from working parents
The Los Angeles Day Care provides support for low-income families
Hope amid crisis as overdose deaths decline
The Salvation Army’s approach aligns with key drivers of national reduction
Shielding seniors from scam surge
In the age of AI, The Salvation Army partners with experts to help seniors avoid financial scams
How VOAD transforms disaster response
The Salvation Army and partner organizations demonstrate the power of collaboration
Real love gets close
Major Dr. Terry Masango explores what it means to love your neighbor
And more!
This is not the passive hoping of waiting and wishing. This is hope as participation. Hope fueled by faith. Hope that rolls up its sleeves and gets to work.
In communities across the western United States and beyond, The Salvation Army witnesses hope shift from feeling to doing. It’s the mom who walks into a food pantry so her kids can eat. It’s the volunteer who shows up to help after a disaster. It’s the man living in his car who decides his circumstances won’t determine his destiny.
Hope is not just a promise. It’s an agent of change.
And we know positive change begins with a simple conviction: Different is possible. Not theoretically possible, but possible today. Our world is transformed not by great deeds but by countless individual decisions to step forward.
The Salvation Army understands this well. We do not simply provide services—we create possibility.
We do not only react to the moment—we invest in potential.
We aim for restoration of body, mind and soul, reminding others of their ability to grow and flourish.
In this issue, we’re exploring hope.
It is an invitation to see hope as something you create, not something that happens to you.
To see yourself not as a spectator in this story, but as a potential catalyst.
How will you answer the whisper of possibility?
Welcome to Hope in Action.
Do Good:
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