Photo By Michael Alexander

SMYRNA—A cardboard cutout of Pope Francis greeted people arriving to judge the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Multimedia Art Contest at the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Atlanta March 16-17.

Each year, CCHD sponsors the contest to help engage youth in exploring the causes of domestic poverty in the context of their faith. The theme of this year’s contest is “Being Neighbors in Our Common Home.”

Young artists in grades 7-12 participated and submitted works, including videos, paintings, photographs, poems and songs. The entries highlighted issues related to poverty and ways to empower low-income persons to address challenges in communities.

Over the course of two days, entries were displayed at the Chancery, and employees were among those serving as judges for the contest.

“We also had people from Harp of David,” added Irene Zarate Rivera, CCHD intern with the archdiocese.

Harp of David is a Catholic collaborative inviting Christian artists to join together on various projects.

The winning entry in the 10th-12th grade category is “Butterflies & Spiders,” a drawing by Chan “Calvin” Lap Doan from Jennifer Cawley’s class at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Fayetteville. Lap Doan is in the 11th grade.

His drawing and its interwoven messages emphasize that “Love Never Fails.”

The winning entry in the 7th-9th grade category is “Hunger in Georgia,” a short video by Charlotte Mixon from Maureen Harkins’ class at Queen of Angels School in Roswell. Mixon is in the eighth grade. Her work was an adaptation of a longer video on food deserts created by her video journalism class, made possible by a grant from Catholic Relief Services.

The class video was shown at a Lenten lunch held at the Chancery to benefit the CRS Rice Bowl effort. The short film highlights the problem of food insecurity in Atlanta and areas called food deserts, where residents do not have access to grocery stores or produce.

CCHD is the domestic anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The two first-place winners continue to the national contest. The grand prize on the national level is $500 and a paid trip to the awards event.

A Pittsburgh-based company, 7 Birds, provided prizes of its tactical lawn game to support the Atlanta contest. Other sponsors offering support were Two Hearts Gifts & Books, the 755 Restaurant Corporation and the LifeTeen Mission District Store.