Stephen Knight, whose nonprofit saves lives by providing foster care for dogs while their owners focus on addiction recovery, is the 2024 CNN Hero of the Year.

Online voters selected him from this year’s Top 5 CNN Heroes.

“This means everything. I represent so much here. I represent the recovery community. The dog rescue community. … This is going to be able to take us to the next level.”

Knight’s journey began in 2011, when at the age of 51, he had lost everything to meth addiction – his family, his job, his home, and nearly his life. HIV positive, and living out of his car, Knight entered rehab at the behest of his mother.

After months of treatment, and at a delicate time in his recovery, Knight’s life changed when a friend showed up at his door in tears. She had relapsed, and in her arms was her beloved dog, Jayde. Knight’s friend said no one would take Jayde, and she asked Knight for a ride to a shelter so she could surrender her.

“I looked at Jayde, and we looked at each other,” Knight said. “It was one of the most spiritual moments, like ‘I think we might need each other here.’”

Knight soon realized that other people were delaying or forgoing treatment because they could not find safe housing for their pets. He sought advice on best practices from a local animal rescue and educated himself on foster care protocol.

“These shelters are running 150 percent over capacity. If you’re over capacity, then you start euthanizing dogs,” Knight said. “We cannot have the solution be euthanize dogs. We can’t.”

1,200 dogs and counting

In 2015, Knight’s organization, Dogs Matter, became a registered nonprofit, and he buttoned up his program – vetting applicants, conducting animal behavior assessments, and executing contracts that require participants to stick to their recovery plan and complete a 12-month post-release wraparound program.

Today, Knight lives with his three dogs, Jayde, Piper and Lady, and his organization has helped more than 1,200 dogs and their owners. As Knight approaches 14 years clean and sober, he hopes to make Dogs Matter a national model program, with the goal of giving other animals and their humans the same second chance at life that he got.

“I share this award with Jayde. She’s the reason why I did this. One act of kindness and then to have that dream and that goal to be able to help others and do one step at a time to get there. And…1,200 dogs later it’s amazing. It’s just beginning too.”

As CNN Hero of the Year, Knight will receive $100,000 to expand his work. He and the other Top 5 CNN Heroes each receive a $10,000 cash award along with donation-matching up to $50,000 each from the Elevate Prize Foundation. Knight will also receive an additional $50,000 from Elevate. In its third year of collaboration with CNN Heroes, Elevate is also providing organizational and capacity-building support to the honorees.

A night celebrating selflessness

Notable guests joined the broadcast to help share the Top 5 CNN Heroes’ stories, including Bradley Cooper, Pedro Pascal, Oprah Winfrey, Misty Copeland, and Zachary Quinto. Danai Gurira helped honor this year’s Young Wonders, and Kelly Ripa saluted the Heroes, too.

The second annual CNN Heroes Legacy Award was presented to Michael J. Fox. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at age 29, and Fox has brought hope to millions worldwide since launching the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000. They have funded $2 billion so far to speed up Parkinson’s research and eradicate the disease.

During his acceptance remarks, Fox shared the honor with others.

“I’m very proud on behalf of all the people with Parkinson’s and their families who’ve fought so hard for a cure and fought so hard for answers and new drugs in the pipeline, and through our foundation have found a way to realize that.”

Teenage twins Brooke and Breanna Bennett were honored as CNN Heroes Young Wonders. They founded Women in Training, Inc. to end period poverty in the US, where 1 in 4 girls cannot afford menstrual products, which can cause them to miss school. In 2019, the girls learned about this issue as they approached their 12th birthday, and they wanted to find a way to give back in celebration. Their nonprofit provides girls, women, and nonbinary youth with free period products, education, and mentorship.

You can get involved

Right now, your donation to any of the Top 5 CNN Heroes could go twice as far. CNN has teamed up with GoFundMe to enable donations to this year’s honorees. Contributions made through January 5th are being matched dollar for dollar by the Elevate Prize Foundation. You can learn more and help the Heroes at CNNHeroes.com right now. You can also follow the Elevate Prize Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Do you know someone who you think should be a CNN Hero? 2025 CNN Heroes nominations are open at CNNHeroes.com. Just fill out the form and share their good work. They could be the next CNN Hero of the Year.

CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute will stream on CNN Max and for pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps beginning Monday, December 9.