In 1995, Tariq Khamisa was a 20-year-old student at San Diego State University. While he was delivering pizza, he was shot and killed by a 14-year-old during a gang initiation robbery.

Tariq’s father, Azim Khamisa, a businessman, forgave the young man who killed his son and has spent his life working to prevent youth violence.

Khamisa partnered with the 14-year-old’s grandfather, Ples Felix, to establish the Tariq Khamisa Foundation. The families came together, seeing that there were “victims on both sides of the gun” who needed healing.

The San Diego-based foundation is an educational organization set on creating safer schools and communities through character-building programs for children.

Since it formed three decades ago, the nonprofit foundation has reached more than 2 million young people across the country with its programs, fostering “accountability, empathy, forgiveness and nonviolence.”

Khamisa was picked out of dozens of nominations nationwide as a winner of the inaugural FECK Awards, which recognize four changemakers whose lives exemplify “forgiveness, empathy, compassion and kindness.” Kharisma won in the forgiveness category. Each category had a winner and an honorable mention.

Honorable mention in the forgiveness category went to Judge Kathleen Coffey, founder of the Homeless Court at Boston’s Pine Street Inn. Coffey opened a special court in a homeless shelter so homeless people facing misdemeanors could have their cases adjudicated.

The award was created by Chaz Ebert, CEO of Ebert Digital and wife of the late film critic Roger Ebert.

The idea is to highlight stories that show the “power of compassion in action.”

The FECK Awards are a call to action inspired by principles discussed in Chaz Ebert’s book, “It’s Time to Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity Through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness.”

“These awards were born out of a simple, but urgent belief — that the world needs more forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness,” Ebert said in a statement about the award.

The FECK Awards will be presented April 4 in Chicago.