Amanda Berry and Georgina DeJesus were honoured by the National centre for Missing and Exploited Children in front of 500 people.
Their fellow captive Michelle Knight was not honoured at the event because she was kidnapped as an adult.
On May 6 2013, the three women were freed by police from Ariel Castro's house, where they had been kept captive for more than a decade.
They had endured beatings, had been raped and kept in chains during their ordeal.
Both Berry and DeJesus were kidnapped when they were teenagers and kept in the basement of Castro's home for over ten years. Taking to the stage yesterday, Berry said: 'It is really special to be here with Gina and our families. It means more than you'll ever know.'
And 24-year-old DeJesus added: 'If I could say only one thing it would be this: Never give up hope.'
Ariel Castro was sentenced to life without parole, plus 1,000 years in prison, but hung himself in his cell in September.
'If I could say only one thing it would be this: Never give up hope'
The three women disappeared in separate abductions between 2002 and 2004.
Berry was 14, DeJesus was 16 and Knight was 20 at the time of their kidnapping.
Amanda Berry managed to break through a screen door and get the attention of neighbour Charles Ramsay in May 2013. It was then that the world first discovered the true horror the three women had been living in for all of their adult lives.
Michelle Knight has released a memoir entitled Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed, in which she reveals she has forgiven Castro, for if she didn't 'it'll be like he imprisoned me twice.'
Amanda Berry added at the event yesterday, 'So much has happened this past year. I have grown. I am strong. And I have so much to live for, to look forward to. The future is bright.'