Sands Cares: Empowering Youth Through Community Engagement and Hardship Relief
Las Vegas Sands has declared a contribution of $300,000 to its longstanding collaborator, the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY). This boosts the company's total donations towards combating youth homelessness alongside NPHY to over $2.3 million since 2014.
This multi-faceted collaboration is driving NPHY's initiatives in three key areas: offering immediate aid to youth in crisis through the nonprofit, facilitating the development of sustainable solutions that enhance NPHY's capacity to tackle youth homelessness, and actively supporting The Movement to End Youth Homelessness. This support is demonstrated by co-presenting the Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit and backing NPHY's ongoing advocacy endeavors.
The allocated funding specifically targets immediate relief and long-term solutions, focusing on the social and emotional well-being of homeless youth. This is achieved through direct support for activities and classes at the NPHY Drop-In Center, as well as on-site and outsourced mental health services. Sands' investment underscores the crucial necessity of addressing the challenges faced by NPHY's clients, fostering self-esteem and confidence, and guiding youth towards not only survival but flourishing.
Sands' contribution also plays a role in addressing the immediate necessities of NPHY's young clients, encompassing food, hygiene products, clothing, transportation, healthcare, and educational resources. Additionally, it provides general backing for NPHY's emergency services initiatives, including the Safe Place program, the NPHY Drop-In Center, the Emergency Shelter program, and continuous youth outreach campaigns. An important part of these efforts involves funding an extra staff member to enhance program implementation.
Lastly, Sands and NPHY have recently declared their ongoing partnership in co-presenting the Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit, a collaborative event that has been hosted annually since 2017. Sands' support facilitates the expansion of the Summit and The Movement to End Youth Homelessness to a statewide scale, while also perpetuating advocacy training through The Movement Institute, which was inaugurated at the 2022 Summit.
“For nearly 10 years, Sands has been one of our most committed partners, profoundly impacting the trajectory of our organization and enabling us to expand the care and advocacy we provide for our youth,” said Arash Ghafoori, NPHY’s CEO.
“The 2023 partnership is reflective of our ongoing strategic planning with Sands and its commitment to deeply understanding the youth homelessness issue and what is needed to give youth in crisis a pathway to sustainable independence and a bright future.”
The issue of youth homelessness remains a pressing concern in Southern Nevada. According to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, approximately 12% of homeless youth across the United States were located in Nevada in 2022, with a significant 81% of them concentrated in Southern Nevada. The problem has been exacerbated by the current circumstances in Nevada, which is grappling with a severe shortage of more than 80,000 affordable rental units for individuals with extremely low incomes, as reported by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In a landmark development, the inaugural standalone Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Needs Assessment was crafted in 2022 through a collaborative community effort led by The Movement and the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care (CoC). This assessment revealed that in 2021, a total of 5,125 young individuals aged 14 to 24 relied on emergency shelters, transitional housing, or a combination of these interventions. This marked an increase from the 4,252 youth recorded in 2020.
“Our commitment to ending youth homelessness in Southern Nevada is one of the cornerstones of our Sands Cares program in Las Vegas because of the tremendous need in our region – and because we greatly value and believe in the capability of NPHY to uplift young people facing these circumstances,” said Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs.
“Whether it’s delivering programs and services to youth in crisis, building ultimate solutions or leading The Movement to End Youth Homelessness, NPHY has a vision and model that we believe can drastically reduce the impact on young lives and the incidence of youth homelessness in our state.”
Sands' assistance towards youth homelessness aligns with the central focus of the global Sands Cares community engagement program on alleviating hardships. Within the framework of the company's efforts to address various challenges, Sands Cares allocates resources to individuals in need, aiding them in surmounting obstacles related to essential requirements like sustenance, shelter, and other crucial provisions.
This multi-faceted collaboration is driving NPHY's initiatives in three key areas: offering immediate aid to youth in crisis through the nonprofit, facilitating the development of sustainable solutions that enhance NPHY's capacity to tackle youth homelessness, and actively supporting The Movement to End Youth Homelessness. This support is demonstrated by co-presenting the Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit and backing NPHY's ongoing advocacy endeavors.
The allocated funding specifically targets immediate relief and long-term solutions, focusing on the social and emotional well-being of homeless youth. This is achieved through direct support for activities and classes at the NPHY Drop-In Center, as well as on-site and outsourced mental health services. Sands' investment underscores the crucial necessity of addressing the challenges faced by NPHY's clients, fostering self-esteem and confidence, and guiding youth towards not only survival but flourishing.
Sands' contribution also plays a role in addressing the immediate necessities of NPHY's young clients, encompassing food, hygiene products, clothing, transportation, healthcare, and educational resources. Additionally, it provides general backing for NPHY's emergency services initiatives, including the Safe Place program, the NPHY Drop-In Center, the Emergency Shelter program, and continuous youth outreach campaigns. An important part of these efforts involves funding an extra staff member to enhance program implementation.
Lastly, Sands and NPHY have recently declared their ongoing partnership in co-presenting the Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit, a collaborative event that has been hosted annually since 2017. Sands' support facilitates the expansion of the Summit and The Movement to End Youth Homelessness to a statewide scale, while also perpetuating advocacy training through The Movement Institute, which was inaugurated at the 2022 Summit.
“For nearly 10 years, Sands has been one of our most committed partners, profoundly impacting the trajectory of our organization and enabling us to expand the care and advocacy we provide for our youth,” said Arash Ghafoori, NPHY’s CEO.
“The 2023 partnership is reflective of our ongoing strategic planning with Sands and its commitment to deeply understanding the youth homelessness issue and what is needed to give youth in crisis a pathway to sustainable independence and a bright future.”
The issue of youth homelessness remains a pressing concern in Southern Nevada. According to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, approximately 12% of homeless youth across the United States were located in Nevada in 2022, with a significant 81% of them concentrated in Southern Nevada. The problem has been exacerbated by the current circumstances in Nevada, which is grappling with a severe shortage of more than 80,000 affordable rental units for individuals with extremely low incomes, as reported by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In a landmark development, the inaugural standalone Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Needs Assessment was crafted in 2022 through a collaborative community effort led by The Movement and the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care (CoC). This assessment revealed that in 2021, a total of 5,125 young individuals aged 14 to 24 relied on emergency shelters, transitional housing, or a combination of these interventions. This marked an increase from the 4,252 youth recorded in 2020.
“Our commitment to ending youth homelessness in Southern Nevada is one of the cornerstones of our Sands Cares program in Las Vegas because of the tremendous need in our region – and because we greatly value and believe in the capability of NPHY to uplift young people facing these circumstances,” said Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs.
“Whether it’s delivering programs and services to youth in crisis, building ultimate solutions or leading The Movement to End Youth Homelessness, NPHY has a vision and model that we believe can drastically reduce the impact on young lives and the incidence of youth homelessness in our state.”
Sands' assistance towards youth homelessness aligns with the central focus of the global Sands Cares community engagement program on alleviating hardships. Within the framework of the company's efforts to address various challenges, Sands Cares allocates resources to individuals in need, aiding them in surmounting obstacles related to essential requirements like sustenance, shelter, and other crucial provisions.
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