A $300,000 Sands Cares contribution continues the company’s commitment to empowering NPHY in the fight to end youth homelessness in Southern Nevada
LAS VEGAS, July 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) today announced it has contributed $300,000 to its long-time partner Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY), bringing the company’s total contributions to the fight to end youth homelessness with NPHY to more than $2.3 million since 2014.
The multi-faceted engagement is fueling NPHY’s work in three areas: assisting the nonprofit in providing immediate relief to youth in crisis, helping create lasting solutions that build NPHY’s capacity to address youth homelessness, and powering The Movement to End Youth Homelessness as co-presenter of the Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit and through support for NPHY’s ongoing advocacy efforts.
Specifically, funding in the areas of immediate relief and lasting solutions is targeting the social and emotional well-being of youth experiencing homelessness with direct support for classes and activities at the NPHY Drop-In Center as well as in-house and contracted mental health services. Sands’ investment in these areas recognizes the vital need to address the impact of the situations NPHY’s clients face, build self-esteem and confidence, and put youth on a course not just to survive, but to thrive.
Sands’ contribution also is assisting NPHY in addressing its youth clients’ immediate needs for food, hygiene items, clothing, transportation, health care and educational materials, while providing general support for NPHY’s emergency services touch points including the Safe Place program, the NPHY Drop-In Center, the Emergency Shelter program and ongoing youth outreach efforts. Integral to these operations is funding to support an additional staff person to enhance program delivery.
Finally, Sands and NPHY recently announced their continued partnership to co-present the Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit, which NPHY and Sands have hosted annually since 2017. Sands’ support is enabling NPHY to expand the Summit and The Movement to End Youth Homelessness statewide and continue holding advocacy trainings through The Movement Institute, which was launched at Summit 2022.
“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,” Arash Ghafoori, CEO of NPHY, said. “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.”
Youth homelessness remains a critical issue in Southern Nevada. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2022 roughly 12% of youth experiencing homelessness across the United States were residing in Nevada, with 81% concentrated in Southern Nevada. Homelessness risk factors have accelerated as the state of Nevada is facing an estimated shortage of more than 80,000 affordable rentals for extremely low-income tenants, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The first-ever standalone Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Needs Assessment, created through a community process driven by The Movement and the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care (CoC) in 2022, found that 5,125 youth ages 14 to 24 depended on emergency shelters, transitional housing or a combination of these solutions in 2021, an increase from 4,252 youth 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, who spearheads corporate responsibility initiatives at Sands. “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’ support for youth homelessness falls under the global Sands Cares community engagement program’s priority on hardship relief. As part of the company’s hardship relief initiatives, Sands Cares provides resources to disadvantaged people and aids them in overcoming barriers to necessities such as food, housing and other critical resources.
To learn more about Sands Cares, visit https://www.sands.com/responsibility/communities/#our-program-sands-cares.
To support NPHY in the fight to end youth homelessness, visit https://nphy.org/.
About Sands (NYSE: LVS)
Sands is the world’s preeminent developer and operator of world-class integrated resorts. Our iconic properties drive valuable leisure and business tourism and deliver significant economic benefits, sustained job creation, financial opportunities for local businesses and community investment to help make our host regions ideal places to live, work and visit.
Sands’ portfolio of properties includes Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, The Londoner Macao, The Parisian Macao and Sands Macao in Macao SAR, China, through majority ownership in Sands China Ltd.
Sands is dedicated to being a leader in corporate responsibility, anchored by the core tenets of serving people, planet and communities. Our ESG leadership has led to inclusion on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for World and North America. To learn more, visit www.sands.com.
About Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY)
NPHY is the most comprehensive service provider for the thousands of homeless youth in Southern Nevada, serving hundreds of youth through core programs and touching the lives of thousands more through outreach each year. NPHY’s programs stabilize homeless teens’ lives, meeting their immediate needs and providing a safe, supportive environment and a path to self-sufficiency. Through work with homeless youth, NPHY creates productive, healthy adults who contribute to society. Strengthening and complementing the high-quality direct services for homeless youth, NPHY is dedicated to advocating with and for the Las Vegas Valley’s homeless youth population and serves as a leader in systems-level efforts to eliminate homelessness among Nevada’s youth. For more information or to support our life-changing work for homeless youth, please visit www.nphy.org.
SOURCE Las Vegas Sands
