Celebrating 20 Years and Beyond!
No young person should have to live on the streets. That’s why for 20 years, we’ve provided young people experiencing homelessness with the help, hope, and support needed to not only move to stable housing, but grow and flourish.
Our mission is to end youth homelessness and its wide-ranging, devastating impact — for every youth we encounter and our community as a whole.
Join us in celebrating the successes of the past 20 years and help us move to the next chapter in NPHY’s history!
Invest in NPHY Today, Impact Young Lives Tomorrow.
Our Success
Since 2001, NPHY’s best practice programs have helped thousands of homeless youth graduate from high school, enroll in college, embark on careers, find their passions, build supportive social networks, transition to safe and stable housing, and realize brighter futures.
Invest in NPHY Today,
Impact Young Lives Tomorrow
The NPHY 20th Anniversary Impact Fund
In celebration of our 20th anniversary, NPHY is driving toward brighter tomorrows for youth experiencing homelessness, because every young person deserves a safe place to live, nutritious food, access to healthcare, fulfilling work, a supportive community, and opportunities to grow and learn.
Six Areas of Impact
NPHY meets the basic needs of youth experiencing homelessness as a start – and then we do much more. We are the most comprehensive service provider for the thousands of young people experiencing homelessness in Southern Nevada, providing a holistic approach that helps youth build long-lasting self-sufficiency and success.
Our 20th anniversary fundraising campaign aims to create long-term sustainable funding to support NPHY’s six areas of impact:
Emergency Intervention and Assistance
Our multi-pronged emergency intervention efforts meet young people where they are by addressing immediate survival needs and building trusted relationships to get them off the streets for good.
During the 2019-2020 fiscal year:
- More than 11,480 contacts with at-risk and homeless youth through outreach at schools and on the streets.
- Safe Place mobile crisis intervention services provided to 58 at-risk and homeless youth, transitioning them from dangerous situations to safety.
- Survival supplies and supportive services to 530 youth over the course of 15,211 visits to the NPHY Drop-In Center.
- 127 youth spent 1,320 bed nights safe and off the streets at NPHY’s Emergency Shelters.
Emergency Intervention and Assistance
Our multi-pronged emergency intervention efforts meet young people where they are by addressing immediate survival needs and building trusted relationships to get them off the streets for good.
During the 2019-2020 fiscal year:
- More than 11,480 contacts with at-risk and homeless youth through outreach at schools and on the streets.
- Safe Place mobile crisis intervention services provided to 58 at-risk and homeless youth, transitioning them from dangerous situations to safety.
- Survival supplies and supportive services to 530 youth over the course of 15,211 visits to the NPHY Drop-In Center.
- 127 youth spent 1,320 bed nights safe and off the streets at NPHY’s Emergency Shelters.
Housing Solutions
NPHY works with each youth to determine if family reunification is a safe and viable option, either with the youth’s most recent caregiver or another safe, supportive relative. When not possible, we offer housing solutions including transitional housing programs.
During the 2019-2020 fiscal year:
- Reunified 82 unaccompanied homeless youth with supportive family members in Clark County and throughout North America through case management and NPHY’s Operation Go Home program.
- Provided transitional housing and wraparound services to 38 youth over the course of 5,944 bed nights through NPHY’s Independent Living Program, with 83 percent of clients who exited transitioning to permanent housing.
Education and Employment Assistance
Completing educational goals and obtaining stable employment is the primary way we ensure youth stay off the streets and on a trajectory toward achieving not only stability, but their life goals.
During the 2019-2020 fiscal year:
- 289 youth received transportation assistance/bus passes.
- 192 youth received education and employment support services.
- 124 youth received basic skills or life skills training.
- 115 youth received help in obtaining vital identification documents such as driver’s licenses, state ID’s, birth certificates and social security cards.
Health and Wellness Services
NPHY helps youth move beyond challenging circumstances to craft the futures they want by supporting and promoting their physical, social and emotional well-being.
During the 2019-2020 fiscal year:
- 492 youth received case management services.
- 101 youth participated in engagement activities with NPHY.
- 68 youth participated in 456 individual, group, or family therapy sessions at NPHY.
- 48 youth received healthcare services, such as medical, dental, or vision.
Youth Leadership Development
Investing in youth has a quantifiable and exponential impact on creating healthy communities. When we affect youth, we impact society.
NPHY facilitates multiple youth leadership development projects to empower, educate and inspire homeless youth to advocate for themselves and their peers, develop self-sufficiency skills, grow their self-esteem, and positively contribute to the local community.
Our accomplishments include:
- Launching the innovative NPHY Ambassador program, a unique leadership program to assist youth in developing skills in public speaking, advocacy and community-building.
- Co-founding and co-facilitating the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care (SNHCoC)’s Youth Action Board, Young Adults in Charge (YAC), a youth-led board that supports youth homelessness advocacy and regional initiatives.
- Hosting NPHY Youth Council, a forum for youth enrolled in NPHY housing programs to provide feedback and shape activities.
Systems-Level Advocacy
Youth homelessness represents the nexus of social issues – poverty, housing, race, gender and sexual identity. That’s why NPHY works to address the intersection and impact of these issues on vulnerable youth to find solutions for lasting change.
Our accomplishments include:
- Launching The Movement to End Youth Homelessness in Southern Nevada.
- Hosting the annual Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit since 2017 with Sands Cares, UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
- Leading the comprehensive community-wide process to create the first-ever Southern Nevada Plan to End Youth Homelessness in 2018.
- Co-authoring research briefs on youth homelessness with the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs.
- Conceiving of, advocating for and successfully championing the community around Nevada bill AB 363, which became a Nevada state law in 2019, to reduce the barriers young people experiencing homelessness face in obtaining vital identification documents.
- Conceiving of, advocating for and championing the community around Nevada bill AB 197, which became a Nevada state law in 2021, to strengthen unaccompanied minors’ access to critical healthcare services.
Representing our community on the leadership bodies of prominent national youth homelessness organizations, including National Network for Youth and National Safe Place Network.
Donate today to ensure that we can continue to impact young lives for years to come.
Devon’s Story
Devon* was born into homelessness and forced to drop out of school at the age of 12. After obtaining his GED then being kicked out of another program for choosing to return to school instead of getting a job, Devon came to NPHY.
We worked with Devon to obtain housing, and provided essential life skills instruction and education and employment assistance to help him not only survive, but thrive.
With support, encouragement and stability, Devon excelled. His 99th percentile score on the SAT exam earned him acceptance at several top-tier universities. Devon chose to attend Columbia University in New York on full scholarship, where he is continuing his studies after graduation from NPHY’s Independent Living Program.
*Name changed for confidentiality
Impact by the Numbers
NPHY empowers youth who have experienced homelessness to become self-sufficient and reach their highest potential. What sets us apart is our comprehensive offerings and holistic approach to impacting young lives.
Our work has resulted in:
Nights off the streets for more than 1,000 youth at NPHY’s emergency shelters, the only Southern Nevada shelter program serving unaccompanied youth as young as 12
Youth visits to the region’s most comprehensive Drop-In Center, where youth access respite from the streets, basic needs resources and connections to wraparound support services
Nights off the streets for more than 300 youth at our multi-site transitional housing facilities for youth ages 16-20
Youth picked up from Safe Place sites across our community, removed from dangerous situations and transported to safety via NPHY’s youth safety net available at virtually every street corner in Southern Nevada 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Christina’s Story
At the age of 9, Christina* lost her mother. At 17, she lost her father. With nowhere to turn, she lived in her family’s house alone, scraping together money from odd jobs to pay the mortgage and bills until she was unable to make ends meet. Couch-surfing soon turned into sleeping on the streets.
After two months sleeping under a bridge each night, Christina went to a Terrible Herbst gas station, NPHY’s Safe Place partner, for help. Within thirty minutes, an NPHY Crisis Responder arrived and took her to the NPHY Drop-In Center, where she received food, hygiene supplies and clothing. Christina then stayed in NPHY’s Emergency Shelter, before transitioning into NPHY’s comprehensive Independent Living Program.
Over the next several months, NPHY provided Christina with more than a roof over her head. She received educational and vocational assistance, weekly life skills classes, counseling and the daily support of her case manager, who helped her to apply to the Job Corps vocational training program. Christina was able to move to San Diego where she now works in her chosen field of underwater welding.
*Name changed for confidentiality
Want to Impact Youth Experiencing Homelessness?
Host an NPHY 20th Anniversary fundraising event on Facebook and ask your family and friends to support youth experiencing homelessness in Southern Nevada.
Em’s Story
At 16, Em* lived with five relatives in a small room and was severely neglected by their caregiver. With little hope, they began couch-surfing at other houses, ultimately becoming street homeless.
Luckily, Em found NPHY’s Drop-In Center where they received food vouchers, pantry food, hygiene supplies, clothing, access to showers and laundry facilities and employment and educational counseling. Though they had been forced to drop out of school, Em’s NPHY case manager helped them enroll in Beacon Academy.
Em is now thriving in school. They return to the Drop-In Center weekly to receive free tutoring services and also recently enrolled in a work readiness program. With the support and guidance of the NPHY Drop-In Center team, Em has made great progress and is on their way to achieving long-term self-sufficiency.