Good afternoon.

This is Deputy City Attorney Michelle DiSilvestro Alanis, and I'm calling to order the first meeting of the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program for 2025.

Today is December first, 2025, and it is approximately 338 PM.

City clerk, would you please take the roll?

Member flank.

Comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed may be limited.

Seeing as we have no speakers, we will move on to item number four.

Item number four for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference of the regular meetings of December 2nd, 5th, 9th, and 12th of 2024.

And I will need a motion to approve for the minutes.

Do we need a second?

Member Castro, I second.

Thank you.

And we could vote.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Item passes.

Item number five, introduction of board members and city staff.

Again, my name is Michelle D Silvester Alanis, and I'm a deputy city attorney.

And I will pass it over to our lead staff for YNAP.

Ms.

Tara.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Tara Manor for the record, T A R A M A N O R.

Welcome.

This is a senior deputy city clerk Brian Carroll for the record.

I'll be one of the many deputies that handle your your your five meetings.

Would any members like to introduce themselves?

Maybe starting on one end.

Scarlet Motive for the record, S C A R L E T M O T A.

Um I'm eighth grade.

I um this is my first year, and I'm really excited to be with the YNUP board and be contributing to the community.

Member Castro, I'm a junior at Arbew High School.

I'm so excited to be here.

I was here last year and we did some really good work, so I'm excited to do it again.

Member Moore, I go to Shadow Ridge High School and I'm a senior, and I participated in a project last year, and I had a lot of fun, and it was a really big success.

Member Lopez de la Torre.

Um I am special assistant of Council Membruni in Ward 6, and this is my first year as a board member, so I'm excited to be here.

Member Harley Quinn Diaz.

I attend a Becca Academy Online, and it is my first year as well.

I'm excited to be here.

Um I go to Las Vegas Academy and I'm a ninth grader, and this is my second year in the White Up program.

Uh member Hernandez, and I am a junior at Northeast Korean Technical Academy.

I participated in the grant last year, and I had a lot of fun with it, and I was very intrigued to see what more there was to it, and yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Member Flank, Ward 4, City Council staffer.

Member Lightfoot, Ward 5, City Council.

I'm excited to be here.

Member Jones, I am a junior at Clark High School, and I have been doing WhyNot projects for the past two years, and I'm really excited to be serving as my first year on the board.

Thank you.

Member Comarillo, uh, I am a freshman at Northwest Tech Career Career and Technical Academy.

Um, this is my third or fourth year on the board.

Okay, thank you everybody for your interrupt introductions.

Um, item number six, review of bylaws and responsibilities for the youth neighborhood association partnership program pertaining to the project selection process and agenda items.

Okay, Tar Manor here for the record.

So in your binders, I have given you all a copy of the bylaws, and so you all can read over those bylaws just a few things.

The board consists of 15 members, and we have two alternates, so there's a total of 17 members on the YNAP board.

Um you all have voting rights, so when it's time to vote, you all can vote.

In order for us to have a meeting, we have to have a quorum, and that quorum for us is eight people on the board.

So but I'm hoping to see your faces every day that we have our board meetings.

So we can get through these presentations.

I don't want to read everything through those, but those are really important that we have a quorum and that you all just kind of know that you have voting rights.

You can resign, but I don't want you to.

I want you to hang in there with us.

And so that's what's in your book.

Um as far as your bylaws, you if you have any questions, please let me know about any questions that you may have.

Also in your book, you have a there is a summary sheet that has all of the projects that we're gonna see today, and it just has a short little summary of what their project is about.

You can read over that really fast before they come in or you know, right before their their presentation.

So that sheet, you will have that sheet in your binder every day before we um present, and it'll be for that day's presenters.

Okay.

Also, in your board, I mean sorry, in your binder, right in the front, we have our scoring book.

It's kind of thick, but it's only thick because it's there's a sheet for each presentation.

And so really just wanna go over a few things in there.

I want you guys to know a little bit about YNAP.

Uh, why NAP first began the city of Las Vegas in 2000, 2001.

Um, we had about 15 groups that were funded then, and we funded them for 13,649 dollars.

Since then, we've continued to grow.

It is now 25 years.

I believe we're in our 26th year now.

This is a 26 year.

Um, we have 735 groups that we have funded.

Um, and those groups have received a total amount of 729,344.

Um, and then we have received match in the amount of 7,293,400.

So, as you all can see, these YNAP projects are super successful and mean a lot to the community.

So, in your books, if you continue there, it says the YNAP grant review board presentations and scoring.

There are a few things that we want to make sure that we're looking at.

We want to ensure that the Zoom grants applications are complete in your books.

You do have the Zoom grants applications.

I've separated them by day one, day two.

After today, you'll have day three and day four also in your binders.

But right now, for the presentations that are for today and Thursday, you have those presentations.

I mean those applications already in your binders.

Um the youth have the opportunity to present for five minutes, and then you have the opportunity to ask questions for five minutes, QA.

We want to ensure that they have the name of their group and their organization, the project title.

Um, there are a few things you all can read through there, ensure that their project is their idea is unique, that their project mission is clear.

Um, the project location is within city limits.

All projects have to be done within the city of Las Vegas limits.

So we want to ensure that valent hours and/or donations are met for the required grant match.

And so if they're asking for $2,000 in grant funding, then they have to match that.

$2,000 in volunteer services or goods, uh donations in kind donations, that type of thing.

Okay.

So those are some things that we're gonna look for.

You're gonna make sure you pay attention to their budget narrative and their reflection activities, and also you're gonna pay attention to their project timeline, and again, those volunteer hours that are pledged, and that's all in their application.

So if you guys want to flip through the application when you have questions, you can.

There's also some suggested questions in this packet, you can ask.

Um, and then you can ask your own questions.

You may have your own questions.

You don't have to follow this script at all, but there's just some suggested questions that will help you.

So if their project doesn't seem youth-led, there's a question in there that you can ask.

If the project um, if the youth don't seem to personally connect to the cause of the project, then there's a question that you can ask in there.

So there's just a list that you can ask, um, list of questions that you may be able to ask, and then after that, it's just a group, um, each group, and you can go through and check off.

We also want to provide a little feedback to the groups.

So if you guys have any feedback for them on their presentation, then you may just jot that there, and then we'll be able to compile it and give them some feedback at the end.

And so those are if you can, each group, because it's going to help us when it comes time for us to deliberate and make some decisions.

If you can make your notes on each page for each group.

Okay, does that make sense?

So then that way we have something to refer back to.

Any questions for me?

Thank you.

Item seven report by staff regarding the fiscal year 2025, 2026 applications, scoring criteria, and scoring process.

Tara, I think you already covered.

Yeah.

I think you covered that through uh item six as well.

So moving on to item eight, discussion for possible action regarding the election of chair and vice chair.

So before we go through this, this would be a time where the members can declare if they want to be elected as chair or vice chair, maybe why you want that position.

Kind of let everybody know before we actually take action, and I'll pass it over to Tara.

Tara here for the record, and just so um all the adults know.

I know you all would love to be vice chair and chair, but these positions are only for the youth, okay.

So for the youth, those of you most of you all were on when we talked about it a little bit of orientation that you all will have the opportunity to go for chair and vice chair of the board.

And so I do have some uh note card here.

We can take a few moments if you need to jot down some notes, or if you're already prepared, then we can move forward.

But you will have just a uh like a minute or two to give us a little spiel on why you feel like you should be the chair and the vice or the vice chair.

And so if is there anybody who would like to like to run for chair and vice chair?

I would please say your name.

Um sorry.

Um member Diaz, I'd like to run for chair.

I member Jones, I would like to run for vice chair.

Member Castro, and I'd like to run for chair.

Member Cameroon, I would like to run for vice chair.

Member Hernandez, I'd like to run for vice chair.

Okay.

Tara here for the record.

So for those who would like to run for chair, we would like to have a a short little spiel on why you think that you would be the best for that.

If we can take a few moments if you all need a few moments to prepare yourselves, and we can take a few moments at this time.

Do we need a few moments to prepare?

I'm ready.

We're gonna take a two-minute recess so we can prepare for the vice chair and chair um elections.

I did go over it.

Okay.

Tara Manna here for the record.

Are we ready to resume?

Okay, we are going to start with Chair.

And that was Member Ayanna Castro.

Hi everyone, my name is Ayana Castro.

I have always been a part of community service ever since I was young.

I love giving back to the community, and I often found myself on the other side of the board.

And I really think what we do here is super special.

I love being able to listen to the youth and why they're giving back.

And I also have experience in leadership roles.

I'm currently the student body vice president at Arborview High School.

So I really feel like I can lead you all.

And I really want to make this board really special.

Thank you, Member Castro.

Member Diaz for Chair?

Yes.

Member Diaz.

One year ago, I stood before this board representing Homeschool West Chess Club, which had entrusted its future to the hands of the Wine App Board.

Now I stand before you all with another speech and another desire to be elected chairperson of the Wine App Board.

First, I would like to thank Ms.

Tara Manor for her support, and I would like to congratulate my fellow board members.

I look forward to working with you all.

My mission is to provide the same opportunity I was given to other youth who seek to impact our community.

I believe I possess the qualities of an ideal chairperson.

Signify my proficiency in communication, diplomacy, and tact.

I am also the president of our homeschool West Chess Club, a role which requires much responsibility and fairness.

Such as when I am asked to evaluate and mentor new members of our club.

That said, I believe I possess the qualities that it takes to be chairperson of this board.

Vice Chair.

Yes.

Hello, I am Member Jones, and I'm very excited to be on the board this year.

I think I am qualified to be the chairman this year because I in the past I have done YNAP projects for the past three years.

So I know how the people coming in know like how the process is and everything of that.

And since 2021, I have co-chaired with my sister for an initiative started by her and I.

Okay.

Thank you.

Member Hernandez here, and I uh want to run for vice chair.

I have many interactions with the community daily, as I am an ambassador, part of NHS, which requires a lot of community service.

And um, I am part of, I am vice president of Skills USA, which is a CTSO for my construction technology program.

So with that, I think that I've learned a lot from it.

I have been vice president for this program for two years now in Skills USA, and it has shown me a lot to what a vice president is.

It's not only you taking on your roles, it's you helping alleviate the roles of the president and having to step up when they aren't there when they need you the most.

I think that is what qualifies me as a good um vice chair, because I I know that I'm there and I know that I'm capable of the job.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Hernandez.

Member Camarillo.

Hi, my name is Chloe Camarillo.

Uh I'm in ninth grade at Northwest Career Technical Academy.

Um I've been on the YNAP board for four years.

Um I have done YNAP projects for four years.

Uh my project name was Super Friends.

We did care packages for people in the hospital.

Uh taught people how to bowl and about what the bowling sport is.

And I am also the secretary on the youth leadership advisory council.

So I believe I would be a good fit for the vice chair for the YNUP.

Thank you, Member Camarillo.

I believe those are all.

Is that everyone?

Perfect.

So now we are going to go ahead and vote.

So we're going to start with the chair.

We had two members run for chair.

We had member Castro and Member Diaz run for the chair.

So it just we're gonna vote by a raise of hands.

Okay.

All in favor of member Castro.

We have six in favor of Member Castro.

Everybody, all in favor of member Diaz.

Three in favor of Member Diaz.

Member Castro will be the chair for the YNAP board.

And next we have Vice Chair.

We have three members run for vice chair.

We have member Jones, Member Hernandez, and Member Camarillo.

All in favor of member Jones.

Please by a raise of hands.

Two votes for Jones.

All in favor of Member Hernandez.

One in favor of Member Hernandez.

All in favor of Member Camarillo.

Four.

Congratulations, is that right?

Congratulations, Member Camarillo.

You are the vice chair of the YNAP board.

At this time, we are going to take a brief recess because we need to make some changes in um where you all are sitting at right now.

So just we're gonna take a brief recess.

Thank you,

Member Castro, we are back from recess.

Okay, we are on item nine.

And I think from this point forward, Chair Castro, you get to run the meeting.

Discussion for possible action regarding the Youth Neighborhood Association Partner Partnership Program.

Youth presentations scheduled for December first, fourth, eighth, and eleventh, and fifteenth of twenty twenty-five.

Member Tar here.

At this time, we do have presentations scheduled on the first, the fourth, the eighth, and the eleventh of December with 15th as a contingency or del or deliberation day.

Member Castro.

Chair Castro.

All those in favor.

Any opposed.

Motion carries.

Moving on to item number ten.

Present presentations on the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Applications Submitted by Heroes and Heart, The Blessing Project, Community Projects, Art and Reading, Book Tasting, STEM Peneurs, STEM Robotics, Innovation, and Financial Literacy, Advanced Technology Academies, Black Student Union, Colors of Courage, Courage for Change, Courage for Change, CYTN, Community Youth Team Network, Project 8916 106, Never Give Up On Your Dreams.

A Tech Mental Health Awareness Club, Empowerment Health Fair, Camera Kids Through the Eyes of Youth, Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada Troops Seven Seven Sixty Health Fair, Camera Kids Through Eyes of Oh Oops.

Snuffle Love Project Real Book Drive and Holiday Care Kit for Youth.

Project Ninety One Soul Food Kits Hole in the Wall, The Mahogany Experience, The Beauty and Bold, and National Honor Society.

Oh, sorry.

Presenters of the listed above do not appear during this meeting, may be allowed to present at the December eighth or eleventh, twenty twenty-five meeting, if excused by the board at their originally scheduled meeting.

Hi, Member Manor here.

We do have someone here.

Chair Castro, we are back from recession.

Hello.

And welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program.

Program Grant Review Board meeting.

Then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and all the members state your full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

The community workers who are who get synced are get our thank you bags, which have goldfish, MMs, cup of noodles, hand sanitizer, and more.

After today, it has a picture and a notebook.

That's basically a sample of what you a sample of what you were getting.

We have in the past sanitation workers, construction workers, bus drivers, firefighters, nurses, police officers, postal workers, FBI agents, pilots, judges, military, and more.

We will thank real estate agents, small business owners, farmers and barbers and beauticians.

If we have the if we can find the funds this year.

So it has this, and it says, thank you, wine up in the city of Las Vegas for six years going strong.

And it has a notebook.

You may not get the exact same thing that I have, but it'll be close.

Oh, and yes, I will still be able to do this project if we are not fully funded.

Thank you, Why Nav Project Slash Board members for making this all possible.

Please share all your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions on how I could improve and what I did right or wrong.

Thank you very much for your time today.

Thank you very much for your time today.

Chair Castro, thank you for sharing your why not project idea with us.

At this time, our grant view board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have questions?

Member Lightfoot.

How are you doing, young man?

Hello.

Hello.

Um I have a question.

Uh where do you find the uh people that you give back to that you give the gifts to?

We usually get we usually f either have a contact with that person and we just find out randomly that they're either electrician or oh something that we're going to think, or we have someone who knows a person who does that, or it's just a random setup that ma'am, my mom or dad are friends.

So though the that's the main ways that we have it.

Um another question.

So you said the past six years you've gotten funded.

Um do you have any I guess uh stories on how the people were received, like did were they thankful?

Do you remember anything from the past six years?

For the from the past six years that we have been doing this project, we they ever we've also gotten smile, we've gotten we've gotten like smiles, and we've have had like they've all been very happy and satisfied with uh thank you bags today with to today.

Chair Castro, I have a question for you.

What makes you want to continue doing this project?

Like what's your favorite part about it?

My favorite part about it is that we usually thank that the people that don't usually get thanks.

We usually thank the people that you see every day, but we just don't pay attention to.

So that's what I like about it.

Vice Chair Camarillo.

I have a question for future projects.

You mentioned that we don't really notice people, and so you're doing stuff for the types of people that we don't really notice.

So would you maybe consider doing like janitors?

Um we have been doing, we have been considering Jan Janitors, and we are thinking about doing it either 2027 or 2028.

Member Lightfoot, one last question, young man.

Um is it just you and your parents, or do you have other people in your group?

Um I have I have other people in my group that that either help be pack bags or do the project with me.

Member Moda, um, how many people do you usually serve um perfect for the money that you receive?

Like how many groups, what like do you always do the same kind of people, like electricians, artists?

Um can you like give me sort of a like a summary?

So we we do our best to try to thank the multiple multiple people.

We try to say not do our best to not thank any anybody repeatedly.

So, like if we already thanked electricians, we if we since we've already thanked pilots, we don't want to thank pilots again.

So if we just we also just like one to just don't want to do it, however, we usually thank about probably three to five groups each year.

Member Moore here, I have a question.

So you said that you've been doing this for the past six years.

Um what do you think has been the hardest part of the process for you?

The hardest part probably was getting it off the ground in in 2020.

Do our board members have any more questions?

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on recommending YNAP funding awards at the later meeting.

The YNAP board will present the recommendations of the city loss, those recommendations to the city Las Vegas council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with the information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The group that you just seen, uh Heroes in Heart did bring a little baggie for you all.

You may take the baggies only if they do not create a bias for you.

So I can pass the baggies around to you all.

He wanted you to see a sample of what they hand out to the groups that they service.

Here our next group is um community projects, art and reading, a book tasting afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Kayla Ramirez, and I'm the team youth leader of the art and reading.

Wait.

Chair Ayana.

Chair Castro speaking.

Hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program, Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAT board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and have all the members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Kayla Ramirez, and I am the team youth leader of the Art and Reading a Book Tacing Project.

And this is my co-leader, Sophia Carpanita.

Our project will mainly focus on the name of the project, Art and Reading of Book Tasting.

There are many benefits to this project.

Some of the many benefits that the Art and Reading Project will provide is that the students will learn and practice different art skills, ignite creativity, and provide the students with a toolbox, which includes play-doh, clay tools, small canvases, paint and paint brushes, a box of crayons, paper, glue, markers, colored pencils, a mixing tray, and a paint knife.

We will help improve the kids' reading skills by giving them books to take home and practice reading on.

Some of these kids only get to practice reading at the schools or at the school's library.

Did you know, according to K12dive.com, only 35% of fourth graders are reading at grade level.

In addition, 64% of eighth graders are reading below grade level.

As we can see, this is a problem.

Only seven out of twenty one kids in a classroom are at reading are reading at or above the reading level.

During our implementation of this project last year, Sophia and I observed that there were three out of 21 third grade students in the classroom who were unable to read at all.

A fact that some teachers were not fully aware of, which is understanding when they are responsible for instructing 21 to 23 students at a time.

To address this challenge, we plan to conduct reading assessments using iPads, which we hope to acquire with the support of the $2,000 grant.

These assessments will enable us to identify the students who are struggling with reading and provide the student the teachers with valuable insights to better support their needs.

This year, our initiative aims to serve approximately a hundred third grade students at the Ollie Detweiler Elementary School.

And if we have money left over, we hope to we also help we also hope to help three other elementary schools.

As of now, we have about 10 to 15 volunteers.

But we hope to get more volunteers if needed.

Hi, my name is Sophia, and this is my third year doing Wine App.

Our project will take place during Nevada Reading Week 2026, which is March 3rd through the 5th.

We are getting various books that are easy to read with good morals, but are still fun.

Last year we gave each kid a bag of food for spring break.

This year, to improve our project, we are giving teachers in their classrooms supplies that the teacher would usually have to pay for out of their own pocket, such as wipes and pens.

In addition, we would like to give the teachers a gift to show our appreciation.

We plan to have a supply drive with our American Heritage Girls Troop, and we'll also seek donations from Walmart, friends, and family.

Here's a slideshow of our previous year.

I'd like to give you guys some goodie bags that represent our project.

Enjoy.

Chair.

Chair Castro.

Thank you for sharing your YNAP project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have questions?

Hello.

Um for uh Joan Speaking.

I really love your guides' idea, but I do have a question.

You guys mentioned that you will be providing the students with books to take home and also assessments, but will you guys also be teaching them your yourselves on how to read if they need some tips on how?

Yes, we um usually stay at the school for about three hours, and we um we teach the kids how to properly paint, how to properly wet your brush, and how to I guess paint, yeah, and um as the most of the kids are doing that, we pull out a few kids at a time to um do the reading assessments with them so that we can see what how they're doing in um reading.

Thank you.

I have a question, or two rather.

Um you mentioned with the funds that you would purchase iPads, um, how many were you planning on purchasing if awarded?

We were thinking about purchasing two.

Okay, and then do you know the cost of the iPads that you plan on purchasing if awarded?

It is around 200 per iPad.

And then what if you can give a I guess how would the rest of the funds be um dispersed?

If we don't get all the funding we need, we will go to community Walmarts who do give money to the community.

And if and we also will do supply drives with our troop as well as asking friends and family members.

Okay, so you said that you're buying iPads, right?

He just went over that.

What would they be used for after?

And to put them away until the next year.

They will only be used for the project, they won't be used for anything else.

So presuming that you do not get the iPads, could this project still be completed without them?

If we are not able to get the iPads, we will print out the assessments.

Thank you.

Chair Castro, what's your guys' like favorite part about this project?

For me, my favorite part about this project is being able to help these kids.

It just makes me feel better that I helped somebody.

I would I love kids honestly.

I actually have three siblings.

It makes me feel really good too to know that I helped multiple people.

Something that they're struggling with that something.

I also have oh Chair Castro.

Oh, map, yeah.

I have one more question.

Uh by the end of this event that you guys have, do you see improvement with the kids' um reading and like the test scores?

So if um I believe that last year we also did the Ollie Detweiler school and um hopefully we can um see the kids that we helped last year who are in fourth grade now and see that they actually got really good at reading now and um actually the school's principal they've she's asked us multiple times to come back again and again because she loved that we were able to go and help the kids.

Do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on recommended YNAP funding awards at the later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the City of Las Vegas to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and your presentation.

Good job.

Thank you.

This group, um, art and reading, a book tasting also brought some samples that they want you all to have.

Again, do not take them if you feel like they're gonna have any bias on you at all.

You already handed them out.

Okay, so you already received those.

Okay.

Our next group is here.

May we please have STEMpreneurs, stempreneurs robotics, innovation, and financial literacy Hello and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Association Partnership Program in the Grant Review Board meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair for the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and have all members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so you will need to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Hello, my name is Cruz, and I'm team leader of Sempreneurs Robotics Innovation and Financial Literacy.

Hello, my name is Cruz, and this is my third year as team leader for STEMpreneurs Robotics Innovation and Financial Literacy.

Through education and fun learning experiences, I've learned about STEM and economics.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.

And to improve my project from last year, I'm adding entrepreneurial skills.

Jem taught me different ways to learn how to build and how to be more creative.

And I believe almost all great things in history came through entrepreneurial skills, teamwork, and people willing to take chances.

Not only help them now, but also help them in the future.

The Department of Defense said on the website that 80% of jobs will acquire STEM skills over the next seven years.

Said teaching financial skills to kids before they enter college is crucial for them to grow into adults to achieve financial security and success.

Unfortunately, only 20 states mandate high school students to study economics.

Last year, we served at the Detweil Elementary School.

This year we plan to go to Hewitson Elementary School.

And if we get enough fun funding, we will also build visit the Detweiler Elementary School this year.

Our events take place during the National Box Week, April 7th through the 9th, 2026.

This year we're requesting $2,000 to purchase three MetaQuest VRs to use in the classrooms to teach the kids technology in STEM.

We used one VR headset last year, but we were working with four classes at the same time.

So only a part of one class got to use it.

And unfortunately, we couldn't get more time from the school.

Using VR for educational purposes helps kids learn in ways that are more immersive and hands-on.

We are also requesting Lego kids, solar bots, and some snacks for the kids to take home.

The last couple of years, the kids had a lot of fun with Metro and the robot dog.

We also plan to ask donations from Walmart.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your why not project idea.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Um member cruise here.

So um what is your like biggest goal with this project?

Biggest goal is to help kids learn more about STEM and economics.

Okay.

Um what was your um like biggest challenge like starting the project?

Well, I started three years ago, but the hardest part was just getting it organized.

Member Lopez de la Torre.

Um, so first of all, I want to say I love your project.

Um, if I could sign up to play with Legos, I would love to.

Um, second, um, my question for you is how many students or kids do you get signed up for this specific project each time?

The kids that were serving, about a hundred.

Oh wow, okay.

Thank you.

Chair Castro, um, what is your favorite part about this project and what makes you continue to get back?

My favorite part of this project is helping kids learn about STEM, because I personally really enjoy STEM and financial skills.

I also have another question for you.

So when you're giving back, do you see kids like actively engaging and do you like realize that they start to get excited for STEM and they want to continue to learn?

Yes.

They do get really excited about doing STEM.

Um member cruise again.

If your group doesn't get the full amount asked for, would you still be able to complete the project?

We wouldn't be able to do as much for the kids if we don't get a full grant.

Um, member Moda, I have a question.

Um what exactly will you be doing?

Because you mentioned doing uh VR and so and like Legos and stuff, but is there anything else that you'll be doing?

We will also be doing some solar bots.

Solar bug bots.

Member flank.

Um, quick question.

What grade level you mentioned two elementary schools, but what grade?

Is it third grade or K to five?

What I think we're doing fifth grade.

Fifth grade.

I also have some goodie bags to show you what we're gonna be handing out to the kids.

And also we have some surveys from the teachers.

I have uh a couple other questions.

So do you attend one of the schools that's listed in your project?

I don't attend the schools.

Okay.

So how is it that you decided to target these two schools to bring your program?

Yes.

But and how did you decide those are the two schools?

Do you know some teachers or the principal?

Or how is it that you're actually able to present this program in these two schools?

We look at schools that were more in need that had lower incomes.

Oh, okay.

Are they in your neighborhood or what?

They're not in my neighborhood.

Okay.

I have a suggestion.

Um, or if I can offer.

Uh you've done this.

This is would be your fourth year, correct?

My third year.

This is your third year.

Um, if you can, uh, moving forward, as you see the the kids that um are gaining excitement from the stem and activities.

Um if it if if you're able to, maybe you should, you know, follow their uh success track within the STEM and whatnot.

Thank you.

Chair Castro, do our board members have any more questions?

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at the later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas Council on February fourth, twenty twenty six.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAPS board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, reach out, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

At this time we are waiting for the five o'clock groups to show up, so I'm requesting a small recess until we have those groups here.

Chair Castro, and we're gonna go on a two-minute recession.

Oh, I wouldn't make it right here.

Okay.

I can't wait.

Yeah, I would do it.

I think it's a little bit more.

Oh, that's good.

It's good to go to take.

Right.

All right.

Good luck, Herman.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Um reset.

How are you?

I don't know.

But it's great.

Can we take some?

Oh no, okay.

Good job.

Or Tuesday.

Okay.

Okay, we're checking out later on.

Chair Castro, and we're back from recess.

The next group that we have is Advanced Technologies Academy, Black Student Union, Colors of Courage.

Chair Castro, hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and all the members, and have all the members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so you want me to speak loudly and clearly.

And I am the youth team leader for Advanced Technologies Academy Black Student Union.

And then Baisa is a team leader as well.

Thank you for taking the time to hear about our presentation.

Our BSU is a student-led focused club that is focused on culture and community and empowerment while also supporting the mental and emotional well-being of students at ATEC.

We aim to make our school a stronger and safer and more connected environment for our students.

For this project, we will have seven youth participants, which falls under the and we will utilize our BSU members to ensure that the event is run smoothly.

And so for our project, uh Colors of Courage, we chose this project because there are many students at our school who struggle silently with stress, anxiety, identity, and pressure.

This can especially be seen with the current um work environment that we have at our school with the uh increased amount of rigor, especially as AP exam seasons are coming around.

And so we wanted to create a safe space for students where they would be able to feel supported and reminded that it is okay to not be okay.

And so we selected this project through a group discussion and a planning session that we held where we were able to identify mental health as one of the biggest factors that our school needs within fostering better growth.

And so this project gives students a chance to express themselves through painting canvases, creating collages and vision boards, while also writing poetry about self-love, self-worth, strength, and culture.

This event would be open to all students at our school, and our goal is that every participant leaves with a changed mindset, feeling more confident, supported, and connected within our school.

So Colors for Courage would benefit our ATEC students by creating a safe creative environment for them to explore their emotions and reduce stress.

So artistic expression has been shown to benefit lower anxiety, uh promote relaxation, improve the emotional healing process, and boost resilience and self-discovery.

Also strengthening strengthening connections between peers.

And um through like painting collages, um, poetry and journaling, students will be able to explore their feelings in a positive and healthy manner.

And overall, students will help students feel seen and validated.

So we plan to share what we learned from this project through social media updates, photos, and highlights on Instagram and face and Facebook and whatnot.

And we're also planning to have a mini showcase at the end of this event where each student would be able to display their artwork and we would have a mini gallery.

Um we'll also encourage students and families to um stay connected through our social media accounts so then they would also be able to see the artwork that students have made, and it'll also be displayed on the social media.

Um this project will take place at Advanced Technologies Academy, um, located at 1411 Robins Street in Las Vegas.

Um so we're requesting $2,000 from this grant, which would go towards art supplies, um, getting art vendors for canvases, paintbrushes, paint, and um aprons.

We would also need plastic tablecloths, napkins, plates, mini bulletin boards for collages and vision boards.

We would need cardstock for poetry, light refreshments, colored marker markers, pencils, pens, and mini journals.

All items would be fully used for the colors of courage event, and any loaf over leftover writing tools would be shared within the ATEC community.

Um, any additional funding that would become available could go towards extra canvas boards or additional.

And so our team has completed and pledged the required volunteer hours that match the $2,000 request.

All planning, setup, and event tasks would be completed by the youth volunteers.

And just to note, this is our third time applying for this grant for our BSU.

With last year, we um took part in making Easter baskets, and we were able to give them to elementary school students, and so we kind of wanted to switch it up this year and focus more on the mental health aspect of our school, especially with the academic rigor that is seen with majority of students.

You have 30 seconds.

Um thank you for considering our project Colors of Courage.

Um College of Courage is just about healing, uh, self-expression, um, and supporting youth mental health and allowing them to explore their emotions and their identity.

So we just appreciate your time, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for sharing your why not project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Um, member Moda speaking.

Um, what has been your favorite part about serving your community with your like with your organization?

Like what do you like about serving the community?

So when it comes to BSU, being able to see everyone's reactions when we host different events, like um we hosted a potluck at the end of this past month, and it was able to foster a sense of community within our school where we had not only BSU members show up, but also HSU members and anyone else who is also interested.

And so this also was able to foster that sense of community that we're always striving for, which is why we love um having community service within BSU.

Um, I especially oh yeah.

I especially enjoy the community service aspect of BSU because it just helps um foster this community at our school where we have like such um a rigorous um environment.

Um it kind of gives students an opportunity to lay back and have um a chance to connect with their peers and to kind of get away from that.

Okay, um member flank, how many volunteers do you have for your project?

Currently we have just about 10, but once this does get approved, if it does, we are planning to raise that number slightly while also including current BSU members to to maybe have the number closer to 15 to where we can have BSU members and board members and anyone else who is interested involved, um they would be able to volunteer and help us to um take part in this event.

So in your project, you were talking about um mental health issues and those kinds of concerns, and that's what you want to address.

Well, you have some professionals that are part of your group to actually help with that?

Yes, we do have mental health professionals at our school.

We have social workers who are there to support students.

So they'll be part of this project.

Yes.

Okay.

So can you give me an example of what you are looking to create a safe space?

So with this project, we're trying to create a space safe through art where people would be able to express themselves not only through painting but also poetry, and then we would have to showcase at the end where we would have everyone um kind of set up their artwork, and then it would be kind of like a gallery where people could walk through and kind of see how other students are thinking about the environment that we're all sharing together.

And how many participants do you anticipate you've had this in the past?

What the past two years?

So this is the first time we would be hosted.

Okay, so what kind of participation are you looking to get?

So, since this event would be free, we are expecting closer to 200 to 300 students approximately, especially with the really serious need for mental health um help at our school.

I would think that this would turn out pretty well.

Now, is this just for students at your school or is this something that's gonna be promoted for like on social media?

As of right now, this would be only for school students, especially because we would have to implement more money to hire police officers to um kind of be at the school if we do open this up to the community, but if we do end up getting the grant, then that would be something we would take into consideration.

Member Lightfoot.

Um I have a question.

Um is this um different from other uh clubs or uh programs at ATIC already?

Board members, you have one minute.

Um I would say that this is different from other clubs and organizations because um we have the time like after school to for students to come and do this, while other clubs and organizations they have small meetings during our school time.

Um so this would be more like a longer period of time for our students to participate in these activities, and I feel like um that will help them be more enriched in the actual benefits of it.

And I also believe with a few of the other clubs at our school, um, I feel like they would mainly do it just to make it look good on their application, if that makes sense.

I feel like with BSU with us taking the time to create an event like this, this allows for students to be able to openly express themselves, which that is our main goal at the end of the day compared to other clubs, which is just to make their club look good compared to other clubs.

We're actually trying to influence the mental stability of students at our school.

Do oh, Chair Castro, do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the city to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

You guys did a great job.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, and then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and all members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Good evening, YNAP Board.

My name is Julia Park.

My name is Sydney Sanchez.

And my name is Trinity Caldwell.

And we are Care for Change.

Care for Change is a youthful nonprofit dedicated to empowering and supporting first generation immigrants and anyone else in need by providing essential and vital supplies.

Our mission is to foster foster compassion and collaboration so that everyone has access to basic necessities and to have a more dignified healthier life.

We address a growing issue in Las Vegas.

Underserved communities, especially first generation families, immigrants, and the unhoused.

Barriers accessing basic health care items, financial hardships, gaps in community support, and limited access to health uh hygiene products, sorry, uh leave people without essential items that we all take for granted.

Our hygiene and healthcare kits provide items such as soap, toothpaste, shampoo, toothbrushes, combs, deodorant, lotions, wipes, hand sanitizers, chapstick, band-aids, ointment, and many other items.

Each kit restores and supports daily health and helps prevent the progression of unhealthy habits caused by the lack of basic of basic resources.

We would also like to place a strong emphasis on a growing community which often faces struggles.

This community would specifically be homeless women in southern Nevada.

Many cannot access pads or tampons, and therefore they are forced to use items such as socks, plastic bags, torn clothing, or even their baby's diapers.

Some mothers must choose between the diaper to give to their child or to use it themselves during their period.

This is dehumanizing, unsanitary, and dangerous.

It normalizes unhealthy habits and exposes women to infection and stigma.

By providing a consistent supply of pads, tampons, wipes, and other essential supplies.

We aim to restore safety, dignity, and respect among these communities.

Beyond distributing supplies, care for change is committed to education and awareness.

We recently traveled to New Orleans where we hosted a hands-on workshop and had participants learn about active race actively raising awareness, support unhoused individuals, and bring community-driven service projects back into their own communities.

Workshops like this show how youth leadership initiatives can spread outside of our own city.

We also host local events like health and resource fairs, community cleanups, and workshops.

Through creative fundraisers and community engagement, we aim to inspire youth to get involved.

Because the truth is youth is our future.

Empowering youth by promoting engagement is one of the most fundamental steps we can take.

We have also partnered with ATECOSA twice.

Our most recent partnership focused on raising small words of affirmation for community members in need.

Messages that remind people they are seen, valued, and supported within our community.

We've also created 300 more than 330 care cards, which are donated to children in hospitals to brighten their days during their medical treatments.

Additionally, thanks to the previous White NAP grant, we have already distributed over 220 care kits across Clark County.

These milestones show that our team of youth can accomplish but also further the development of overall wellness within our community.

According to the Nevada Homeless Alliance, more than 16,000 Southern Nevada people alone will experience homelessness at some point of this year.

What's even more alarming and concerning is that 12% of these 16,000 people are unaccompanied minors.

Children and teens that are navigating survival with no support, stable housing, or reliable access to essential health care supplies.

These are the youth of our community.

These are the these are the students who sit in classroom next to us.

Young people who should be focusing on their education instead of worrying about what supplies they'll have the next morning.

This is the first steps that could be taken towards caring for their basic hygiene.

You have 45 seconds.

With 2000, Care for Change will significantly expand our impact by directing our funding essentials, hygiene and healthcare supplies.

This includes 250 for feminine kids alone, but the remaining 1,700 being spent towards regular care kids.

This funding enables us to assemble hundreds of fully stock care kits, expand our workshop, strengthen our communities.

Most importantly, though, we want to continue to install hope in these communities.

The care cards we've made, the words of information we've collected.

And the hundreds of kids we've distributed are reminders that someone out there cares.

Someone is thinking about them, someone believes they matter.

With this one, we can deliver that message to even more families, more students, more women, more housed individuals within Southern Nevada.

Thank you for sharing your why not project idea.

At this time, our Grand Review Board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Member Lightfoot.

I have a few questions.

The first one being uh where do you find your recipients?

Um our recipients are most directly deprived from our school, which is Advanced Technologies Academy.

Um, as we mentioned before, we've partnered with our schools, ATECHOSA, which is a club that helps support um anyone that is interested in the medical field, and this also includes people who have suffered from these conditions.

Thank you.

And then also, have you in the past and even now sought to work with um nonprofits that do similar work?

We have, thank you very much.

Um we have partnered with other nonprofits in the past.

Um, more specifically, the ones that we have been most closely in relations with would be Sunrise Hospital.

We've also partnered with Project 150 and other locations around Clark County.

And then lastly, um I understand that some of the recipients are within the school, and um you mentioned homeless and or maybe if I misheard, you can please correct me, but how do um how do you propose the the recipients store their kits of like the extra that you might give them?

Because I would assume you don't just give them one, you probably give them an abundance.

Yes.

Um, one of the things that we listed was that we would have small bags.

So we would give these bags alongside the supplies in which would include feminine kits or hygiene kits, which was would include um soap, lotion, conditioner, hand sanitizer, and all these sort of supplies.

Um we do also have a sample kit of what other care kits would have if you guys would like to pass them around.

Chair Castro, um I have a question.

Would you guys ever be interested in trying to reach out to the less unfortunate schools within the city of Las Vegas?

Yes, of course.

Um, we want to partner with schools that are elementary schools specifically that are more around central Las Vegas.

So this includes schools like I believe uh Hagrid Elementary School and other schools like that.

Chair Castro.

And then how do you guys plan on approaching that situation?

Have you guys already tried or planning on to?

So in the past, we did reach out via email where we asked if they would be interested in having our care for change board go and host a workshop where it would be hands on, they would learn about hygiene and safety and how to overall be a youth advocate via Care for Change.

One of the biggest things that we had though was that they did not reach back out, but one of the things that we can do to prevent that is just reaching out to more.

Um question for you.

So since you guys also uh reach out to um the unhoused, how do you guys go about actually distributing it to them in terms of how you guys market this?

And do they show up, or is this I couldn't remember if this was your first year or not, but if so, how do they reach out or how did they approach you guys?

Um just to clarify, this is our second time applying.

We did receive the wineup grant last year.

Um in the past, we donated uh around 200 kits.

We went to a homeless shelter and we gave the kids to them where they would then distribute them to the people accordingly.

But in the future, we would like to hopefully have a more hands-on distribution where members can volunteer and help us out to these communities.

We also have an Instagram page where we do cons constantly post about each of our milestones that we do.

So everything that we see on this uh board right now is something that we posted on our Instagram.

Okay, so you guys go to like different areas to distribute.

You guys don't have that just one distribution center that's listed on here.

No, we go to different um areas of homeless shelters.

We also reach out to different schools as we said before, and we do try our best to get and be create that network with uh within the community to help expand what our mission is.

You have 10 seconds.

Thank you.

Would you guys uh member Mota, would you guys be able to fund your project with with that without the full budget amount?

It's possible that we would be able to, but we want to place an emphasis on with the full $2,000, we would be able to help out even more people.

And to add on to that, we've known that feminine products are now on really high stakes, and we know how this is really a necessary item for them.

So having this money would not only help the care kits itself, but would help bring that awareness that that health is needed, that the wellness is needed for the women in our community.

Chair Castro, do our board members have any more questions?

Member Life would have one more if I can.

Um I wanted to ask, because I do know that discretion is sensitive when it comes to these types of matters.

How do you all keep that?

Um, particularly with the students in your school, how do you keep discretion uh so to not embarrass another student?

We don't directly pass out kids to students at our school, but what we do is try to um encourage youth empowerment.

And one way that we do this is what we encourage them to participate in events that care for change holds.

So, for example, when we partnered with our ATECHOSA in the past couple of years, we had them create care kits, which was donated to um kids of Sunrise Hospital.

This had around 300 carts where it was donated accordingly, and we we plan to continue to host events like this to other advanced technologies academy kids.

We have also had like workshops and where we put a box out and we have them participate within our kind of donor box, or they can take it as much as they want as well.

So we have them interact not only within the workshops, but like on their own time as well.

Okay, thank you so much.

The YNAP Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNET funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council February 4th of 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group about the YNEP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you for your presentation and for your time.

Thank you.

Tara Manor here.

The next group that we have is CYTN Community Youth Teen Network.

Project 89106.

Never give up on your dreams.

Hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Great Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You will have five minutes to make your presentation, and then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your project and the members of your group.

Please introduce the meeting will be recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

My name is Quentin Green.

My name is Gerald Fletcher.

My name is Isabella Simon.

And my name is Alia Skye Thomas.

This is this presentation is for the CYTN Youth Development and Training Program.

So CYTN stands for community community youth theater network.

And our mission is it's a creative leadership program for youth media arts.

It would be teaching youth about how to use cameras, how to be able to set up your own production, your own studio, do your own podcasts, make your own music, things like that.

It would be um to help support each other through the arts production and cultural education.

And the mission is to empower young people, 13 to 17, but I think our youngest is 10.

And just find their um craft.

Um direct and organize.

We transform classrooms into creativity, community impacts.

The CYTN group is not only just a program, it's gonna be something that up up ooh uplifts people, and it's not just a program that's focused on it's not just a program that's focused on cameras and uh like videoing, but we're also gonna be making and reenacting scenes and stuff like that, and we're gonna be snatched up.

All right, um, we're gonna I'm so sorry, y'all.

Uh back to that.

All right, CYTN combines arts educations with leaderships and training to cultivate disciplines, expression, and cultural pride.

So, in that meaning, uh, you know, well, oh my god.

We believe that every student deserves the tools to create their own narrative and the confidence to share it with the world, and in meaning it meaning by so with everything we do, we want to we want to make sure that we remember that these are our three mantras is your voice is your power, your ideas carry light, and your culture is your crown.

That is something that we always run remember every time we meet, and go ahead.

Number three, culture, exploring African hip hop and dispute.

Diaspora.

Number four, leadership, team roles, decision makings, and peer mentorship, responsibility and integrity.

Number five, community, service projects, and local collaboration, purpose and impact.

You have approximately 50 seconds.

Right.

Thank you.

So our program meets every Saturday at the West Las Vegas Art Center from 11 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

And during that time, we're just going over how to work the camera, how to set it up, how to do mics.

What else?

Um how to project how to uh how to work basic computer components like the sound and the microphones and stuff like that, learning how to set them up and take them down with the tripods and uh cameras and I'm so sorry, y'all.

And it's just basically teaching you when to like uh be prepared just in case you do this in the future, you can have something.

Um yeah, ready?

Thank you for sharing your YNAP project idea with us.

At this time, our group our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anybody have any questions?

Chair, I mean member lightfoot, sorry.

Um first of all, you you did well, young man.

It's okay to mess up.

It's okay to stumble over yourself.

So don't be too hard on yourself about that.

Um I want to say, I want to ask, uh I was looking at the volunteer activity, uh, the hours pledge.

And if you all are, if the plan is to teach the youth on how to use cameras and and all of the media equipment, what would the volunteers um be doing to uh fulfill their pledge for ours?

Um so what the volunteers would be doing by that do you mean like the you I mean the youth or the adult advisors?

So give me a second.

Let me go back to that page.

So it says volunteer hours pledge orientation and media basics, storytelling and script writing.

Um it goes on, so I would imagine that a professional will be teaching the classes and whatnot, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

So as the youth group, CYTN, you all, um, what would your um activity be within everything?

So currently we are during we are in our orientation, we are getting to know our entire manual, everything that CYTN is about, and things like that.

Once we move on from there to the storytelling part, it's where we get to let our creative ideas flow.

Um, our adult advisor, he's monitoring us, he's having us talk, create our own ideas, things that we might want to talk about, because we're planning to have like a podcast and like show a skit and things like that.

So did that answer your question?

Yes.

Um, member crews, I just wanted to know.

So in your items to purchase, it said guest speakers.

Are those like um like local experts on theater and and tech and like projecting your voice?

Yes, they are.

We have people from the local Las Vegas area.

Recently we went on an outing uh with Dizzy Wright, the rapper, and we got to meet him and things like that.

So guest speakers would just be people who could tell us about the camera, tell us their experiences with being on camera and things like that.

Um, member Mota, um, how will you be spreading the word about your like club?

Because is it like at a school or is it like where will it be again?

Um, our program is held at the West Las Vegas Arts Center, it's by the West Las Vegas Library.

Um so our plan to spread it is we have flyers there at the Arts Center, and also at the library is where things get spread a lot too.

Chair Castro.

Um you did an amazing job presenting, by the way.

Uh my question for you guys is so while you guys are doing this project, are you also working alongside the mentors you'll have to teach the other students, or are you learning with them as well?

So some of us recently we just uh started orientation, but before orientation, there's a group of us like the ones you see right now who started learning the camera beforehand, how to wrap cords, things like that.

And so now we have a lot of new members, and as new members come in, we as people who have been here already and already progressed.

We are planning to teach them as we go.

So we're okay.

So you guys will be working alongside the mentors with also mentoring the other students.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Board members, you have 50 seconds.

Um member flank.

I'm looking here at your schedule.

Two months.

Once a week is your schedule for having some type of programming, right?

Um, so that's what we put on the schedule because as a part of the West Las Vegas Arts Center, they have different sessions for everything, and their sessions go for two months.

We plan to have from an eight-year to 12-year-long program, but it goes in different sessions, which are the two month sessions.

Okay, so once a week from 11 to 430.

Some type of session for your program.

Yes.

And that's where you're going to have volunteers that'll cover whatever the subject matter is.

Um for each week.

Yes.

So this is two months.

What type of participation do you anticipate?

Say weekly.

How many kids or young people will you have, you think?

I'd say currently we have about nine to ten, right?

We have about nine to ten people currently.

And um I've heard that we're also gonna be getting more people from our adult advisor, but yes.

So with this programming, it's it's all connected, right?

You start out with one class and what you learn is carried over to the other class once it's your goal is to have continuous um participants in your class.

Yes, that is the goal because our end result after around eight months would be a little podcast or a little skit or some type of video to show.

So I don't recall if you said were you guys recipients last year?

No, this is the first year.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Chair Castro, do our board members have any more questions?

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNET board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

You guys did a great job.

Thank you.

Um the member break, and we do have some dinner for the members here.

So I would like to request at this time that we take a break.

Chair Castro and we're gonna break for dinner.

Chair Castro, and we're back from break.

Tara Manor here.

Um, before I introduce the next group, I just want to remind the board that each group has five minutes to present, and then we have five minutes for QA.

So we're on a tight schedule.

We don't want to keep them after that five minutes with our questions.

So just please be reminded.

Five minutes for their presentation, five minutes for QA.

Okay.

The next group that we have coming up is ATEC Mental Health Awareness Club, Empowerment Health Fair.

It's having me have to log in.

Bear with me.

I had to request access to be able to be seen.

There must be an email going to whoever created the Canva.

Jeff, the um Tara here.

Jeff, they also have a USB.

Would that be easier?

Yes, I'll be right up.

Chair Castro.

Hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group, and all the members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we need you to speak loudly and clearly.

And once again, my name is Aiden Ward.

I also joined looking for a sense of community, and since becoming the co-president of this club, I've had the privilege of being able to expand that community as well as its advocacy.

So in what we do, we're mainly here to promote and educate students on Mental Health Awareness Club.

Oftentimes, when students are entering from middle school to high school, they often encounter a lot of academic pressure, different social environments, and just competitiveness in general.

So we're really here to ease this transition as well as advocate for any of their needs.

So essentially, this fair will work through a ticket system where members that are coming and participating in the presentations and workshops of the invited organizations will be rewarded tickets, which they can then redeem for free raising canes as well as use them to enter a raffle.

The winner of this raffle will be revealed at the end of the fair, which will hopefully encourage these um attendees to stay for and engage longer with these invited organizations.

So we intend to benefit the community in four main ways.

One, we want to advocate for those silently suffering, any needs they might have.

Two, we want to connect students with resources they might previously be unaware of.

And three, we'd like to inform our community of ways they can help and serve their peers, and four, we would like to break the stigma regarding mental health awareness once again.

And but aside from student and attendee participation, we hope that obviously they spread their message of this fair, just how like the two of us were inspired by this fair.

Um we want to aid this through social media promotion, specifically through video edits, campaign flyers, and photos.

And lastly, we want to reach out to higher services, potentially such as local news and Clark County in order to distribute our message on a larger scale.

As for the volunteer service required to set up for this event, we have 68 hours of service pledged between February and April of 2026, and this service will be sourced from our club members, our advisors, as well as our board.

And now most importantly, the budget.

Since food is an extremely part important part of our fair, increasing uh engagement, uh, we attend 10 to a lot 1,750 to towards raising canes to allow each student to have a free three-piece um cane combo meal.

Um, additionally, we allot a smaller sum of 100 towards any decorations our school does could can't provide us currently.

You have one minute.

Well, 150 dollars will be allocated to the raffle, which will come in the form of two care gift baskets, and then as for the extra three hundred dollars, this would go towards custom mental health tote bags for our members to carry around things such as flyers that they get from these organizations, and then it would also go towards some fidget toys to hand out.

Thank you so much for listening to our empowerment fair proposal.

We greatly appreciate any help you can get provide us.

However, do you have any questions, comments, or concerns?

Chair Castro, thank you for sharing your why not project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Member Moore here, I have a question.

Um for you guys' fair, is it only um available for ATEC students, or would other people be able to come from like different schools?

Um, other members from other schools are invited as well.

Okay, thank you.

So you said oh um board member Jones, and you said that you will be doing two-care raffle baskets.

So, what exactly will be in those baskets?

Yeah, so we're planning on just hygiene hygiene, uh, just fidget choice.

Anything for them to de-stress and sort of relax and improve just daily habits and their like quality of life habits.

Um, so yeah.

And then I had another question.

I know that there is um similar clubs at your school with um similar missions.

Have you ever considered um collabing with them?

Yeah, so in the past, I know there's we have a hope squad and we also have like Thrive Time Thursday.

So Thrive Times Thursday is uh mainly run by our counselors, but we are working with our counselors to sort of provide different uh resources to students already and also encouraging to go to these extra meetings.

Uh for Hope Squad, we have considered um partnering with them, and we will be doing that shortly, especially with this mental health awareness fair.

We intend to sort of have a specific table dedicated towards them so they can also advocate to the public.

Thank you.

Um, member Diaz, I don't have a question, but I do have a comment.

Um I appreciate that you presented yourselves and your cause very professionally and had logical reasons for what you're and what you're presenting now.

I just like to thank you for your time and effort towards that.

I know it takes a lot.

Thank you.

Uh member Lightfoot.

With uh well, my first question is um do you already have organizations that are committed to attending as vendors and as um table?

Um so currently we do not, but because la uh two years ago when we hosted this fair, um most of the nonprofit organizations and local organizations that tabled, um, they received the invitation in February, which is shortly after the blind app grant proposal.

So during that uh period from February to April 8th actual fair, we do have uh things set up to invite these organizations.

Okay.

And then um I wanted to ask also in the past when um a student may have need for um some services or whatnot, were the partners that came and tabled, were they willing to do like assessments for free or anything like that?

Were the partners that came and tabled, were they willing to do like assessments for free or anything like that?

Because I would imagine a lot of these things come at a cost.

Yeah, so I remember last uh two years ago, sorry.

Um, while we do have 1,750 allotted towards raising canes now, we are planning on having community sponsorships.

Um, so this allotted money will definitely go towards or this uh sort of uh extra money from the original allotted money towards canes will be going to community partnerships.

And for the things they did at tabling, they did definitely they distribute resources um to have little activities for the students.

Okay.

So I want to ask this because maybe I didn't ask it uh the proper way.

So if say there's a student that comes and they you know they have need to sit down with uh a counselor or therapist or somebody, and one of your partners there does that type of work in the past.

Have that has any partner been willing to give um services for free or pro bono to at least give assessments to the child to or student to see what further needs they might have for therapy or anything like that.

For members, yeah, one minute.

So I believe in the past we have, but I'm not entirely sure.

But we do have also social workers, we do have a new social worker now who is willing to do that, and also with community partnerships.

We hope that this can be um available for the students at the fair.

Okay, and I'll only ask just because that might be an idea when you invite um partners and community members out if they have practices and whatnot, possibly asking them like, hey, you know, this is a premium.

I know you your your time is valuable, but some of the students actually do need help.

Um just an idea.

Thank you so much for your suggestion.

Member Hernandez here.

Um I noticed that you did mention Hope Squad as one of the clubs at your school.

Would you ever consider like maybe collaborating with other schools that have a hope squad or like uh like a mental health club?

Yeah, so I've already been sort of like working to see if maybe these uh people would or uh organizations would be interested.

Um in Coronado, I know I have connections in Coronado currently um with Hope Needs Nevada, uh, with the chair member.

Um, but we were looking to see uh for a more finite uh idea of the fair until it gets closer to the actual date for me to actually go and uh propose a partnership or Chair Castro.

Do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards in a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you for your time and for your presentation.

You guys did an amazing job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Tara here, the next group that we have is Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada, Troop 760, Snuffle Love.

And Jeff, I sent an email to you.

Thank you.

Chair Castro, hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, and then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and the member and members state your full name.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Hi, so my name is Charlotte.

And my name is Mylan McLaughlin.

And today we are here to go ahead and present our YNAP idea of Snuffle Love.

So who are we?

We are Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada.

We work with multiple different people to help girls understand how to make the world a better place, such as giving back to the community, um, volunteering, just a lot of that type of stuff on that level.

We're also volunteers at the SBCA where we start helping the animals so that they're treated kindly and are able to act friendly towards humans.

Many animals are not being adopted because they're seen as non-friendly animals towards family friendly people.

We are also National Junior Honor Society students.

We are both in eighth grade and are working to help our community along with our school.

National Junior Honor Society is mostly a nonprofit organization of where we go ahead and we host events at our school and around our community to try and go ahead and make just our area better.

What is snuffle love?

We're making snuffle balls for the animals at the SBCA.

Each animal deserves something fun to play with when they're in a shelter like the SBCA.

So we're creating the snuffle balls to make them happier and make them more friendly towards the humans that are looking to adopt.

It helps with mental stimulation by going ahead and calming them down to think and be able to play with the snuffle ball.

And it doesn't make noise.

So animals who are frightened because of the fact of how they're somewhere new, they don't like loud noises, and so then the snuffle ball will work best because it doesn't squeak, it doesn't make any type of noise.

As I said earlier, it makes the animals friendly.

Many animals aren't getting adopted because they don't seem friendly to those, so these will help them calm down to make a friendlier approach to the humans that are looking to adopt any animal in general, meaning they're more likely to get adopted.

It allows people in National Junior Honor Society to get hours.

Many students in eighth grade and possibly younger volunteers help their school by joining Honor Society.

Some of them have a hard time getting their hours required for that quarter or that semester because of just schedule issues or anything else.

This project will go ahead and help them be able to receive their hours because they'll be able to bring home fleece, cut them out, trace like trace and cut them, and we'll go ahead and be able to sew them together in order to go ahead and make the snuffle ball, and then they'll go ahead and take it to the SPCA.

What is being done?

Hyde Park Middle School's National Junior Honor Society is getting the fleece to make the circles.

Along with Kenny Gwynn Middle School, Hyde Park is getting fleece to make the circles so they can continue to hold the project up.

The National Junior Honor Society is sew the circles together.

As soon as all the circles are traced and cut, they will have holes poked into them in order for the thread to be threaded through in order to go ahead and tie them off and make the snuffle balls.

The NGHS will then give them to the SBCA.

The instructor of each NJHS group, along with all of the students, have the ability to go to the SBCA and hand in the snuffle balls that they've created.

The steps are then repeated to continue the project throughout the next couple of years, and hopefully from then on.

Why should we be funded?

We're helping the animals by getting the animals adopted.

We're allowing the SBCA to bring in more animals from the streets, which will make every animal have a happy home.

Each animal deserves to have their own happy home, but many don't have the ability to get adopted.

One minute.

Otherwise, they'll be considered profitable.

By giving them the funds to help continue our project, they don't have to set aside money for this because usually honor society makes money by selling concessions and all that.

We're helping the NJHS and schools.

By having NGHS members take over our project, NJ is NJHS is able to set aside more money for the school to make the school better in general.

And here are the estimated financials.

We're requesting about $2,000 to go ahead and help do this.

We've already received $250 from Hershey's.

And so there's also the estimated volunteer hours pledge at $33 an hour.

And then this is the supplies needed.

We need white paint pens, about 250 yards remnant of fleece fiber from your fleece, white foam board to go ahead and cut the um stamps, and then assorted shreds.

And then thank you for considering us.

Are there any questions, concerns amongst the board?

Chair Castro, thank you for sharing your why not project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask the following following up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Member Flank question.

How did you guys come up with the name Snuffle Ball?

And do you know this ball works the way you say it does?

It helps calm the animals and those kinds of things.

So have you tested this?

Okay, so we came up with the name because um it's a because pretty much it's a snuffle mat, which you can buy at any pet store.

And it's pretty much in a ball shape, and we actually have tested it.

Um we've given the SPCA about 10 to 20 um of the first snuffle balls, so then they're able to test them and make sure that they work properly, and um we've seen a slight increase in animals getting adopted.

Okay.

Thank you.

Member Lightfoot.

Um with the last remark, my question is how can how do you track the correlation between snuffle balls and adoption?

Okay, so we go ahead and we make a list of the animals that have similar temperaments, and we go ahead and like we give about half of them snuffle balls, and the other half we don't give them, at least what the SPCA has done, and they have seen that the animals with the snuffle balls have got uh have gotten adopted faster than the ones that don't have the snuffle balls.

And then a quick follow-up do you have a um a tracking sheet for all of the pets that have been adopted in the past and come and go?

So we don't have one on us right now, but uh I'm pretty sure the SPCA does.

Okay.

I just asked because I think that'll be great for you know future presentations to to present member Diaz speaking.

Um are the snuffle balls your own invention or are they were they already invented?

So my mom went ahead and found when trying to come up with our silver award project.

She found a video that um showed how to make snuffle balls, but the thing was that they use zip ties, and so we wanted these to be machine washable so that then they'd actually be able to last longer and not just be a one-time use as the SBCA has to wash everything.

And so she went ahead and she modified the steps for it to go ahead and include the thread and all that.

So this version, this version could be considered your own model.

Yes, it could technically.

Thank you.

And also it would, you know, it in the future it would be great to see your data on the correlation of pets being adopted to to this product.

I think it's really interesting that you want the scientific route with testing that.

That's all.

So member flank quick question.

Uh, if you were funded, say for the full 2,000 dollars, how many snuffle balls could you make with that?

So with the funds that we have here, um, as you can see, we have the sh the um 250 yards remnant, and so that is about 750 yards, and I'm pretty sure about one yard makes uh dirty two-ish circles, which would equal to one snuffle ball, so that'd be around 750 snuffle balls, give or take.

Adding on to what Charlotte said, um, it also depends on what size snuffle balls we're making because we've got four different sizes.

We've got small, medium, large, and extra large for different sizes of animals.

Vice Chair Camarillo.

Um, how will you make sure that other types of dogs who are aggressive players don't or yeah, don't rip the snuff balls?

So the thing is that the SPCA has a list of like animals that are aggressive with their toys and all that.

And the SBCA does have other puzzles for the dogs that they can use for the ones that are more likely to rip up stuff.

So this will so snuffle balls are more likely to be given to dogs who are less likely to go ahead and rip it to shreds instead of an animal who just tears everything.

Thank you.

Five seconds.

Do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing how there is no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with the information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before them, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

Thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

You guys had an amazing job.

Thank you.

I want to give a shout out to moms because that was innovative, and I think that's a great.

That was great.

I'm impressed.

So shout out to their mom for being able to see something and then able to recreate it.

Um the next group that we have coming up is Project Real Book Drive and Holiday Care Kit for Youth.

Chair Castro, hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You will have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and have all members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Okay, so our project is Book Drive and Care Kit Drive.

I am Zizi Bulware.

I'm Kai Bower.

Okay.

And we both go to Rancho High School.

Our adult supervisor is Miss Deborah Burgock.

She is the executive director of Race 2 Erase 22, a nonprofit which is located in Ward 6.

She has helped us on a few other projects that we've worked on together.

We are excuse me, sorry.

We are confident in our ability to make sure this project runs well because we have done this before and had successful experiences with the YNAP grant.

For example, I did a dance with this grant that was successful two years ago.

Um, in addition, I received the YNAP grant to make welcome bags for new immigrant students and create, edit, produce, and print uh Southern Nevada uh youth resource guide, and 3,000 copies of this book have been printed, and there is interest in printing more.

Um, and this is just an example of what we created.

We're going to be working together with members of our community to also ensure the capability of this project.

We will be working on it, but as well as churches, uh volunteers, friends, community centers, and more people make sure that this project runs well.

We are proposing a book drive and care kit drive.

First, we are proposing the book drive for kids and women staying at Westcare.

Westcare is a nonprofit located in the city of Las Vegas, which provides treatment, mental health and wellness treatment, rehabilitation treatment, and emergency support for women experiencing substance abuse and recovery, but also have their kids with them.

They need books for the kids to improve their literacy, and they need inspirational inspirational and self-health books for the women and their moms.

There is always a lot of need among our youth and foster care, so we want to give them kids that have shampoo, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, and possibly socks.

And our goal is to make 150 hygiene kits.

But if we get more donations, we will certainly make more.

And if they have the hygiene products they need, um, they'd be more likely to attend school and help reduce chronic absentees and rates.

We are requesting $2,000 from the YNAP funds.

We anticipate collecting around 1,750 donations from community members and businesses.

We are anticipating having around 45,000 in volunteer hours.

Many clip many kids at Key Club at Rancho High School have helped us with our projects before, so we are hoping that they will continue to help us.

For our budget, we will spend around a thousand dollars on hygiene kit supplies like shampoo that aren't given to us through donations, but usually we get a lot of donations, and we will spend an additional thousand dollars for the 250 copies of Southern Nevada Youth Resource Guide for the Child Haven and the youth at the West Care.

We are 55 seconds.

We are really excited about this project.

Thank you for considering our project, and we're now open to any questions.

Thank you.

Chair Castro, thank you for sharing your YNAP project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anybody have any questions?

A couple of questions.

The book drive.

Um, how long will you be collecting books?

Where are you collecting books?

Where will we be?

Yes.

Well, we're going to spread um our project if we receive it through social media and also with erase race 222.

And because of this, once we do that, people can contact us because we'll probably have our contact information on these flyers and on these resources, so we can schedule dates and times, as well as that we can schedule specific drives when it comes to, like I said, our community members and people to where they can come to events just to donate their books or their shampoo to ensure that we have enough time for donations.

And if we receive, I'm not sure exactly when we'll receive the confirmation for this project, but probably a couple months so we have the time to fund, print, and get everything together.

So if we were to see it around February, most likely we would stop the drive around June or May.

Oh, okay.

And you say here holiday care kits.

Is that for the next holiday?

It says here book drive, then a holiday care kit for youth.

Are these just care kits?

These are just care kits.

Sorry about that.

Um, member Diaz speaking.

So this project, as I understand, it works with several charities, churches, um, and missions, right?

That's correct.

I love I love all that.

That's great.

Thank you.

Um, I guess I really like your focus on families and and does this take place around the hall, well, from what I understand from the title around the holidays.

Uh go ahead.

Oh, I don't believe there's a specific emphasis on necessarily being around the holidays.

I think it would be nice if we could obviously meet deadlines and um, especially around those times where it's focused on community and family and bringing people closer together, but um, we'll work with what we have in terms of deadlines and how um reaching out to other organizations and seeing how that works.

So thank you.

Welcome.

Um, member Mota here.

Um, how will you be like dispersing the kits and like the books and things?

Um, by providing it to the organizations we're going through.

So for Westcare, we are just putting it in the library in Westcare because these families are grouped together in the place that they are situated.

So the once we prep the kits, we give it to Safe Haven or Westcare, which then disperses it for their own youth because they know where the youth is, they know which moms need help, and also it's a community library for the book drive, so anyone should have access to those books that we are donating.

Okay, thank you.

Member Joan speaking.

Um I was curious for the organizations you're working with, such as Westcare.

Did you guys reach out to them and ask if they needed books or like what their needs or like what they needed for this year?

Um, and that's why you provided that, and that's why you're donating that.

Well, specifically for Westcare, they actually told us that they do need books for moms and kids.

So we were also already planning on having it because we know many people who have additional self-help books in children's books, so it was very convenient that they reached out to us at the same time that we had the additional resources in Safe Haven.

We we reached out to them because we know that self uh foster care kids always need additional help when it comes to kids or resources.

Thank you.

Sorry, Vice Chair Camarillo.

Would you consider reaching out to the uh Shade Tree Library about perhaps hosting lessons for reading?

Uh, yes, I think that was certainly you know aligned with our goals and what we're trying to do here with this.

Um so yeah, I think that we'd definitely be open to that, and we should we would we're probably looking at that.

40 seconds.

Chair Castro.

This is more so of uh funner question.

What made you guys want to give back?

Like what's your reason why?

Well, for me personally, we actually tried to do this with the camp up in uh upper side of Vegas, but it was technically not in our jurisdiction because we are trying to help kids that were trying to get a shot for rehabilitation when it comes to behavior or drugs.

And when we realized we couldn't do it here, we thought that we could also help to foster kids, and not only that, but I and I know our family is very big on literacy and reading, so we thought we'd give children the opportunity to give books, especially when reading is going down now.

It's not fair that our kids have to face the brunt of this, especially because they don't have access to a library.

Oh yes, I think just sort of being raised in an environment where we're sort of uh encouraged to think about issues in the community and be engaged in our community and thinking about how we can help people that are less fortunate than ourselves.

I think that that has definitely played a very important role in why we're doing this as well.

Okay.

Do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing no other questions, the YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will help you and assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your amazing presentation.

You guys did amazing.

Thank you.

Have a nice night.

Tara here, Tara Manor here, sorry.

The next group that we have is National Honor Society, C S N H West, Project 150 for School Chair Castro.

Hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Cash show, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You will have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your project and all the and have all the members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so you will need to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Hello, my name is Jesara Gibson, and I'm currently with C I attend colleges of the Nevada High School, and I'm currently president of National Honor Society.

Today I'm going to be presenting hygiene kits for Project 150.

Um we have received YNAP funding in the past.

Most recently, we received $2,000 also to support Project 150.

Um one of our recent projects um as a club was to make holiday cards for a small nonprofit organization called Uplifting Deliveries, who delivers cards and other resources to senior citizens in Las Vegas.

So the first thing I'm going to be talking about today is our goals.

We plan to use anticipated YNAP funding to purchase toiletries in order to make hygiene kits and assist Project 150 who helps high school students with their basic needs.

We want to assemble hygiene kits as a group, getting multiple of our club members involved.

And giving when we're giving back to our community.

After we assemble these kids, we'll be able to donate them to Project 150's main warehouse.

What is Project 150?

Project 150 was founded on December 12th or in December of 2011.

They were created after they learned how many high school students in Clark County were either homeless or struggling.

They found that they were able, there are around 7,500 homeless high schoolers in Las Vegas at the time.

And Project 150 is dedicated to providing resources like food, clothing, and hygiene items for high school students to relieve some of that weight off their shoulders.

If they're not worried about where their food comes from, they're more likely to stay enrolled in school.

And what I have learned about them from working with them is I was able to volunteer with them this current school year and last school year, and it has made this project very important to me.

I was able to connect with some of the staff members who are consistently working hard to give back to these high schoolers in Las Vegas.

Most recently, they prepared 2,000 Thanksgiving meals and are working to do the same thing for Christmas.

I was proud to form a bond with the woman who actually runs the uh boutique at the Rancho warehouse, and she gets to know these students well every single month.

Volunteering there, I was also able to meet some of the few kind souls who utilize Project 150's resources, and I see how happy that this makes them.

And from gaming and inside perspective, I was able to see their supply levels, which has helped them when planning how I want NHS to carry out this grant.

I asked a few questions and was informed that around 600 students come into the boutique every month.

And hygiene products are becoming more expensive, but the demand is remaining the same.

And being in high school, I know how important hygiene can be when going to school and how many students may not want to show up if they can't take care of themselves how they would like to.

So what are Project 150's needs?

Um, after discussing some things with Stacey Chapter, the advisor of Project 150, we were informed that they're in need of full-sized shampoo conditioner, body wash, deodorant toothpaste, and lotion.

So, how will our money be spent?

We are requesting around $2,000 to complete our grant.

CSN is a very small school, so we do struggle to get funding.

And with this $2,000, um, we plan to focus on just a few items to ensure that these products are full-sized.

Currently, Project 150 has an overabundance of travel sized items, which makes it harder to give to their students.

When students can only come in once a month, it's not practical or sustainable to give them travel sized products.

Given this in our budget, we've decided to focus on deodorant, both women and men's because women's deodorant and women's products are often more donated than men's.

And we also wanted to focus on lotion, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.

So, what would our chapter do after receiving this grant?

Our first job, of course, is to assemble the hygiene kits.

We will order the products according to our budget, and after they arrive, we'll be grabbing a few of our volunteers from our clubs to assist them in putting the hygiene kits together on CSN's campus.

Once they are completed, we'll drop them off at Project 150's main warehouse.

And during this process, we plan to keep all of CSN and HS informed.

We'll be having a couple meetings every month, and the students who attend will be formed of our progress and other ways that could get involved with our project.

They will also be told the requirements of our grab.

And for community service, our club members will be required to complete at least three hours of community service at Project 150, and we do have at least 25 members who are pledging this year.

Overall, we would love to put our plans into action and assist hundreds, if not more of underprivileged high school students in our community.

Thank you for listening.

Chair Castro, thank you for sharing your YNAP project idea with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have questions?

Member Moore here.

Um I was wondering how many um hygiene kits you think you'd be able to make.

Looking at our current budget, we can make at least 200 of these kits depending on how much of the leftover items we made.

We can probably have around somewhere between 10 and 20 more than that, but there's not like we can't purchase an exact even amount of everything.

It just depends how much comes in each pack of the things we buy in bulk.

Vice Chair Camarillo, are you looking for specific stores to buy from or specific brands?

Um, I personally wanted to make sure that they do have high quality products because I do notice that a lot of the times people kind of donate things that can't be necessarily good for your health.

And I think because these students already can't afford a lot of the lower end products, they deserve to have quality hygiene products.

Chair Castro, I actually have a question for you.

Um, what is your favorite part about giving back and why did you choose specifically to do this for your project?

My favorite thing about giving back is just I love meeting people, which is another reason I've always been volunteering.

So the fact that I'm able to be people who also like volunteering, people who are in need of the help, and I just seeing how grateful they are.

It's something that really makes me happy, and also being able to um be able to form connections with the people who run these nonprofit organizations, especially since they're from a place that I grew up in, it's just really important to me.

And I specifically chose Project 150 because it's been my favorite place to volunteer out.

Everyone's just super friendly, and I just really enjoy working with them.

Do you guys have or do you have a list of schools that you would like Project 150 to donate to, or are you leaving it up to their discretion?

Well, the way that Project 150 works, it's high school students who are part of Clark County, and they just come into the boutique, so it's not necessarily for a specific school, it's for all high schoolers who are enrolled in the district.

Thank you.

Chair Castro.

Um, I also have another question.

Later on, do you think you would work alongside other nonprofits as well, or are you mainly sticking with Project 150?

I'd definitely be opening open to working with other nonprofits.

I do have a few that I like.

So uplifting deliveries, the one we just most recently worked with.

They were a small organization that I found on Instagram, and also I found out about them from Helping Hands of Vegas Valley, who delivers like food pantry items to elderly people.

I've been working with them since I was in like eighth grade.

I'm currently a senior, so that's another nonprofit I'd like to work with.

Okay.

Uh Chair Cashro, does anybody have any more questions?

No?

Okay, I think we're gonna move on.

The YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAT funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

Thank you again for your presentation and for your time.

Tara Manor here.

The next group that we have is Camera Kids through the eyes of the youth.

Hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, and then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and all members state their full names.

This meeting will be recorded, so you will have to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

First, I would like to say good evening, everybody.

And this is our piece presentation through our eyes.

I am first Ethan Alexander Glever.

I am a high school ninth grader, 14 years old.

I'm an eighth grade graduate with a 3.7 GPA.

I'm also a graduate from speech and debate.

Hi, my name is Paige Thorns.

I am 12 years old.

I am a sixth grader at Joe Mackey.

I do a major.

I am a youth actress, and I am present.

I am a president of this youth group called Nia.

Hello, my name is Amazing Grace Bird.

I am a sixth grader at Jim Bridger Middle School.

The meaning behind our presentation is to show the meaning of how African American history can impact our youth as well.

Who are you?

We are the Las Vegas youth program supported by Shots by Dre.

We learn and teach the value of speaking up and how our words do matter.

We also learn about our past so we don't have to plan the same thing for the future.

This presentation represents our black people's stories through photography.

This is our first time applying for the grant, and I like to thank you all for this opportunity.

What's your purpose?

The purpose of this project is to help our black people's people's stories get told to the right way again through photography.

Describe what you are doing and impact on the community.

What we are doing in our group through our eyes is showing others the importance of our history through emotions and empathy.

The impact we will have on the community is the remembrance, remember it of how important a person's voice can be.

50 seconds.

Does anybody have any questions?

Chair Castro.

Well, I have a question for you guys.

So what made you want to start doing this?

And what's your favorite part about your project?

Well, well, what me personally, what made me want to start doing this is how kids are youth, well, especially our youth, they don't see the importance of how our history can be.

And I think it's mainly because there was enough photos so they could see, and like, yes.

Uh through my like through my respect.

I think wait.

What's the question again?

Um, what made you want to start doing this?

And what's your favorite part about the project?

The thing that made me want to start doing this is uh mostly ever since I was younger.

I like the pictures.

I like drawing pictures, I love coloring, I mostly love taking pictures.

Um I do pictures in one of my classes, and yeah.

When I was younger, I was taking pictures of my family members, and one of them said that I was really good at taking pictures, so I just wanted to like keep going.

And my favorite part about this is like when you like get to hold the camera like by yourself.

Member Lightfoot, um, I have a few questions.

Uh the first is um who will be uh I guess uh leading this um or teaching the volunteers or the the participants uh the how to work the camera and and such.

The owner of Shots by Dre Studios Studios, Dr.

Dre.

Okay.

And then um, as the volunteers, what would your duties be um to justify the hours?

Our duties would be to gain other use to us to also understand the concept of trying to prove and also help them show them points.

Okay, and then lastly, um, well, two two two final questions.

Uh you mentioned black history.

Um how are you incorporating the history aspect of everything?

So as I said, the Mariffe King um statue, it's well, he's African American, and he obviously, as everybody knows, did that speech, and he his speech was for justice for African American, and we as well have ideas of places we want to take pictures of that show the importance of black history.

Okay.

And is it just black history in Las Vegas?

Or yes, it is.

Okay.

That's that's cool.

Um, and then you mentioned that the photos would be in museums, which uh museums we are we are currently looking for museums to put them in, but we most definitely have museums.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, um, member flank, I have a couple of questions, kind of to follow up with member like your pictures, you intend to put your pictures in museums or libraries.

Who's producing pictures, framing them and those kinds of things, so that you're able to present them, say in a museum?

We are taking them ourselves and with the help of Dr.

Drew Spy Dre Studios.

Oh, okay.

And the pictures are taken, like what around town.

What I'm I'm trying to get the concept of what it is you're trying to do.

You also said something about telling stories.

So if you could like tie those two things together for me.

So what I mean by telling what I mean by telling stories is how again a photo, it you like you might forget in school, like you might forget a thousand stories you're told, but a photo brings back that importance.

And it brings back the memory.

45 seconds.

I'm I'm just trying to kind of put things together to figure out what your mission is and how this will actually be presented.

So uh something to think about, you know, that next step.

You're telling a story, and who are you telling the story to?

So I'm sorry, I didn't sorry I didn't elaborate, but we are trying to reach out.

Our mission is to show other youth the importance of black history.

Photos.

Okay, thank you.

Chair Castro.

Do our board members have any more questions?

I actually do have one last question.

Um on your budget sheet, it says you need um you have two cameras.

Is that are you need both cameras, correct?

Yes, ma'am.

And as more youth come in and help us with the experience, we will buy more cameras.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Um, so are you guys planning to make videos?

And if you are, um, can I give the the suggestion to maybe go to your older peers, like your grandparents or people who know about black history and making videos like sort of documentary style about them in their lives?

Yes, we would be recording videos.

That's an excellent idea.

I like that.

Member Diaz speaking, I have a question.

So um is this so are you going to be tutor I forget whether you mentioned this, but um are you going to be tutoring kids on how to take pictures, photography lessons?

Um yes, that'll be provided with Stan's by Dre Studios.

Okay.

So um let's continue.

Though Chair Castro.

The YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards later in at a later meeting.

The RightNat Board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your guys' presentation and your time.

You guys did an amazing job.

Uh the beauty in bold Chair Castro, hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your project and all and have all members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so we will need you to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Beauty and Bo presented by Leslie Urshire.

I'm 15 and the school I go to is Democracy Prep.

My name is Braylon Williams.

I am 13 years old.

I am in seventh grade, and I go to Sivestry Middle School.

And this is and this is our first time applying for a grant.

Meet our advisor, Miss Shay, a master hairstylist.

Beauty and Bo.

I'm cute and I stand out.

My first hair experience came from my grandma.

The reason why I say my first hair experience, my first hair experience a care for my grandma is because she taught me on how to not put too much heat in my hair.

She taught me how to moisturize my hair, and she taught me how to put oil in my hair every two times a week, so my hair won't get damaged.

My first hair experience was a ponytail.

My mom did it, and my hair is important to me because it resembles me.

Has anyone else here had a ponytail growing up?

I have our hair is our history.

Our hair is our identity.

Our hair tells our story.

What does it mean to be bold?

Well, bold mean to me is I stand on business.

Well, bold means to me is being confident.

Our project, our project impacts our community because black black hair has a longer history worth telling.

How will we include the community?

Stories from hairstylist and sh and showcasing local products.

How will we build how will we build our sho our structure?

What by was backdrops, lights, and mirrors?

Materials like paint brushes, mannequin heads, cotton balls, easels, canvases, and much more.

Including marketing?

We are commuted to at least 65 volunteer hours with over a dozen with over a dozen volunteers, which means other other youth can participate.

If we had extra money, we would like to add in a barbershop experience as well.

Any questions?

Thank you for sharing your YNAP project project with us.

At this time, our grant review board may ask follow following up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Member Moda speaking.

Um will it be sort of like a fair at the school or like with speakers, or like how's that gonna go?

It would be like uh an art gallery.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Member Moore here.

Um we're gonna be making the art, but to like to like get people to come, we'll be like posting it on social media and stuff.

Chair Castro.

Um what made this idea come about and what's your favorite part about this project?

Um, well, I'm gonna well, what like it's important to me because when I was little, my hair, like it used to come out a lot.

And now since I'm older and I know how to take care of my hair, I don't want it to get damaged again, and I also want to share a story and let these other black girls like me, you know, like keep their hair healthy.

Well, this project is important to me because in this country, people get their hair cut because people think that they are not doing their job right or because their hair is getting in their way.

Uh member uh Lightfoot.

Um, what would the duties of the volunteers be?

And then uh, well, I'll ask that first and then go on to another question.

So, what would the duties of the volunteers be to justify the hours?

Um, like I'll say, like, um I'm not like helping us like set up and stuff, or if they like if they do want to pitch in or helping us like design our project, they can do that too.

Okay.

Um, and then I see on one of the sheets, sorry.

Um there's I think it says like a demonstration installation or something like that.

But we'll will you all be uh teaching some of the participants and some of the people who come how to take care of their hair and stuff, not just having the uh Yeah, we'll be teaching them.

Awesome.

I think that's great.

Thank you.

Do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing that there's no other questions, um, we're gonna move on.

The YNAP Grant Review Board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas City Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tara Manor will notify your group with the information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any other questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your presentation and your time.

Tara Manor here.

The next group that we have is Soul Food Soul Food Kids holding the wall.

Chair Castro, hello, and welcome to the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program Grant Review Board Meeting.

My name is Ayana Castro, and I'm the chair of the YNAP board.

You have five minutes to make your presentation, then the board will have five minutes to ask any questions.

Please introduce the name of your group and have all members state their full names.

This meeting is being recorded, so you will need to speak loudly and clearly.

You may begin when you're ready.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is LaRail Weissinger.

I am a freshman attending the South Carolina State University as a computer science major on a Cease STEM scholarship, who also happens to be this year's junior grant marshal and a young entrepreneur on a My Food Company Rails Kitchen for the past four months now.

Hello, my name is Nadacia Gantt.

I am an eighth grade honorable student at DoMB Arts Academy of Excellence.

Starting this year, I am a young entrepreneur for my company Do Little Styles.

This was supposed to be an AI visual of what we wanted our representation of the exhibit to look like.

But our concept is hole in the wall.

Hole in the wall, think of this as a hidden gym.

The many hidden gems in our community are the many soul food restaurants and food trucks that have so much history and lineage behind their food.

That concept dirty to delicacy.

Dirty as in the foods that we get that used to be considered the under the table, the crops with the slaves were getting after the masters were done eating.

But now everybody rushes to the front of the line at Thanksgiving to get these foods, such as cornbread, mac and cheese, collard greens, black-eyed peas, and even chitlins.

Black history and the importance of southern food will be at the forefront of our exhibit.

This will make sure that the history of everything is being exhibited in the proper way and making sure that everybody in this exhibit is included in it.

This will be done at 5650 West Charleston Boulevard, suite number 11 at Dress for Success.

Soul Food itself has made many impacts because of its history.

From cornbread to collared greens, this project is something every family can relate to.

Imagine waiting in line with your paper plate to get that some of that delicious mac and cheese that your auntie made for the family cookout.

Mm-mm.

That's some good food, isn't it?

Anything, anything can be can be related to soul food.

And it can go to anybody of every sort.

From it from food trucks to restaurants to food stands and more.

But most importantly, it can bring in the community and remind us what true soul food is really about.

Believe me, this impact will be huge.

Who are the volunteers?

At the forefront of the operation, us the youth and our youth advisor, Miss Tatiana Easley will be at the forefront of the operation.

But once the grant gets approved, we will work with BSUs around the Las Vegas community to help make this exhibit more alive.

Why is this important to us?

Food, much like art tells a story.

And soul food tells the history of our lineage and where we've come from and how we've expanded on our future, but still keeping it relevant for our past.

To ensure we serve success and excellence, we will be putting towards a minimum of 145 hours through February and May.

This makes sure that we can give what our best shot, and it may seem like a long period of time, but we can't do this.

When we get the money for hole in the wall, we will be putting the $2,000 towards monitors to show our interviews that we will be doing with restaurant owners, projections, projectors for our interactive game questions, and our food displays.

This makes sure we have a more variety and a more versatile choosing.

One minute.

Now before we get into the QA section, we know Thanksgiving just came up, and we want to ask the panel, what was you guys' soul food plate looking like?

How did you guys feel having your family together and eating food that made you guys all happy and come together in the space?

And like turkey and ham.

And uh Thanksgiving was really special to me because it's like we just moved in.

So being able to have like all my family and friends come over was really fun.

Chair Castro.

Um I'm also a very picky eater, so my Thanksgiving plate consisted of mainly stuffing.

Um, and that's not it.

Uh Thanksgiving is a really special time.

I love being able to spend time with my family, and I feel like it's just an overall like great bonding experience and just being able to go like one on one after a long school year is pretty cool.

Chair Castro again.

Um thank you for sharing your white nap project idea with us.

At this time, our great review board may ask follow-up questions.

Does anyone have any questions?

Vice Chair Camarillo.

So I have a question regarding the food.

So will a food or like a chef with um a health card be preparing the food?

Or is it like everyone prepares their own meal and then they all come together to eat?

So for this exhibit, the food will be a display, so it won't actually be tangible food.

So it'll be something they can kind of see and learn about the history of it.

We were thinking of a concept for our first grand opening to have actual food, and yes, the chef with the health car will be present at that moment.

Uh member Lightfoot.

Um you mentioned having interviews being played during the um event.

Who's gonna be conducting the interviews?

It will be a mix of both of us.

This way we can ensure that both of us get a turn and we both get the same kind of experience.

Okay, thank you.

Member Lopez de la Torre, um, I have a question.

So you mentioned that obviously this won't be food to give out for people to eat.

What will you guys be doing with the food?

Are you guys gonna be donating it afterwards or how throwing it away, or how would you guys go about that?

Um, as we said before, the food is an actual tangible eating food, so it's just for exhibit and just for display, just so people can get the history and know the context of it.

Okay, thank you.

Um, member more here, you guys said that you guys wanted to have projectors so you could have interactive games.

What would those games be and how would they be interactive with like a projector?

Uh those games would be more rooted in trivia questions.

So ask them if they know the history of the soul food and if they know the context of what the food came from and how it came about.

With the display of food and maybe below it, to just make sure they have an idea of what we're talking about.

Um, member cruise here.

So for the interviews, would they be like specific to the person you're interviewing and about their experience with Soul Food, or would it be more of a QA with somebody on the history of like their specific Thanksgiving soul food food?

Yeah.

It'll be more rooted towards the person they're experienced.

The aim and the targets of the people uh there'll be restaurants and food trucks within the Las Vegas community.

So we want to uh ask them about their history and if they know the the lineage of what they're cooking and how the impact of what they're making affects their community.

Member flank, uh quick question.

The displayed food, is it like real food that's been treated to where it can't be eaten?

Or is it pictures?

No, ma'am.

So we want to try to do 3D models or images or anything like that to try to emulate something similar, but make sure it's not real.

Yes.

Right.

They you know, they have food that you treated and in books real.

Okay.

All right.

Member Diaz speaking, um, in the future, would you ever consider letting perhaps letting people sample some of this so they could broaden their palate or their um or you know, expand their taste to different things they might have not tried before?

Um, I would like to say that possibly that could be a choice.

If more people taste the food, they might get an idea of how maybe they they haven't been to a cookout or they haven't been to a certain event, just like that we were explaining in our slideshow.

So if they taste it, they might get an idea.

So as it stands, it's purely for informational purposes only, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Member Lopez Alador, this is just a quick comment.

I think it would be I think it's a really cool concept.

So I think it would be really cool if you guys were to explore different cultures along the line in the near future once to see how if this kicks off if it comes into fruition.

But I think it's a really cool concept.

Thank you.

50 seconds.

Um, member Moore here, I have two questions.

Um, so I heard you guys say that you guys were interviewing people with like food trucks and stuff.

I was wondering if you guys would be open to asking them if they wanted to come to you guys' spot since they have food licenses and handing out samples because that would like help with their marketing.

And then on the last question is um, how are you guys marketing this event?

Um, that'll definitely be an option.

We want to make sure it's as community involved as possible.

So getting these food trucks and restaurants exposure is the most absolute of the forefront of this exhibit.

I'm sorry, can you repeat the second question too?

Yes.

Um, how are you guys marketing you guys' event?

Like, are you using social media, like the news, the radio, etc.?

Social media platforms and word of mouth.

The youth is a very prominent voice, and we want to make sure we get ourselves out there so the community knows about this.

Activism is a very important thing of our generation.

Chair Castro, do our board members have any more questions.

Seeing that there are no other questions, the YNAP grant review board will be voting on the recommended YNAP funding awards at a later meeting.

The YNAP board will be presenting those recommendations to the Las Vegas Council on February 4th, 2026.

Tannem.

Oh, Tara Manor will notify your group with information about the YNAP board's recommendations within the next three weeks.

If you have any questions before then, please contact Tara and she will assist you.

We thank you again for your time and for your presentation.

You guys did an amazing job.

Thank you.

We have one group that did not show up today, and that is Project 91.

I was able to reach out to Project 91, and they just had in their mind a different day, so they just flip-flopped the dates.

And so I wanted to ask the board if it's okay for us to, or if it would be okay for us to reschedule project 91 for a different day.

Um we would be voting on that.

Chair Castro, I would like to make a motion to approve project 91 to come and present for another day.

Vice Chair Camarillo, what day would we be talking about?

So the dates that we have available for them to um reschedule would be December 11th or December.

December 8th or December 11th.

Sorry.

Hi.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Chair Castro.

So now we're gonna move on to agenda item number 11, citizen participation.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the board.

No subject may be acted upon by the board unless that subject is on the agenda and is scheduled for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion of any single subject as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed, may be limited.

Okay.

Chair Castro speaking, seeing that there is none, we are adjourned.