There I am.

It's green.

Good afternoon.

We'll call this meeting to order of the community development recommending board.

At this time, I'll ask our clerk to uh call, please call roll.

Thank you.

Member Miller.

Present.

Member McKnight.

Present.

Member Marlin.

Member Haddad Bennett.

Present.

Member Prado.

Present.

Member Lathra.

Present.

Member Burks.

Present.

Member Jackson.

Present.

Member Conyers.

Present.

Member Jones Sangaro.

Present.

Member Calendo.

Present.

Member Freeman.

Present.

And I'd like to put into the record that Member Marlin just walked in.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I am assuring that we have the announcement regarding compliance with open law meeting.

Yes, we are in compliance.

Thank you very much.

This is uh Chair Miller.

At this time, 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.

Do we have any public comment at this time?

Seeing none, we'll move on to agenda item four for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference to the regular meeting on March eleventh, twenty twenty-five.

Okay, we have a motion to accept the final minutes and uh and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, that has been seconded, moved, and voted upon.

Moving on to agenda item number five, discussion for possible action regarding the election of chair or co-chair.

I will open the floor for any nominations at this time.

Uh uh member Miller as the chair.

Mrs.

Prado, I second.

Do we have any further nominations?

Any discussion?

Um I just accept or say let's go.

Are we good for the record?

Okay.

Um seeing that, I'll be more than happy to serve as as chair.

I accept.

And now nominations for co-chair.

Okay, we need to vote.

We've had a nomination placed on the floor to uh retain member Miller as chair uh for this uh board.

Um second and vote, right?

Correct.

Okay, we've had a motion, we've had a second, and we'll call for a vote.

All those in favor, please by saying signify by saying aye.

I all those are oh that was nice.

Um nice and round.

Umpposed.

Okay, thank you.

I accept.

And now I'll open the floor for nominations for co-chair.

Excuse me.

And that motion carries.

And that motion carries.

Thank you.

Uh, this is Dave Marlin.

Can I nominate Matt McKnight for co-chair?

Is there a second?

Had I admitted a second.

Okay, we've had a motion and a second for member McKnight.

As co-chair, are there any further nominations?

Okay, seeing none, uh, we've had a motion and a second, so we'll call for a vote.

Um, all those in favor for co-chair McKnight, uh, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Motion seconded and carried.

Congratulations.

All righty.

All right, at this time, we'll move on to agenda item number six, or a report by Conleen uh Duiger to grant program coordinator regarding housing and urban development.

HUD, federal grants and allocation of federal funds.

Colleen Duiger neighborhood services.

The City of Las Vegas grant application process began on October 13th, 2025, with the posting of a request for proposal, RFP for agencies seeking program funding from the city's allocation of funds for housing opportunities for HOPWA and the community development block grants, CDBG.

The grant funds for each of these programs are designated as two-year grants designed to provide funds for selected agencies in fiscal years 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028.

The approximate amount of funding for HOPWA is 3.3 million, and the approximate amount of CDBG funding is 500,000.

Interested agencies were asked to attend one of two technical workshops held on October 28, 2025.

The RFP closed on November 13th, 2025, and the community development recommending board received eligible applications for review on December 8th, 2025.

Over the course of three days, the community development recommending board will hear presentations from applicants who met grant eligibility requirements.

Applicants have been asked to make a presentation to the board.

Ten minutes have been allocated for each program, which is broken down into five minutes for the presentation and five minutes to answer questions from the board.

This meeting will consist of presentations for HOPWA and CDBG grants.

At this time, I would like to ask all board members to disclose any potential conflicts of interest you may have with any of the presenting agencies today.

This is David Marlin.

Um who's counsel here?

All right, hello.

I want to run three things by you.

Uh one, I'm the chairman of the board of Vegas Stronger, which is not today, but it I want to disclose that.

I'm assuming I will abstain for anything about Vegas Stronger.

Uh while I was getting my internship, I did work for a little over a year at community counseling, but it was 17 years ago.

I'm assuming it's okay for me to proceed and vote on that one.

Yeah, for that one, uh disclosure is sufficient.

Thank you.

Uh and then lastly, the clinical director at Vegas Stronger is the spouse to the principal at the just one project, and I'm not sure what spousal rules are with, but I just wanted to disclose that and seek your counsel.

Um deputy city attorney Tamara Canella for the record.

Um you said Vegas Stronger is on another day.

It is on another day, not today, but there's a clinical director that works at Vegas Stronger.

Okay.

Who is married to the president of the Just One Project?

I'm sorry, I just want to exercise the caution to prudence.

How does that relate to you as a board member?

I was just wondering.

Doesn't, but he works there and there's a marriage, so I wanted to disclose it.

Yeah, disclosure should be fine for that one as well.

Thank you very much.

Yep.

Chair recognizes Member Prado.

Are we doing all the disclosures and recusals right now?

For today.

Okay.

Got it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Is there any more disclosures?

Okay.

Can I move along on the agenda?

Okay, fantastic.

All righty.

We're on agenda item number seven.

Uh board members is a presentations regarding application for housing opportunities for persons with AIDS, HOPWA funds for fiscal year 2026, 2027, and 2027 to 2028, submitted by Golden Rainbow HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Permanent Housing Placement and Supportive Services.

Women's Development Center HOPWA program, aid for AIDS of Nevada, AFAN, AFAN Housing Services.

Hope Link of Southern Nevada Housing is Healthcare Initiative.

CP CPLC, Chicanos por La Casa, Nevada, and CPL Hapua Community Counseling Center, Community Health, FDV, Fuente de Vida Wellness Center, FDV Wellness Center, the Just One Project, HOPA program, access to health care, supportive services, and Strum short-term rental mortgage and utilities program.

At the time when we call you forward, as we're on the schedule, please be reminded that you please speak in a loud voice because we are on the record.

Also make sure that when you're speaking, you do announce who you are for the record, so we can assist that with true uh transparency.

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

Um at this time, we'd like to ask to come forward.

Golden Rainbow.

Hello.

Um, I am Iria Ephraim.

I am the interim executive director at Golden Rainbow.

I am Darnell DeWaney, the program's manager at Golden Rainbow.

And I am Gregory Gudenkopf, the Chief Operating Officer for the LGBTQ Plus Center of Las Vegas.

Just to give a this is Iria speaking, just to give a bit of background on our agency.

We were founded in 1987 to provide individuals who were affected by HIV and AIDS with the dignity to die, and we have since evolved into the agency that gives people the dignity to live with AIDS.

So we are very proud of that, and that is our mission, and it's been our mission since uh 1987.

And we want to thank the board um for having confidence in Golden Rainbow to be able to carry out the HOPWA grant that we have been receiving.

And so um I'd like to pass it to my coworker Darnell, where he will go over our scope of work.

Darnell Dwayney for the record.

Um I want to for this preparation, we wanted to get started with this scope of work as well as address some of the comments that were laid out in the risk analysis report.

But um, as with any program, we kind of like to go year over year, um, compare and contrast where we were and where we are now.

Um last year was not a good year for us.

Uh it was a very challenging year with a lot of curveballs.

Uh we were able to provide housing assistance, but not to the full capacity we wanted to.

Um, I believe we only were able to carry out 15 units of housing assistance as well as 41 units of supportive services.

Um that had to be the retirement of our um of our team with one of our executive directors, as well as programming and operations.

Uh, we had a little little bit of curveballs.

Um with that being said, we gave us a lot of time and attention to properly plan for this upcoming year, and we are knocking it out of the park.

Um, so this year we are very happy to report that we are 51 units of housing assistance as well as 51 units of supportive services, providing majority of the housing assistance for with the HOPA funded agencies as well as the expansion of our project-based rental assistance program.

Um, with that being said, uh, we did uh with the stuff that was laid out on the risk analysis.

We are it was anticipated for sure, and we're here to provide more context to those comments.

Um to you, IRIA.

Yes, this is IRIA speaking.

So for the corrections for 2024, 2025, five to twelve corrections were often needed, but um has improved for 2526.

During that time, again, we were in transition.

We were also in transition of bringing on new bookkeepers.

So just getting everybody caught up to speed and just doing that whole thing, it was it took a minute, but we are definitely on track now, and we have definitely improved and we're um we're doing very well moving forward, as well as um for number three 2425.

We left 64 per um 64,000 unspent.

Um, for 2526, we are on track for spending, and as a matter of fact, we are doing again blowing it out of the water.

We've already um as of January spent over 70 percent, and we have spent down um 214, um 246 dollars um of our funding of our uh 300,000 funding, and we only have 65 left on the table, a little over 65 left on the table.

And so we are actually in a prime position to not only spin down our funds by the end of the grant year because we're only halfway through, but also seek additional funding if we're um able to, because we also have additional units that we can bring on to the PBRA program, and again, we're just knocking out our um our supportive services just out of the park.

And then I will um pass it back to my co-worker Darnell for um question seven.

Yes, Darnell DeWiny for the record.

Uh we'll speak about item number seven, which is the PBRA leases.

Um, throughout the transition of last year, there were a lot of things happening.

This was a little bit of an oversight.

Um, through our our post monitoring and our onsite monitoring, they highlighted some areas we were able to get that corrected, make sure that the vowel leases were added to the lease addendums as well as provide that information to our um our PBRA enrolled tenants.

Um, and then with number eight regarding our funding being fully dependent on HOPWA.

Um, we've demonstrated um a lot of collaboration and partnerships, and we are happy to report that we are in our final stages with Tori Johnson through the state to receive HOPA funding for Perump.

This will be the first for Perump to offer HOPWA services in that area.

Ire do you want to speak to the rest?

Yes, um, IREA, we also continue to do our fundraising activities.

As a matter of fact, just this January, Pride Um Cheerlean Association provided us um a fundraising event and um um raised 12,500 for us already.

So we are definitely continuing our fundraising and we will be continuing our ribbon of life and bringing in additional funds with grants and fundraising.

And I'd like to kick it over to the center as well as another aspect of what we're doing.

Thank you.

Uh Gregory Gudenkoff for the record.

Um, so we are close to completing our transaction with Golden Rainbow, and we'll be happy to report to the board when that is completed.

Uh the delay was initiated uh on our part to as a part of our due diligence to ensure that we are operationally documented to avoid violating federal inducement laws.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

I'm so sorry you read out of time, but thank you very much.

I want to open the floor up to board members too for questions at this time.

The floor uh chair recognizes member Hadad Bennett.

Thank you.

Um Patricia Hadad Bennett.

Um thank you, because you answered many of the questions that I had.

Um, but I was hoping you could just take a step back.

Tell us about the program you're applying for and what you would want to use the funds for.

Okay.

So go ahead.

Absolutely, Darnell Dewey speaking.

Uh, we are applying for uh more housing assistance to continue the the housing uh services we're providing.

So uh more Strum U dollars, more permanent housing dollars, and the expansion of our PBRA programs, which is essential for subsidies for those um that can't afford housing and or has challenges with housing as well as support services.

Definitely.

We um currently have six units on our PBRA program, and so we're we have 12 units in total.

So we have six already on the PBRA, we have two that are eligible and um getting ready to be three that are going to be eligible to be added on, which is that request for additional funds, and so then we'll have additional three more to be added on as well that we're looking to do this year.

And the chair recognizes member Jackson.

Hi.

I I like the program, uh, but I had a coup uh question.

Is there any educational component where you're doing outreach to mitigate the um the issues of having aids, especially among the youth or anything like that going on?

And I also wanted to know about like recidivism rate, how many people come back, and uh how many people are at or transitioning out uh from the housing supports.

Of course, thank you for that.

Darnell Dwayne speaking.

Um, when it comes down to gosh, just asking lost the question.

Can you repeat the question again?

The first one was about education, and the second one was about recidivism rate.

Thank you.

Darnell DeWaney speaking again.

Uh, when I first got hired, I was a health education uh risk reduction person.

So I was delivering um counseling to individuals and also doing a lot of group activities uh surrounding health education, uh, HIV, STIs and everything else.

So we utilize those components with any enrolled tenant within the PBRE program, making sure they're valuable suppressed, making sure they're on top of their health, uh, making sure they're seeing their case manager and other things.

Um, as far as then for the PBR program and people coming back, uh we have successfully um exited clients to permanent housing.

They've actually increased more income to get out of the HAPA program to get into their own units where they are permanently housed.

Uh we don't see a lot of clients that do come back to us, but we do keep in contact because they do go to other organizations and seek other um services, especially housing assistance, and we all internally um collectively as providers, we all keep a really good tabs, and plus I also do a lot of outreach where there always has to be some learning between anything, and so if we can um you know build the capacity of those living with HIV, that is the that is the most important.

Thank you for your question.

Okay.

Are there any further questions from members of the board?

The floor recognizes uh member Adette Bennett.

Thank you.

Um Patricia Hadad Ben and I promise I'm not gonna be long-winded today.

But you were mentioning a transaction.

Can you just uh give us a little context of what you're talking about and sort of where the conclusion was?

Uh yeah, so uh part of the delay was due to um we wanted to make sure that we are operationally documented to avoid violating federal inducement laws as a health care provider working in the HIV and affordable housing space where the Medicaid patients are currently residing.

So right now we're working with our attorneys to be able to finalize uh the transaction, going to both of our boards for the approval, and then we will be happy to report back to the board when we have those.

All right, I'll call again.

We're down to our final minute.

Any more questions by the board?

The chair recognizes Member Marlin.

Hi, this is uh Dave Marlin.

Uh with the advent of PrEP, has your business model changed dramatically?

No, not our business model because we we provide assistance for individuals already affected by HIV and AIDS.

And so we with our outreach and things like that, then there's definitely that aspect of it that we're able to provide more information on and to help keep um keep the virus from spreading and being virally suppressed and things like that.

But as far as what our goal is, the the main thing that has changed is that we provide people the ability to live versus there wasn't any hope during the height of the pandemic, and so it was just providing you know the ability to die with some dignity.

So now we're giving them the ability to live with dignity.

Thank you.

Definitely thank you for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's seven seconds to spare.

Thank you very much for your responses.

Thank you very much.

Next on our schedule.

I believe it's a women's development center, HOPA program.

You're will come forward, please remember to speak loudly, and every time that you do speak, um, please make sure you say your name for the record.

When you get to one minute, I'll hold up a finger and uh welcome.

You have five minutes to make your presentation and five minutes from the board.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh my name's Gillian Prieto.

I'm uh here on behalf of Women's Development Center.

Many of you probably uh know me.

We have been running the HOPA program since 1997.

Uh the city actually came to us uh around uh early 1997 and said that they had a pilot program and it was to house individuals with HIV and AIDS.

We started with four units uh that we provided.

They did a one-year lease, and it was essentially to see if they would be able to stabilize and they would be able to seek medical uh assistance and they would be able to reintegrate.

And at that time, as many of you know, it it was essentially a death sentence.

We didn't know anything that we did now, there weren't the the medications and the therapies that there are now.

Um, and that first year, three of our four uh tenants passed away.

And so we weren't sure we were gonna stick with it, but we did, and uh we've been doing it over 30 years.

Um back in 1997, I was cleaning the apartments.

That's the only difference.

I still do that sometimes.

Um but here we're asking uh for a continuation of that program.

Uh this past year we served just over 40.

Um we had 13 um individuals graduate to stable housing.

There's essentially been a massive shift in the way that we approach the program over the years.

Like I said before, it was we didn't really know, they were sick, people were dying, and now we know that people live a lot longer.

And so the focus is more on credit repair, um, selling records that can be sealed for certain criminal offenses, um cleaning up old evictions, those things really limit one's ability to get stable housing anywhere.

So, although we as a nonprofit, we can overlook many of those things when we refresh our um leasing paperwork that we give out to anybody as references.

Landlords do not want people with certain criminal convictions, they don't want people that have very low income.

Um, so some of those things we we do try to prevent.

We also have a stepping stone type of program, and it was really started in the 80s, which was transitional housing.

And you you get once they're stabilized, and they're you heard um one of our sister agencies speak about it as well.

You want to transition them out into a stable environment if their uh income is enough and they are stable and they've been on the job and they feel like they can manage that.

We want to move them out of the HOPA program to make room for more individuals.

This last year we had another increase in diagnosis in Clark County.

We know that we're in the top five in the nation on HIV and AIDS.

Um, to touch on something that was asked earlier, we are trying to get with our other programs in those families that have younger children when they're age appropriate to talk to them about HIV and AIDS, and sometimes when speaking to them, surprisingly, they tell us, well, yeah, you know what it is.

There's a medication for it, and so we're really trying to get in there and drill down.

Yes, there's a medication for everything for cholesterol, for this, for that, but preventative is really the key, and um, that's that's the biggest thing that we're focusing on now.

Um this year, there have been some changes with respect to HUD and uncertainties about funding.

So we will be continuing the program, but we've we've reduced that down to 32.

Um, typically we serve about five to ten over, so we think that we'll still hit 40, but we wanted to make sure with the uncertainties that we were in a position uh the board felt that's comfortable for everybody, and should that change?

We have a great relationship with uh our program administrator.

We know that we can say we have more people, could we have an adjustment, or we usually just absorb it ourselves.

Um the other thing I wanted to say is that we have um developed a really strong bond with UNLV and a lot of the students coming out of there.

Um they've called and they've asked to volunteer, um, and they do come in and do workships about um sorry, workshops about cleanliness, um, getting tested, um, making sure that uh you're keeping in touch with case workers.

That's the biggest thing is that disassociation that you see with a lot of clients.

There is a lot of guilt and a lot of embarrassment with HIV and AIDS.

That's understandable.

And sometimes they get in a position where they can be very overwhelmed with that, and a lot of them do have mental illness.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

Not everybody that comes into the program is happy and well adjusted and thankful, but you meet them where they are.

If they want help, we're happy to help.

If they don't want help, you can't do much, but you try to keep engaged, and that's that's the best that we can do.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, you're gonna be able to do that.

My family says I never met a stranger.

Thank you very much.

Um I'm gonna open the floor up to any board member that has any questions for the women's development center.

The chair recognizes member Marlin.

Hi, and thank you for your presentation.

Uh, what's the average length of time that somebody remains in service with your agency?

Uh so that's a very good question.

Uh, over 60% of our clients are senior citizens, and that can be a shock to many when they hear that they're how is that?

Well, we've been doing this a very long time.

Okay.

Um, so over the last five years, the people that are transitioning out, uh, they're younger, they're working, they're they're informed that work is an essential requirement of the program that they can work as it should be for all of us, right?

We all get up and do that.

It's about 10%.

So approximately four a year of what we're serving, and so we serve 35 to 40.

So the average client stays with you for about three years.

What two two to two and a half years?

That's two.

Two to two and a half.

And that's based on the wait list from other agencies looking for stable housing, right?

So our seniors that are 60 to 65, they're not gonna work.

We know that they have a physical disability, they're collecting social security.

They apply to other housing agencies.

The wait list now for some of those are 4,362.

I don't, yeah, it was shocking.

When they come in and we meet with them regularly, they'll say, I just want you to know I've applied to every agency, and I'm 4,632.

And it's like, uh, is that real?

Yes, it's it's act.

We have so many people that need housing.

I I'm sure that you've seen an uptick in the homeless in the community.

I I've I've literally been doing this since I was a kid.

I worked at Chae Tree.

I know.

We've had a massive spike.

I mean, even behind our properties, the homeless encampments, a significant amount of the budget has gone to cleanups of those homeless encampments on on private property that we just don't have any control of.

So, yes, unfortunately, I wish it was different.

The one thing unique about um our program is that we have an affordable rental program, and we really encourage if you if you like something and you want and there's availability, we go to them and say we have an availability in the affordable program.

Would you like to apply?

Because we know that we know some of the things on their background, we get it.

We know some of those issues, but we do know that they have presented themselves as a great tenant.

They keep their place nice, and this is so funny.

But during Christmas, you would be surprised who has the best decorations.

You know, you drive through and you're like, that's a hope.

That's a they they they've never had a home.

Their parents, some of them have uh siblings 10 in a family, so they take great pride in that, and and you really just need to give people a chance.

And we all we all need a chance every now and then.

I I don't care who you are, you're you need a chance.

And many of them, once they're given that unit, they decorate it, they they take great pride.

They're the first ones to call and say a sprinkler heads broke, you know, there's an encampment starting over here.

They they call us, they're very proactive, they take pride in their neighborhood, and that's what we want.

As a native and somebody that went to UNIVE and graduate, I love our community.

The last thing I want is to see people come back and in and out of the system.

Is there recidivism?

100%.

Most of them are chronically homeless, but to see 13 chronically homeless clients whose parents were chronically homeless, stabilize and say, I'm ready to apply for my own apartment.

Can you help me do that?

And and watch them do that, is it's really really dynamic, and it's a great thing that our community offers, and I sincerely mean that.

Not a lot of communities have this program, and and to be able to do that and make sure that they're not back out there, and most of them word of mouth, a lot of our Hopwo clients come from another HOPA client.

It's not so much a sister agency that's referring them, it's one of their friends.

Um, and so I do want to say thank you for giving your time to to see this program and to make sure that the people that are running it the way that you want it run are benefited by that because we benefit as a community to keep those um those um recidivism of homelessness and the increase in HIV and AIDS that we just continue to see.

Um, so thank you for your time.

Okay, and we'll give the last 20 seconds to member Praddle.

Hi, um thank you for everything you do, ask real quick.

Uh the percentage of funds requested that are for maintenance seemed high, and you kind of mentioned something about like encampments and stuff like that.

Can you maybe so I'm happy, sure.

I'm happy to talk about that.

Um it's it it is high, and we wish it wasn't, but there's the tagging, the homeless encampments, the dog feces from the homeless people, that's constant maintenance.

You're constantly cleaning that cleaning that up.

The people that move in and out of a unit, there's an immense wear and tear.

You're not just going in and saying the janitor can clean this.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

They need painted in a lot of situations, right?

We want to make sure that the next person that's getting that is getting a clean and sanitized unit.

And so it it that's there's no way around it sometimes.

And I wish I could say, well, it doesn't matter, but these are things that would not pass in HQS, right?

So if people have dogs now and everybody has a service animal, that's great.

We get it.

Um, but those pets do do quite a bit of wear and tear, and they do have accidents.

We get that, but you cannot move somebody into a unit where there's possibly dog feces or um urine soaked through carpet.

You there's no way around it.

We've we just have to remove it.

Um, but the good news is that it's clean and ready for the next um person to to get into and address a lot of those needs, those medical needs that they have.

And so most of them we absorb.

Sometimes we're able to to get reimbursement, sometimes we're not.

And that that's with any other program.

You you absorb what you can.

All right.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate your presentation.

Thank you, Sam.

Thank you.

Have a nice day.

I'm just I'm discomfobulated with the change in building.

Okay, next we'll call forward aid for AIDS of Nevada, AFAN.

Again, remember, please make sure when you speak, you give your name for the record.

I will give you a one-minute um warning before your time runs out.

You have five minutes for your presentation, and then five minutes for the board.

And please make sure you speak clearly.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Antioco Carrillo, and I am the uh executive director of AFAN.

Uh, and I want to thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to continue uh with this program.

We have been recipients of HAPWA for way longer than I took over AFAN 14 years ago, so probably since the beginning, I think it was in the 1990s when AFAN started getting that.

We have a property uh where we have uh individuals at our house.

We have a total of 20 units, and half of those are um subsidized by HAPWA as well.

And I am going to let my lead, uh, my manager talk more in detail about the program, and I'll just wait for the rest.

Um, my name is Karina Ponce.

I'm the lead case manager at E-Freat of Nevada.

I have been with the agency for 17 years now.

So I've watched the agency, you know, transition, go up and down and grow.

Um currently we are requesting funding for our programs, like Antioko was mentioning.

We do have a housing program which is Esperanza and Jardin.

Um these houses um pretty much provide housing for 20 individuals that are HIV positive.

Uh, they provide stabilization and permanent housing.

Additionally to that, in the back, we have added a component where we have a garden.

Clients are able to plant their own stuff when it comes to vegetables and fruit, and they're able to like become self-sufficient and gain from that.

Um, additionally, the other funding that we're doing and requesting it's stream you.

Stream you is one of the top highest um emergency dire needs that goes out to the community.

Um, that's more of the resource that we provide when it comes to mortgage assistance, monthly rent, and then um utility assistance.

For the past three years, AFAN has been able to provide up to for a total this year, 58 clients, the year before that was 86, and the year of 23 was prior was 63 clients.

So our encounters have been very high when it comes to the stream you because there is a dire need, especially with now with rental fees going up.

When it comes to the permanent housing placement that we're also requesting funding, um in the past year we've helped 10% of our clients stabilize housing.

What this program does is reduces of the amount of people being homeless and on the street, um, accessing shelters and then transitional homes.

What it provides is more stable engagement.

Also, case management is able to help clients maintain stable housing and meet more of their needs when it comes to their HIV uh care and medication compliant.

The supportive service program additionally helps with uh barriers such as job placement, um obtaining bird certificates, obtaining TAM sheriff cards.

Um clients are able to access additional services such as Section 8, Nevada State Welfare, Food Stamps, Social Security, because of these documents that we are able to help clients obtain.

Um AFAN has now decided to expand um into mental health and dip kind of take a dive in there because we find that most of our clients are losing housing, um, have mental health issues.

They are suffering from chronic stress, um, they're non-compliant to their medications at times, um, and they have current curing mental health disorders such as anxiety, PTSD.

And so we find that that having a mental health component, having a wrap around service would help people avoid eviction, making better choices, and um being able to be more self-sufficient if we provide mental health services.

Oh, we still have another minute, huh?

I can tell you a history of AFAN.

You know, we were funded in 1984, and we have gone uh up and down in the kind of services we provided based on the needs of the community.

Uh right now we're getting ready to relaunch our testing site.

Uh we do a lot of HIV uh uh prevention.

We also uh are the ones that are the put on the AIDS walk where we find additional funding uh to front for the funds to provide the services and the black and white.

So uh it's a very small organization, but it provides a lot of the services that are really uh geared towards the poorest of the poor, the ones that are either homeless or on the verge of being homeless.

And uh again, we thank you for an opportunity to you know give you an overview of our programs.

All right, thank you very much.

You had 24 seconds left.

Um I'm gonna open the floor up to any member that would have any questions uh for AFAN.

And I'm gonna start down to the far right.

I believe that's member Jones.

Yes, Member Jones Zaguerko, yeah.

Hi, good afternoon.

Uh Barbara Jones and Garrow for the record.

And I'm gonna ask you this question as well as pretty much all of you.

Uh I do a lot of work with the homeless community, and I look at this and I see how much money there is and how much money is being asked for, and it's like, how do I choose this organization over this organization or that organization?

And the second part of my question is I see a lot of duplication in your request for funds on salaries.

So I was kind of confused about that.

You have the same people, and it there's more than one line item for salaries.

Yes, our funding sources cover the staff salary.

My salary doesn't get covered.

I have to fundraise for that.

Administration salary doesn't get uh covered.

Only the case managers that work directly with clients, they are um covered by a portion of HAPWA and in different categories that we're applying, and also a portion of the other programs that we have with the state.

And so part of the duplication of services that you may see with other organizations is that there is the the need is higher than expected.

We are always working in engaging with the rest of our community partners.

We know all of these providers, uh, and we work with them referring clients.

If somebody runs out of funds, we refer them to the next uh uh provider that has funds.

We we try to spread the services uh to the best of our ability all over town in different locations, and I think that if you see some of the uh the duplication of services, they're not the the amounts are not as big in different areas, and that's because we're trying to capture all the clients that request services.

All right, and I see a light in this at uh member calendar at the end.

Yes, thank you.

Um can you speak a little bit more about the mental health component?

And I see in your budget you're asking for a mental health therapist that's not yet hired.

Is this a new activity for HAPWA?

No, we have had we have gone through several changes over the last 15 years, 14 years that I've been there.

I instituted uh a mental health component through another grant uh in 2015, and HAPWA came on board as well.

And so we had uh a position where half of the salary was was covered by HAPWA, and the other one was Part A, Ryan White Part A.

And we know the benefits, we saw the benefits that we had, because a lot of the times the clients get lost in the referral process, even if they have to go across the street.

And so when you have the clients and the services available, you know, within the same building, then it's easier for them to access uh mental health.

The problem that we also find with mental health is that there may be mental health available, but the wait list is really astronomical for anybody, especially for clients that uh the treatment for HIV uh clients that are dealing with with mental health issues, it's very specific because it has to be tied up with their uh their treatment and adherence to medication as well as adherence to anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications and all those things.

So we have the infrastructure, we're not running it because we we had a position of like I said, with Ryan White Park A, we had a position with HAPWA in the past, and also through the MGM Mirage.

And so we just wanted to make sure that you know the need for for mental health right now, and that the infrastructure is waiting.

Okay, I'll give last 40 second five seconds to member Jackson.

Hi, I'm Jamie Jackson.

And I really appreciate your sustainability program that you work with the private industries as well.

Uh, but I wanted to know how long do people stay just like uh in your program and again the recidivism rate.

Uh and what is being done to minimize this issue overall?

The issue of HIV.

I know it's a long question.

Well, I think the challenge, and you I've been in in HIV since 1994.

And I I started doing prevention, and part of your question earlier to the previous presenter was what are we doing with for adolescents and we are we're not doing anything because nobody's doing anything because it's challenging to go to the school district and talk specifically about that.

Uh the school district obviously allows their system to take care of the needs of the students, and that includes a the nurse that is that they select to talk about some of those preventive measures.

I have addressed the school district.

I have addressed the uh the school board to talk about the the challenges we face, obviously, because we see clients that are getting infected, you know, uh in late teens and early 20s, and this should not be a reason for that.

So the best we can do is also combine efforts with other organizations that have a robust testing site, and we also work with our clients uh in trying to get them to access PrEP, which uh you know is the newest the the newest vision that we have to end the epidemic.

But really, prevention the the prevention format that we used to have, it is now taking part as a testing, as ability to provide testing.

So the idea the the old fashioned prevention method that we used to use about what is important, the the activities that will put people at risk, they're no longer funded.

Nobody finds that CDC doesn't fund that.

They focused all those funds specifically on making testing, HIV testing more available because if we test them and they're positive, then we find the pockets and we ask additional people to get tested.

And we work very closely with the health department and all the clinics that we have in town that are focusing on HIV, and so we we do the best we can, but with the lack of funds, there's only so much we can do.

Alrighty, thank you.

Thank you so much for your presentation and for thank you for your questions.

So you've answered questions in your presentation.

Thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, at this time, we like to call uh down Hope Link of Southern Nevada, Housing is Healthcare Initiative.

Please remember you have five minutes for your presentation and five minutes for questions from the board.

Please make sure every time you speak, you address uh start with your name, speak loudly, and I will give you the one-minute warning when you're about to run out.

Thank you.

Perfect, thank you.

My name is Kristen Avulas.

I am the uh chief operating officer at Hope Link of Southern Nevada.

Um, we are new to Hapua.

This is our first time applying for this funding.

Um we are uh our mission is to preserve families, provide hope, and prevent homelessness for nearly 35 years.

We have been keeping Nevada housed.

We have extensive experience providing housing and housing stabilization services and rental assistance to vulnerable populations.

Hope link works with a number of government grants, including ESG, CDBG, TBRA, WSA AFT, and assembly bill appropriations.

Uh we do have private funding for supportive services and for special populations, such as seniors and others who need a little additional um resources.

Uh, since 2020, Hopelink has prevented homelessness for over 4,000 households while simultaneously providing case management resources and service plans.

We have about a 3.5% recidivism rate.

So of the 4,000 that we assisted, about 97% never entered homelessness.

In addition to prevention programs, Hopelink has rapid rehousing and emergency shelter programs funded by Clark County through the CHIP HUD and Operation HUD operation home programs.

Uh we are well established in the community.

We have several case managers as well as uh great accounting team.

We have no findings on any audits.

We have a fantastic navigation team that is able to assist with finding housing for people.

We have great partnerships with landlords who are willing to overlook barriers such as evictions and a criminal history.

Partnerships in the community.

We do have a strong partnership with the Ryan White program through Nevada Legal Services, and we are ready to receive direct referrals from them if and when we uh were granted HOPWA funding.

Um we do not have direct specific experience working with populations for HIV and AIDS, but we do look forward to partnering with other agencies who do have that experience.

But we are really um we excel in housing, and that is what we do, and we believe that we can extend that to all populations.

That's all right.

Thank you very much.

At this time, I'll open the floor for uh comments, uh questions from the board members.

Uh the chair recognizes uh member Hedad Bennett, and then we will follow with I believe that's Miss Lanth member Lanthrop.

No, member Conyers.

Conyers.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um Patricia Hadad Bennett.

Uh okay, so thank you for that context and the overview.

We really appreciate that.

Um this is a new uh area of work for you guys.

And so I've got sort of a two-part question.

One is tell us about um the sort of sustainability plan.

I see in your application you talked about sort of the overall funding streams and the sort of diversified funding for the organization.

Um, but the reason that I ask is, and someone mentioned earlier, um we have 3.3 million dollars and a ton of applications that far exceeds that.

And so I'm hoping to understand um if you weren't funded at the at 100% of your request.

Do you have the resources and the ability to still sort of implement the program uh in a way that is aligned with what you hope to achieve?

Yes, absolutely.

We do have a number of funding sources, um, other federal grants, state grants, private grants as well.

We have a um a great fundraising team as well.

So we do actively fundraise for um supportive services as well as, for example, we saw a special need with seniors in the community, so we fundraised to build a program for seniors because it wasn't completely their needs weren't completely being covered in the grants that were available.

So we do have that.

Okay.

Member Conyers.

Hi, this is Vanessa Conyers.

I wanted to ask for the partnerships.

Which one do you have with the one for HIV?

Yeah, so currently we have a good partnership with the Nevada Legal Services Ryan White program.

So what we would do, um, they actually have asked us, they actually asked us to apply for this funding.

They said they would love to be able to send direct referrals to us just because of the the rapid response that we're able to have to housing and the the great um resources that we have available to us.

Um, in addition to that, we do work with the center.

We work with other programs uh that we may be able to refer to that to provide services.

I would really love to see the different organizations here that are serving people with HIV with housing also be a part of these programs because I think with the limited funding, it would be very useful to combine resources.

Yes.

Thank you, Member Congress.

Does anyone have any further questions for uh Hope Link of Southern Nevada?

Okay, thank you very much for your pre uh for your presentation.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

No, I'm sorry, yes, CPLC.

Nevada.

Thank you again.

I will give you the one-minute warning when you get to one minute.

Please make sure you introduce yourself, every person when you speak.

For the record, please speak loudly.

You'll have five minutes for your presentation, and then five minutes for members from the board.

Thank you and welcome.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Tyson Knutson.

I'm the director of social services and education for CPLC Nevada.

Hi, I'm Tara Barry.

I'm the financial analyst for the HOPWA program.

Hello, my name is Carla Banda, and I'm the program manager for the Support of Housing Services.

CPLC, Chicanos por la causa has been in action and operating since 1969.

We opened a branch here in Nevada in 2010.

We've been here for 15 years, going on our 16th year.

And in 2020, we received funding for HOPWA services since implementing and starting to serve that population.

We've served over 336 households and have been able to assist them in obtaining or maintaining permanent housing.

The services that we provide are Stromy, which is short-term rent mortgage utility assistance.

It's a five or 21 week program.

Internally, we have a cap of 5,000.

So if any of our clients come in and they use that 5,000 with the cost of rent in two months, what we do is we reach out to our partner agencies.

We reach out to Roberta and the Just One Project.

We reach out to Karina at AFAN, we reach out to whoever it is, or um Darnell at Golden Rainbow, and we say, hey, we have a uh household that still has eight weeks left.

Can you assist?

And then we get all the documentation they need and refer it over.

So we work with everybody and to provide the services because it's not about numbers, it's about assisting people.

We also provide permanent housing placement, which is just a fancy way of saying move-in costs.

So we're able to assist with that.

We reach out to WDC and assist them because if they're receiving a subsidy, we cannot pay the rent, but we can't pay their direct other security deposit.

And we work with placing people in a property, a unit that they can't maintain on their income, and that they are able to stay their long-term permanent housing, not temporary.

So what we do with all of our clients is we work with them, we do monthly budgets.

We ensure that they have the capacity and the means in order to be able to maintain that.

We ask them what other services you need, and we have close ties with all of our partners because what we want is to be able to know where to refer them so they can get more assistance.

We also provide hotel.

The hotel is only 60 days, and that is meant to stabilize them.

It's for somebody who has a housing plan in place, so we put them there until their unit is ready until Esperanza has a space for them to um go move into or things like that.

It's not meant to somebody who has who's medically fragile and comes out of the hospital because 60 days is not going to be enough for them to obtain housing, unfortunately.

They need longer term.

That's when we connect them with the properties and the programs that have programs that are able to assist them.

And I think that's the most important thing that we have those connections.

We are seeking funding to continue to provide those services.

Um, one of the things that we do is we do provide education.

We with CPLC Nevada, we do have two youth programs.

I'm very happy to say I provide them a sexual hygiene best practices self-care little training that I do for them where we really focus on HIV and STI prevention and information.

We also have partnerships with other services that we outside of HOPWA providers that we can send our clients to.

Um, as you know, there is a huge need.

Um over 12,000 or about 12,000 people living with HIV in Nevada.

I appreciate that you support this program.

I appreciate the fact that you guys take the time to listen to us.

We definitely hope you choose our program to be one of the ones you fund.

But even if you don't, thank you for funding us.

Thank you for funding our partners because it's such a need.

People who are living with HIV and are stably housed, have better out health outcomes because they're able to stay on their medication.

People who are living with HIV, most of them, about half of them will suffer some type of homelessness or housing insecurity in their lifetime.

So these programs are super important to them and to their health.

And we do want people to come back.

So recidivism rate, these programs are in place that if our clients are sick, they and they miss work, we are here to keep you housed.

We want you to come back if there is a need.

And we do get some to come back, but mostly it's new people.

So thank you all.

That's me.

I got to get on a record.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

At this time, I will open the floor uh up for questions from the board.

The chair recognizes member Prado.

Two quick questions.

One, maybe to the staff as well.

There's a mention of an untimely audit, but when I look in the audit documents, I see both the single audit and the audit.

So I'm not it says uh and specifically the fiscal year there, so there might be a mismatch between the risk assessment and the um submissions.

Um it looks like we do have the FY24 audit because I'm looking at it now.

Um, and then the other question was around, I guess increasing capacity over the last two cycles.

It looks like in the 24-25 cycle, there was some unspent funds and and some delays with some of the submissions, but it that currently it is on track.

So I'm just wondering if you could speak to that and the trajectory moving forward.

Yeah, actually, I can speak on the unspent funds.

Um, we had a little bit of a change in the documentation needed for our hotel stay.

So actually, those funds were spent.

We were unable to get that documentation in time for our final um submission.

So we now have a new process in place.

That is a cost that was just absorbed by the agency.

Um we now have a process in place and are working with new partners that were able to receive that documentation on time and in place.

And unfortunately, that was just an incident that happened, but we learn from all of our mistakes.

We try to take them as lessons, and so we accommodate and make a new process for it.

Member Conyers.

Hi, this is Vanessa Conyers.

So, what's the average cost and the average size of your housing?

And then my second question is what type of educational programs?

What do you what are you teaching?

So the how the sizes we usually get singles or um couples.

We don't get as many families.

We do get them, but they're a very small percentage.

Every once in a while we'll get those.

I would say less than 20% are families.

Um, as far as education, it's just not a component that's covered under HOPWA.

The education that we do with our clients are as they do their case management specifically with the Stromy, which is the five-month program or 21 weeks.

That one does get a bit more intensive in education as far as finance, because every month we do a monthly budget where we review on what they can stop spending as much on, things that they can do if if they need something that's more detailed in us, we can send them to other partners so that they can get more financial um savvy and education, but we work on that because that is such a huge component of maintaining housing.

As far as the uh as I call it the sexual hygiene um best practices education component that I do with the youth programs, I've my background is in facilitating, so that is something that I think it's really needed for our youth.

In Clark County, we are very unique that our new HIV um people that are are actually getting HIV for the you know, obviously for the first time, but the diagnosis is we have everything from youth from 13 to 24 to seniors.

So it's really important to educate our youth about not just HIV but everything else that's out there as we know there's things out there that are now becoming resistance to antibiotics.

So I think we have these youth programs in our office.

Let's let's if we have a you know these kids already there, let's talk to them and let's educate them.

Okay, final minute.

Um member do you have another question, member of Congress?

Okay, member Jackson.

Hi, Jamie Jackson again.

Um you mentioned in your um mission, you you talk about promote political and economic empowerment.

Do you what is that exactly?

With political and economic empowerment, what we're focuses on is um sign up to vote and vote.

Everybody doesn't matter what you vote, just vote.

As far as economic, economic is not just improvement, improving your income and that type of thing.

It's obviously increasing is important, but it's also about homeownership and finding out other things that you can do.

So that's the that was the key and what started Chicanos por la causa, and that is what we still promote to this day.

All right, seeing no further questions.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Almost 30 seconds left.

It's fantastic.

Thank you again for your presentation.

We appreciate it.

Next, uh, we have community counseling center, community health.

Again, remember you have five minutes for your presentation and then five minutes of questions from the board.

I will give you the one-minute sim uh signal when you're getting close to the end of your time.

Please make sure you state your name when you speak for the record and to speak loudly and welcome.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Aaron Almada.

I'm the deputy director.

Um my name is Michelle Villardo.

I'm the director of operations.

Uh community counseling center has been providing services to the Las Vegas community since 1990, and we are applying for HOPWA funding to provide behavioral health and supportive services to individuals living with or affected by HIV and AIDS who are experiencing or are at risk of housing instability.

Uh, we want to note that we are not requesting funding for housing assistance itself.

Instead, we are addressing one of the primary reasons individuals lose housing in the first place, which is untreated mental health conditions, substance use trauma, and often the emotional impact of an HIV diagnosis.

In Southern Nevada, housing providers do excellent work helping clients obtain and keep housing subsidies.

However, many clients struggle to remain stable because the behavioral health needs behind the housing crisis are not adequately addressed.

Our program would fund one full-time position split between a licensed counselor and an HIV services specialist.

The counselor would provide individual therapy, crisis intervention, and structured groups.

The HIV services specialist would coordinate supportive services, help clients navigate systems, and work directly with housing and Ryan White case managers to remove barriers to stability.

CCC already operates as a functional entry point into care.

We're a HIV testing site, and when someone tests positive, they are immediately linked to medical care and supportive services.

Many Ryan White providers refer newly diagnosed clients to us because we are one of the few agencies in the community providing specialized mental health and substance use treatment for this population.

Our living room program and peer navigator model help engage individuals who may otherwise disengage from care.

The purpose of the program is housing stability through behavioral health stabilization.

Research consistently shows that individuals living with HIV who are experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, or substance use, are less likely to remain in care, adhere to their medication regimen, maintain employment, and ultimately maintain their housing.

By addressing these barriers directly, the program supports both health outcomes and housing retention.

CCC has demonstrated success providing these services through our Ryan White Part A program.

Over the past three years, clients just clients receiving HIV-related behavioral health services have shown reductions in mental health symptoms, decreased substance use, and improved overall stability.

Adding HOPWA funding would allow us to extend those services specifically to housing connected clients and to individuals affected by HIV, including partners and family members.

And the issue there is that they currently have very limited issues or access to services, excuse me.

We are not trying to duplicate existing services.

Housing providers such as AFAN and Golden Rainbow provide housing assistance and case management.

CCC then provides the clinical behavioral health treatment that supports those housing programs.

We coordinate closely with them and receive frequent referrals.

This grant formalizes a partnership that is already occurring in practice.

The expected outcomes are increased engagement and care, improved coping skills, reduced behavioral crises, and improved housing retention.

In short, the request to fund the behavioral health component that allows existing housing investments in our community to succeed.

This project builds on CCC's existing infrastructure partnerships and experiencing managing federal funds, and it directly supports the city's goal of helping vulnerable residents remain safely and stably housed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alrighty.

With that, I will open up the floor to any members that have any questions for our community counseling center.

Member Jones Segaro.

Not really a question, but I was really impressed with your presentation and your paperwork.

Mental health is extremely important.

And I think that would help people not return.

Is that do you find that to be true in your numbers?

Do you do you track that?

Yeah, we were track uh we track recidivism rates, we uh track um length of stay and need of care in our uh health record system, and uh we coordinate very closely with other agencies to determine if somebody has fallen out of care, if they need to return to care, and why they may need to return to care.

And you are correct that addressing mental health needs helps prevent that.

And for the record, you are Oh, I'm Michelle Villardo.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Oh, wait, I didn't think I heard a name.

Thank you.

Very much.

Just one follow-up to that.

So I see you guys all work together, which I think is fantastic.

So my my hats off to all of you.

Do you get most of your referrals from all these other agencies?

From many of these agencies, including other ones as well, uh, AHF, uh directly from the health district.

Um, many pretty much any uh HIV service organization in the city refers to us.

Okay, not seeing any further questions.

Thank you so much for your presentation and your patience.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, uh, we'll call FDV, Wente de Vida Wellness Center.

All right, come on down.

Please make sure you that you state your name for the record and your name when you're answering a question.

Um also you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for questions, and I'll give you a signal when you hit one minute.

Thank you and welcome.

My name is Stephanie Mapula, Mike Delano, and I am the clinical director for FDV Wellness.

Um our um opportunity, um, a little bit about Fuente Villa.

We are partnered um with uh Fuente de Vida Mental Health Services, so we have a nonprofit.

Um it's in good standing with the Nevada Secretary of State.

Um what do we do?

So our mission, we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to grow, heal and thrive.

Um our goal here at Fuente de Vida is really to be culturally responsive and a holistic approach to all behavioral health services.

So a little bit of what we do, we work on both co-occurring services.

We work with people who are underinsured to try to get them insurance to provide services that are at no cost to work for individuals or provide service for mental health and co-occurring substance use disorders.

So really we focus on recovery, resilience, and emotional wellness.

Um, our organizational capacity, we have an executive and clinical leadership, we have licensed clinicians and fiscal oversight and reporting systems.

We have a community risk here that we've seen in FDV wellness, and really it's housing stability, mental health challenges, and substance use disorders.

A big part of it is when we see clients who come in with co-occurring disorders, they often face housing instability.

And at FDV wellness, we strive and we work with getting them into housing.

Why pick FDV wellness?

Really, it's about comprehensive um continuing care, mental health services, individual and group, substance use disorder, outpatient treatment, case management, and housing stabilization.

So we really work on when the client comes in and they're struggling with mental health services, that we're getting them into housing because it's a it's an overall component, right?

It's not just the housing, it's not just the mental health or the substance use, but getting them into those crisis intervention interventions and those referrals that gets them into employment readiness, um, sorry, we've been under the weather, and resource navigation.

What we do at FDV wellness is based on evidence-based practices.

We do a lot of CBT, so cognitive behavioral therapy, all evidence practices, um, all of it is client-centered, trauma-informed care, proven effective approaches, and a lot of motivational interviewing.

So we really work with the client in what they need to get step by step in order to get them to housing and getting them to get the appropriate care.

When they first come into FDV, uh, we do the intake process, so we do the initial screening, we use the ASAM-based assessment, we use standardized tools like such as uh PHQ 9, the GAD7, the audit, the DAST, the biopsychosocial and mental health assessments.

Also, we were given the opportunity for this grant.

We would also use the HOPWA income requirements, um, all level one outcare outpatient care.

Meaning we would see if they're eligible for the program, and if not, we would still take them in regardless and make sure that we're treating the co-occurring disorders.

Um, our projected impact is 44 helper clients served during 2026-2027, so approximately 70 unduplicate unduplicated clients annually, no waiting list, and immediate access to care.

So currently we don't have anybody on a waiting list.

We have um the licensed staff, whether it's case managers or licensed clinicians that will be able to help.

Um demonstrate effectiveness is that we we already have had over a hundred 403 assessments scheduled, 373 completed.

We have strong retention and engagement.

So many of these individuals come in with co-occurring disorders and have a high income of getting those um diagnoses treated.

Um our fiscal oversight, we have responsible.

We have responsible grant management, internal audits, we have federal compliance with federal regulations, transparent financial reporting, um, all of it to make sure that we are seeing compliant if we were given the opportunity to have the helper grant.

Again, our our goal is just to be able to help in the community.

There's a big help as far as housing goes, and it's all linked to mental health and substance use disorders.

So I think if we bridge that gap that we can have a better and safer community.

All righty, thank you.

I'll open up the floor for any questions from any members of the board.

And I'll start with uh member Conyers.

Hi, I'm looking at your budget, and I wanted you to explain what the marketing miscellaneous line item is.

So which one?

I'm sorry.

Um miscellaneous marketing item, five percent.

Yes.

So currently, since we're in nonprofit, we're hoping for a budget to market to get our FDB out there in the community.

So we just wanted to have a little bit more resources to advertise FDV wellness if possible, but if not, that's we're willing to work with that as well.

Thank you.

Chair recognizes member that Bennett.

Thank you.

Um, Patricia Hadad Vanett.

So thank you.

I I appreciate um, and I think I understand the programmatic components.

I think where I have a question is around some of your financial controls.

Um we and it sounds like you all have access to the risk assessment that we've seen as well.

Um there was a number of concerns um, particularly around financial management capacity.

And so I was wondering if you could speak to that a little bit more and speak to if you were granted these dollars.

Obviously, these are federal dollars that require some internal infrastructure to exist.

So, how are you all thinking about approaching that?

Yes, we do have a finance department.

So, or we have Claudia, she is our financial um director.

So she has a component for all the auditing is completely separate, and then from there they do have like a billing separation.

So we would be able to make sure that there's like no conflict of interest.

Everyone has their own department, and she would be able to assess all of that.

Chair recognizes Member Prattle.

Um thank you.

Um the uh program narrative relies heavily on the clinical components, but the bulk of the request has to do with housing and the deployment of housing.

So I'm just wondering um are you currently doing any housing work now, or if you can just explain what that will look like if it's brand new.

Yes, I think that's an excellent question.

I think that overall in our community, I've seen this years and years.

Um, we do have a lot of that clinical component, but we also have many of these clients who also need the housing component.

So we actually work with case managers to get them linked into housing resources.

So FDV wellness themselves have never had like their own budget to like here's the housing, but we've made sure that we provide linkage to that.

So that's part of as like as far as when they come into an intake, yes, we make sure that they get into a stable housing.

Okay, not seeing any other lights for questions.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

We appreciate you.

All righty, and uh we're called down now the Just One Project HOPWA program.

Please remember you have five minutes for your presentation and then five minutes of questioning available for the board.

Please make sure you state your name every time that you um speak for the record.

I will hold up a finger to tell you you're one minute out, and we appreciate you.

Good afternoon.

Hi, um, good afternoon.

Um, my name is Tristan Hyde Howard Skidmore.

I'm the senior executive director um of revenue for the Just One Project, and I'm joined by Roberto Valdez.

Uh I oversee the HAPA program.

And uh my name is Becky Barrero.

I am the program director.

Um so the Just One Project, we've been providing housing assistance under our community connect um program umbrella since 2021, and we are very um proud that HAPO is one of our earliest awarded programs, and it was implemented beginning in 2022, meaning that we're in the second site awarded cycle currently.

Um for the first two and a half years of PAPWA, we had two full-time case managers, one focused on TBRA and one focused on SRMU sharing PHP responsibilities.

Um, and actually in the fall of 2024, we learned that um one of the providers in our community was no longer going to be offering TBRA assistance, which is long-term rental subsidies for folks that are you know in permanent supportive housing.

Um, so we requested a programmatic in um uh a budget increase as well as uh an increase to our program scope to accommodate for those clients.

So we now currently have two full-time TBRA case managers as well as one full-time SRM you focused case manager.

Um we are also very proud that both before and after our programmatic expansion that we've consistently met or exceeded our program goals.

So last fiscal year um after the increase, our goal was to serve 25 TBRA um clients, 15 PHP and 35 Strum you, and we had served uh successfully by the end of the year 25 TBRA, 25 PHP, and over 75 Strum you.

Um, this year with similar programmatic goals, we've already served 25 TBRA households, um over 39 Strum you and 11 PHP.

So at halfway through the year, we've already met two of our goals and we're on or exceeded and we're already on track to meet the third.

Similarly, we are also on track for our budget this year.

So at the end of December, we're 53% spent on our budget.

So we're tracking on all of our goals.

This funding request represents really the continuation of our current funding and our current programmatic goals.

So for questions, I'll give it to Roberta to talk more about our program.

Thank you, Tristan.

Good afternoon.

Again, my name is Roberta Valdez, and I oversee the HAPWA program at the Just One Project.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to go ahead and be here.

At the Just One Project, our mission is to reduce food insecurity and improve housing stability while treating people with compassion, dignity, and care.

And that is exactly what the HOPWA program is doing.

Our HOPWA program is a strong reflection of that, but along with that, it's very impactful what the work that we are doing.

Our approach is to be a hands-on with our clients.

While quarterly home visits are required through the city, our case managers conduct monthly home visits with our clients.

When we do these monthly home visits, we are delivering food.

A client can typically receive anywhere from about 25 to 50 pounds of food depending on their circumstances.

Additionally, with that, we provide bus passes and we're providing resources with whatever it is that they are expressing to us, whether it be mental health, workforce, applying for SNAP, financial literacy literacy classes, we are there to provide that resource to them.

But while we are conducting these home visits with our clients, we are ensuring that they are living in a safe environment.

Another thing that I would like to say is that we do offer Strumue.

Strum you is short-term rent mortgage utility assistance, so we are preventing evictions from happening along with utility disconnections.

At this time now, I would like to share two success stories.

On November 14, 2025, I conducted a home visit with an active participant.

During the home visit, the client openly shared his concerns and expressed deep gratitude when the agency provided approximately 45 to 50 pounds of food that cons that consisted of canned goods, dry goods, protein, and grains.

The client stated that the assistance came at a critical time and brought immediate relief.

During the home visit, the client was putting groceries away, and I witnessed the client opening the refrigerator nearly empty with only a few condiments remaining.

During a follow-up home visit, I provided the client with a monthly food delivery and another bus pass.

But during this visit, the client shared a meaningful moment.

A friend had recently commented that the client appeared healthier and asked if he had been eating, noting that his stomach looked fuller.

Oh, that's wonderful.

But you ran out of time.

Yeah, thank you.

I'll open the floor up to any questions for board members.

The chair recognizes member Hedad Bennett.

Thank you.

Patricia Hadad Bennett.

So two pieces again looking at risk assessment.

One there are some repeat audit findings around federal grants and documentation being maintained.

If you could speak to that, and then I'll just ask my other question as well, which has to do with a note here around internal training to ensure that programs are being operated appropriately.

So if you could speak to both of those, thank you.

Okay, I'll start with this uh single audit.

So we do have a repeat finding related to our CSFP program, which is a commodities program.

Uh we serve at 60 remote locations around the valley and also rural, so it's a lot of documentation and paperwork.

So we're working with our new newly promoted um executive director of operations and Becky to put better internal controls in to make sure we're maintaining that documentation.

Um you're your second question, sorry.

No problem.

Yeah.

Um, also um, in the risk assessment, there was a component around ensuring that there's internal training for um the HOPWA program experience in particular to ensure that there's a seamless concern-free program operation.

And I was just wondering if you maybe staff can speak to what that is speaking to in particular, or if you all can respond to it.

So I will say that from my perspective, and then I'll let Roberta speak.

Um, we have had staff turnover in the past year, but we've consistently prioritized getting staff that have HOPA experience.

So Roberta came back to be our program manager this year, having previously worked at HOPWA.

Becky, who we promoted to be our director of programs, previously worked at AFAN, so she's very familiar with HOPWA, and we had to hire an additional TBRA case manager.

We also asked found somebody that previously had worked on TBRA.

So in addition to looking at training staff, we're also trying to prioritize staff that come with Hopa experience to make sure we're observing all the protocols and everything we need to reign clients.

Okay.

Chair recognizes Rick Caliendo.

Hi, thank you, Ali Calliando.

I think I noticed in your board meeting minutes that your CEO had to step in as interim board chair for a while.

Do you have a board chair now?

Yes, we do.

Yeah.

Um, our new board chair was voted in at the December meeting.

So our CEO is just briefly the interim board chair between meetings because our board chair had to step down for personal reasons.

Okay, not seeing any further questions.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

We appreciate your time.

Thank you.

All right.

We'd like to call down access to health care, supportive services, Mr.

Mue.

Please remember you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for questions with the board.

Please make sure you state your name before you speak for the record.

I will give you the sign that you have one minute left in your presentation.

Thank you and welcome.

Thank you.

I do have some handouts for you guys to be able to see some visuals.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jennifer Vasquez with Access to Healthcare Network.

We have been a part of the HAPWA family for the last six years, and we are here to talk about potentially getting additional funding to continue with the HOPWA services.

So currently what we do is we have case managers on site.

We do have funding through Ryan White Part A and Part B, which allows us to use wraparound services for HAPWA to be able to help clients maintain their housing services.

They have a monthly check-in as well as quarterly and a every six months check-in with their clients.

They are able to do housing assessments.

They are able to determine what services outside of housing are also needed to be able to make sure that people are able to utilize their housing services to the best of their ability.

They also meet with them and make sure that they have all their medical needs.

They meet with them and make sure that they get all referrals for all of our community partners.

We work with all the community partners that are here today as well as others.

And then we also have registered dietitians, sorry, on staff.

Our registered dietitians meet with them, they go over their health assessments, they go over their needs, they have one-on-one MNT uh services with them.

We also have several cooking classes and we have chronic design chronic disease self-management classes that we are able to meet with the clients and help them with their chronic disease.

We have grocery store tours.

We also have our food box program, which has been extremely successful.

We are able to give out a between a hundred and a hundred and fifty dollars a month in food services, depending on the acuity tool and the need that is needed for those services.

So we provide food as such as chicken, fish.

We want to make sure that whatever their food plan is with a dietitian is what they're able to utilize.

And then we also do our seed for supper program, and that is where we have clients come in and we teach them how to make container gardens at their home so that they can grow their own fruit fresh fruits and vegetables.

And so we teach them how to do that.

We teach them different cooking stuff with their seeds for the Seed for Supper program so that we can make sure that they are not only growing their own fruits and vegetables, but they are maintaining the healthy choices that they are working with the dietitian to make sure that they have meals that are actually tasty and that they want to continue to eat.

That's really what we do.

All right.

Thank you very much.

I'll open the floor for any questions from uh board members.

Chair recognizes member Jones Segaro.

Hi, uh Barbara Jones and Carol.

Uh thank you uh for what you do.

I I see a lot of positive things in your programs.

One of the things I was curious about is uh in your budget, there's I believe three dietitians and a lead dietitian or two and one lead.

And I this is just a simple question.

With AI, do you really need that many dietitians?

Yeah, so actually um we are seeing the dietitian need become even more every year.

Um we have had to really make sure that the clients are utilizing the program to the best of their ability because we are having a really hard time being able to recruit dietitians as well as being able to keep up with the need.

So even with AI, we are finding that the clients that we are dealing with right now, um, they aren't as computer savvy, and so they like the one-on-one dietitian services.

They like to be able to come in, meet with a dietitian, go over their actual blood work, go over their um meal prep.

They like to talk about their lab work and how what needs that they can meet to be able to go back to their doctor and say, hey, my cholesterol is down, or they've lost weight, or we have clients that need to gain weight.

So they're we're seeing a need, and it used to be where when during COVID times where we had to transition to the telehealth, but now we're seeing where clients only want to come in and they want to be in person.

They have that one-on-one rapport with their dietitian, and that's who they want to see.

And then if I could add one thing, uh Trevor Rice for the record, uh CEO of Access Healthcare.

Um, two things.

One is we are actively looking at ways that AI can help us to make our project uh programs more efficient, more effective, uh, which is a slow process because there's some things out there that don't work so well right now with AI.

Um, but two is we are a firm believer that uh if your job is to try to affect positive change uh in the population you're serving, uh that relationship is a big big key factor in that.

And so we're making sure we don't take our eyes off that uh that fact that we want to build that relationship with our clients, and that's a big piece of it.

Chair recognizes member Caliendo.

Hi, thank you.

Can you briefly address the conflict of interest you noted in your application?

I think the conflict of interest you may be referring to is um that I'm the CEO of AHN, and that my mother Cher Rice is also a board member of HN.

Um and we deal with that that any issues that relate to uh operating uh the organization's a CEO for me, she is excluded from those conversations, so she's not uh a voting member at that point in time, she has to recuse yourself from those conversations.

And just a quick follow-up in the 990 that was available, Sherry was receiving income from the organization.

Was that as a board member, or was it during a transition year from her time as the CEO?

That was during transition as a contractor that was set up uh by the board chair Don Coitz.

Um, I was outside of that conversation, uh, and that was a support system to go from because she was the founder, she was there for 18 years.

So to transition from her to me, they felt it was best to have her as a support system in the back end, and that was the agreement that they they come up with.

I was outside of that conversation as well.

Chair recognizes member Prattle.

Hello, um just in broad strokes in general, uh, some most of the applications we see we've seen for the program for the last several years have sort of like a resource intensive housing component with a lighter case management component.

If you could just summarize it for that, this seems to be kind of reverse, so can you maybe speak to that?

There's like a small amount of housing assistant versus a large amount of uh as mentioned like case managers, dietitians, etc.

And so is it that a small percentage of clients are gonna require housing assistance, or what's the relationship to the housing assistance versus the actual program?

Yeah, so when we first applied for HOPWA, we were looking at the supportive service side.

Um we have been doing case management for clients with HIV for 15 years, and so we saw that we could utilize that service to be able to expand our case management and help them with housing because housing is such a big need.

So we are now looking at um putting in services for Stromie.

This would be our first year if we do get funded so that we can help with utility assistance.

Um, but the need of the case management was so that we can help people be able to subtain stable housing and really dive into the need.

Um we've noticed that with our clients in order to build that trust and get the accurate information from them.

They needed that case manager that they really felt comfortable with because they weren't weren't filling out the acuity tools correctly, they weren't giving us all the information and having that one-on-one case manager that they were able to build that trust with and work with their doctors was something that we were able to look at and start with the Hopper program, and now that we've been with the Hopper for a while, now we're looking at getting into more of the housing side of it.

All righty, thank you very much.

Right on the time, right on time.

Appreciate you very much.

Okay, with that, and with the members' permission, we have uh completed um our presentations for HAPWA.

I'd like to take a break, and I got you eight minutes extra.

You're welcome.

So I will uh gavel us out, and we will return at two fifty.

This is Chair Miller.

I am gaveling us back in directly at two fifty, so we can stay on schedule, and we appreciate you coming today, and we also appreciate your time.

So I know you would appreciate us being on time.

Before we move on to agenda item eight, I'd like to announce for the record, we had two withdrawals board members.

Um, just to remind you, schedule for tomorrow, Tuesday, the tenth, uh, we had a withdrawal for the Jewish Family Service Agency emergency services, has withdrawn, and that's for uh February tenth, and then on February eleventh, and this is in the category of uh CDBRBG funds.

And on Wednesday, the eleventh withdrawal is Sunrise Children's Foundation.

Home instruction for parents of preschool uh youngsters have withdrawn.

So I wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to put that on the record, and that was known.

Um, and that is for one for each, one for Tuesday and one for Wednesday.

So we will move on to agenda item number eight.

Presentations regarding application for community development block grant C D B G funds for fiscal year twenty twenty-six to twenty twenty-seven and twenty twenty-seven to twenty twenty-eight, submitted by CPLC Chicanos Port of La Casa, Nevada, CPL Homeless Services, Community Counseling Center, Pathways to Stability, Behavioral Health and Housing Resilience Initiative, FDV Fuente de Vida Wellness Center, FDV Wellness Center, the Just One Project, Youth Case Management, Access to Health Care Pearls, Programs to Encourage Active Rewarding Lives for Seniors, Evidence Based Senior Health and Independence Program, Tech Impact Pathway to Middle Skills Careers in Technology, Unhakable Empower to Employ.

Tech Impact, Pathway to Middle Skills Careers in Technology, Unshakable Empower to Employ.

Again, we will remind everyone that when you come to make your presentation when we call you, you have five minutes to make your presentation, opening up the floor for five minutes for board members to ask questions.

I will give you the one finger symbol.

So you have one minute left in your presentation.

We appreciate you being here.

And at this time, I would like to call forward CPLC, Chicano Sport La Casa Nevada.

Again, remember, please state your name before you speak for the record.

We appreciate your time.

Good afternoon again.

My name is Tyson Knutson.

I'm the director of social services and education for CPLC Nevada.

I'm Tara Berry, financial analyst for CPLC Nevada.

Hello, my name is Carla Banda, and I'm the program manager for the Support of Housing Services.

As stated earlier, our agency in general has been around since 1968.

And we 1969.

We have been in Nevada and specifically Las Vegas for since 2010.

Under the Support of Housing Services, currently we have three different programs, which is our HOPA program, providing short-term rent mortgage utility assistance, permanent housing placement, and hotel services.

Under Ryan White Emergency Financial Assistance, we provide financial assistance that is mostly housing based to allow people living with HIV to maintain their housing.

We also run an operation home rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing services.

In the past, we've had additional housing services and housing grants, so we do have experience with housing.

The overall thing theme seems to be financial insecurity.

We understand the need that it's not just giving a household, a client, an individual, a check for your rent or a check for your utilities.

Our clients also need to learn financial literacy and financial budgeting.

And we want to provide a service that will help them maintain their current housing, permanent housing, obtain permanent housing, but that they get this financial literally literacy component added to it.

It is something that it's constant throughout all of the services that we've provided.

And unfortunately, it's a skill set that a lot of us never grew up with.

If you grow up without on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, financial literacy is not your top concern because money comes and money goes.

So when I have money and I get my tax my tax refund and I suddenly get this large amount of money, I'm like, whoo, I can finally get that bag or those shoes that I wanted because I don't have the skill set to think I can set this up so I can pay my rent for half a year and not have to worry.

I can put this in savings in case something happens.

That is not a concept that I grew up with.

And a lot of our clients are in the same thing.

Giving them this skill set, I think will prepare them and better enable them to understand why it's so important to have the savings or to want to spend your money wisely so that you are able to maintain housing and maintain or uptain permanent housing, which is so important.

And that would be the grant and the fill the funds that we're asking for to provide that type of service to clients.

And it's not a program that would be just for clients who are living with HIV.

This is something that would be open, as I said before, not only with these community partners, some that we have here, but even additional ones that we work with.

It's just a service that is desperately needed.

Thank you.

Alrighty, thank you very much.

I'll open up the floor for any question for any board member that may have for CPLC.

The chair recognizes Jones Zangaro.

Hi, this Barbara Jones Anguero.

Um, I'm just looking over your budget right now.

So, and I see uh 33,000 for a case manager and 10,000 for program director.

But you're talking about um homelessness and are these positions you already have.

Is there already other funding available for these?

If you don't receive the funding, will you be able to do it?

Are you looking for new positions?

This would be probably something that we will coordinate with either one of I would have to review our budgets to see if we could combine it with another um grant to get a full-time position.

This is for a half-time person, whether it is to pay for somebody that is currently there or somebody that we can combine.

Um we provide a very similar service, as I said, with our monthly budgets, but this is something that we want to expand uh and also encourage them to partner up with our credit counseling, which will enable them to increase their score, better their score so they're able to maybe purchase a home down the line or things like that, but just educate them on those components.

Uh the chair will recognize uh member Jackson and then Member Praddle.

Hi, um Jamie Jackson.

So uh in regard to the budget, you have down 25,000.

It says client materials and emergency one-time assistance.

Can you explain that for your on that budget item?

I believe we just listed it under materials.

What it is is we have a program that is with the credit counseling.

So if we do that, we'd have to pull the client's credit that is $50, it's a little less than $50 per client.

So if it's a household with two people, it would be $50 each.

We pull that credit and then they get financial counseling.

This is one that is specific to them increasing their credit score, which typically cannot happen in a six-month period.

It's usually six to nine months, and they work with them so they're able to pull their credit and see what they can do to increase that.

That's the materials that we are um talking about.

Okay, one more question.

Do you guys have a substance abuse component for for these individuals?

We have partnerships that we do.

Um we have uh we would you like to speak on the yeah?

This is Tyson Knutson.

So we do have partnerships with a number of organizations in town.

We specifically have a partnership with an organization called Foundation for Recovery, where any of our clients from any program we have are able to go in and get substance abuse um uh counseling and and we have partners with other types of of counseling as it's as is needed.

Member Prado.

I I think I had a similar line of questioning, so and so um directed to anyone here or maybe for some follow-up, but there appears to be uh uh to me a little bit of a confusion or conflation between the two presentations today.

So specific to the CDBG program for the $80,000 ask uh currently, which uh the the program prescription indicates we have about 75 clients specifically to this ask.

What is so even doing the math on the $50 credit checks?

That's that would be about four thousand dollars out of the twenty-five thousand.

So I'm just curious what was the intent of the emergency one-time assistance because I had a similar question.

I see the element around financial literacy, it's a different uh line item in the uh budget uh there.

So I'm just curious.

Are these two separate and distinct programs?

Who are the 75 clients that you're picturing here and what is how how could they receive one-time assistance beyond maybe a um credit report?

Is it meant to be some kind of substantial uh assistance that in them that would be sort of larger than $50?

Yes, it would.

The primary assistance would be to us uh allow them to maintain or obtain permitted housing, but it would also go beyond that and focus more on the housing problem solving program type mindset, which would be maybe what they need is something else.

What if what we have a client that is on the verge of homelessness because all they need is an uh a specific job card that they're unable to get, and that's what's causing it.

Maybe what they need is somebody who has fleet domestic violence and they're in a shelter and their skill set is seamstress and they had to leave their sewing machine behind, and you can buy them 150 or 200 sewing machine that will now get them to keep on making making money because that is what they do, and I know a lot of seamstresses that make a lot of money and they're able to maintain themselves with that job.

All right, so it would be that type of thing.

Thank you.

I know we ran out of time, but um, member uh freedman, do you have a question?

Um, yes, I can you just speak to um in the risk assessment, and you know that they've alluded to this that there that you are new to C D BG funding, but then it later says that you have a program manager who has three years of experience in C D B T funding.

So can you just kind of tell me about how the program is going to be managed?

I apologize.

I'm not familiar with that.

They may have been a typo.

Uh I have experience with multiple different grants, not specific to CDBG, at least not in this um job here.

We've done CDB, I've done CDBG grants when I've worked at previous, um, they've been more coalitions that I've worked at, and we've had those there, but we haven't had any of those here with CPLC.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All righty, so we've uh used all of our five minutes on both sides.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Uh next, we will call Community Counseling Center.

Again, just to repeat, please make sure you speak loudly.

Make sure that you say your name before you start speaking.

You'll have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for the board to ask questions.

I will give you the one minute mark when you get close to one minute out from your time.

And thank you and welcome back again.

Thank you back.

It's good to see you all again.

Uh my name is Aaron Almada.

I'm the deputy director at community counseling center.

And I'm Michelle Villardo, I'm the director of operations.

Uh CCC is requesting CDBG funding to implement the Pathways to Stability Program, which provides behavioral health treatment and stabilization services for City of Las Vegas residents who are experiencing or who are at imminent risk of homelessness due to untreated mental health or substance use conditions.

We are not requesting funding for rental assistance or housing subsidies.

We recognize that the city and our community partners already invest significantly in housing placement and housing assistance.

The gap we are addressing is what happens after someone receives housing or is attempting to avoid losing it.

A large portion of individuals who become homeless do not lose housing solely because of income.

They lose housing because of untreated depression, anxiety, trauma, serious mental illness, or substance use disorders that interfere with their employment, decision making, interpersonal functioning, and the ability to meet lease obligations.

Local homelessness data consistently shows a strong overlap between behavioral health conditions and homelessness in southern Nevada.

Without treatment, individually cycle repeatedly between housing, crisis, and homelessness, even when housing assistance is available to them.

Our program focuses on housing retention through behavioral health stabilization.

The funding the funding request supports one one and a half full-time equivalent staff consisting of one full-time licensed behavioral health clinician and one halftime case manager.

The clinician provides therapy, crisis intervention, relapse prevention, and functional skill building.

The case manager works directly with clients and community providers to address additional barriers that threaten housing stability, including coordination with housing programs, benefit access, appointment follow-through, and crisis planning.

Together, these roles allow us to intervene before eviction, support clients after housing placement, and stabilize individuals transitioning out of homelessness, incarceration, or treatment programs.

This integrated clinical and stabilization model is critical because housing programs cannot succeed when underlying behavioral health needs remain untreated.

CCC already functions as a referral partner for many agencies in the community.

We routinely receive clients from shelters, outreach teams, housing programs, hospitals, and community-based organizations when those programs encounter individuals whose mental health systems or substance use prevent them from maintaining stability.

Likewise, when our clients need housing resources, we refer them back to those partners.

These collaborations occur through ongoing coordination and warm handoffs rather than formal agreements, allowing rapid response to client needs.

We also anticipate participating in the future Campus for Hope project as a behavioral health resource once that project becomes fully operational.

Our goal is to ensure that whenever a housing or community partner encounters a client whose primary barrier to stability is their behavioral health, there is a place they can send that person immediately for treatment and stabilization.

The purpose of this request is prevention, broadly speaking.

It is significantly less costly and more effective to stabilize a resident before they lose housing than to rehouse them after they become homeless.

Behavioral health treatment reduces crisis service utilization, improves functioning, and increases the likelihood that individuals maintain employment relationships and housing.

Over our 36 years, CCC has demonstrated outcomes of success in providing these services.

Clients receiving treatment show reduced depression and anxiety symptoms, improve functioning and increased housing stability.

We track this data through our electronic health record system and quality improvement processes with treatment plans that are reviewed every 30 days and outcomes that are continuously monitored over time.

We are not duplicating services already funded by the city.

Housing providers place individuals into housing and administer rental assistance.

CCC provides the clinical treatment that allows those housing placements to succeed.

The program strengthens existing community investments by addressing the root causes that lead residents to lose housing in the first place.

In summary, this request funds the behavioral health component of a homelessness prevention project by treating mental health and substance use conditions that destabilize housing.

Our program Pathways to Stability supports vulnerable city of Las Vegas residents and remaining safely and stably housed and advances the city's goal of creating sustainable and livable communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, with that, I will open up the floor for any board members that has any uh questions for our community counseling center.

I will start with member Conyers, then followed by uh Member Marlin and then Member Pradle.

Hi, I wanted to know more about the treatment plan that you guys have in place to help people stabilize.

Hi, uh Michelle Villardo, director of operations.

Uh, we utilize the client-driven treatment planning process that begins at the time of assessment.

It involves both um ASAM goals and uh is conducted in conjunction with the client's needs.

So our clinician will walk them through their goals, um, how they're going to address those goals and the plan to follow through with that.

And then it is reviewed every 30 days by both the clinicians seeing the client and also supervisors.

So beyond 30 days, how long after that?

Like what's the typical time frame that you keep a current a certain client with you?

Well, it it is uh, like I said, client-driven, so it's based on the client need, but typically clients are with us on average 90 days, but often we have clients that are there for a year or longer based on what their needs are.

Um, we try to keep clients engaged in care as long as it's necessary, but we don't want to keep them actively engaged if they are ready to be able to leave treatment.

Um so it is based on client need, and as I said, it is reviewed every 30 days by their active clinician, but also by the supervising clinicians as well.

And then we have a follow-up program through our care coordinators where they follow up with clients after they've been discharged at uh 30 and 60 days post-discharge.

Thank you.

Member Marlin.

Thanks.

I'm gonna follow up because she had a similar question.

And again, I'm Dave Marlin.

Um I'm assuming you then are delivering level one outpatient care for these clients, uh, or are there other levels of care that you're providing?

Um again, Michelle Villardo.

We provide level one outpatient and level 2.1 intensive outpatient care as well as prevention services.

And do you have a prescriber or uh an integrated system to be able to treat them?

Yes, we partner with um multiple uh psychiatric hospitals and uh doctors as well.

She can tell you more about that.

Cool.

Unless you want to elaborate.

Hi, this is Aaron Almada.

I can elaborate.

Um, largely we work with Alliance Mental Health Services with Dr.

Suba and his team.

Um, and we've also worked uh somewhat with the vice practice.

Member Prado.

Hi, Member Prado.

Um, the volume of the request for the uh block grant are usually many orders of magnitude more than the um available.

So just I know you've from your budget can tell there's been some work around sustainability, two-thirds of the program appears to be from other sources and so on and so forth.

I'm just curious about scalability, meaning if the entire ask was not available and it was half, would you just do half the clients, or how would that work?

Um Michelle Villardo again.

Um we would go to our senior management team.

We would review exactly what it is we are capable of doing and also what other possibilities for funding there are out there to try to continue to expand the program.

However, um, we would start with probably what is currently available to us, which would be half.

We currently see many clients um through our internship program.

Um, so we would continue with that program, and this was to help um add to that program and expand, create more paid positions.

So thank you.

All right, I don't see any more questions from board members.

Thank you very much for your time.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, make you all.

Okay, at this time we'll call down uh FDV, Fuente de Vida, Wellness Center.

Again, you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes from questions from the board.

I will give you the one minute uh time limit limit as your presentation.

And please remember when you speak that you give your name.

And thank you for coming back again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Margarita Romano here, licensed clinical social worker, founder and clinical director of Fuente de Vida.

Um Stephanie Mapula again, the clinical director for FDV United Wellness.

Um we have a uh strong uh services and foundation on mental health services, um, including all types of different services and all types of different clients, different families, different diagnosis, different needs.

But one of the components that we we keep seeing when we encounter somebody with the homelessness is that exactly the need of that mental health support, exactly what the previous presentation said, not just for them to be housed, but also to help them stay house and do housing um the homelessness prevention again, because it it does cost more money once they lose it and then rehouse it and all that process that from the beginning being able to do all the prevention um treatment that they need the support to be able to do that, and also we found that a lot of that cultural um barriers.

I I believe that that's one of the most things that we do, we try to remove those barriers of by providing that cultural competency depending on on what is the situation and how can we serve the best and treat those clients with all the respect and dignity that they deserve to be able to to stay house and to receive the mental health treatment that they need.

Um another very important data is that we see the data of homelessness has raised significantly in in Las Vegas in in Nevada in the last few years, and the mental health keep increasing the numbers, so that's why we we really would like to help our organization.

Yes, as mentioned earlier in my earlier presentation, a lot of it is having the screening process for the client.

So not just only the mental health diagnosis, but the substance use and then the risk, right?

And so if they have no education as far as financial needs, right?

Most times they live with a family member or they're struggling within themselves and they never had that opportunity.

Our case managers provide that education.

Um, and and that's really what FDV is all about.

It's all well-rounded services, not just to the capacity of just mental health or SUD services, but all well-rounded.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'll get that button yet.

I'll open up the floor to any board members that may have questions for FDV.

I will start with Member Burks and then Member Jackson.

Hi, Linda Burks.

Um, looking at your budget, you listed computers and software for 40,000.

Are you doing a whole new computer system?

So it's not for equipment, and I think the the category needed to be maybe labeled from our part a little bit better, but it's more for training.

So as far as like case management, we would have a whole component as far as training as far as like financial needs, but how to get an employment, how to stay employed, and just assessing risk for each client.

So it would be for that.

As well as uh Margarita Romano here, as well as that um budget literacy of like housing first, like teaching that client how to pay for your rent first or your portion of the rent or whatever you need, and then other things.

Member Jackson and then Member Prado.

So a similar question to your to when you came before upon the board.

How are you addressing the issues that are indicated in the risk assessment?

Because you got a medium risk assessment, and I want to know.

Are you going to how are you gonna manage those?

Um, in terms of you mean well, the city evaluates you first and gives you an assessment.

Did you guys look at that?

Yes.

Oh, yes, yes.

Okay, so are you going?

How will you be addressing those issues?

Yes, absolutely.

By having that uh third party also, you know, doing the internal audits.

Is that what yeah?

I think this is the first time we get if we get the opportunities for this funding, right?

So all of this is new material, but as far as what's not new as the services that are are being provided.

So mental health, substance case management, and all those well-rounded services.

So to eliminate the that where we were graded at is improving those areas.

Thank you.

Okay, Member Prado just had his microphone on.

Uh the chair recognizes Member Freeman.

Hello, thank you.

Um I I think it's um some of the additional concerns on the previous um presentation is with without the funding on on both levels.

Uh kind of explain how your organization is going to be able to sustain if you don't receive the funding.

That's a great question.

We actually do already.

So we actually take all clients, whether they're insured or not.

So whether it's pro bonus services, we have we were there's no waiting list.

So we currently have every single client come in the same day, get assessed and get started with treatment.

We have a strong relationship with other organizations as well.

Um for the client, we are also um you know, Medicaid uh providers.

So for the ones that do have Medicaid, we do provide the individual sessions, groups, or any services that they need on the mental health.

Um we're needing that support is more on that case management that at the moment we do it already in a pro bono basis with master level students, um, as well as provide collaboration with different universities on how to teach the future therapies how to do case management first.

So to kind of just follow up on that, because it does it does say in your risk assessment that the the revenue for 2024 is minimal.

So are you are you really um looking at applying for these funds to bulk up the organizational structure so that you can manage government funds in the future?

Right.

At the moment, we've been um in the transition from the the organization that started has been kind of um what's the word I'm looking um financially supporting FDV wellness, uh, but we're in the process of becoming more independent as well by increasing you know more providers and more services.

And I'm sorry, I don't mean to take up very much time, but can explain to me um if with limited CBG experience, who on your staff is going to be managing the grant funds and the compliance portions of it.

Uh with Stephanie here, I would be overseeing that piece.

So currently most of the financial you're not seeing in FDV wellness is because the original organizations went to the Vita.

They're doing business as is why you're missing that lack of financial piece that I think you're looking at.

But I would be overseeing the grant related work.

Thank you.

Of course.

Okay, member, we have about three seconds left or four seconds left.

Member uh uh Jones did your question get answered.

Yeah, I was just I think what everybody is concerned about is do you have an accountant?

Who's gonna take care of your financials?

All of these grants come with massive paperwork and requirements and who's gonna take care of that.

That's a lot of work for someone who hasn't done it before.

So, you know, I I'm sure all of us are concerned about how's that gonna, you know.

Yes, we that's a lot of work for you.

Yes, and thank you for recognizing it is a lot of work.

So uh I'm not gonna do this alone.

We have people if if you guys provide us that opportunity, we will have uh, you know, the CPA and because we're not just applying for this grant, we're applying for multiple different sources because we want to be long-term sustainable.

All righty, thank you so much for your presentation.

We appreciate your time.

Next, we'd like to call up the Just One project, please.

Again, you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for questions from the board.

When you get to one minute, I'll give you the one minute sign left in your presentation.

Please make sure that when you speak, you give your name for the record and welcome back.

Awesome.

Um hello again.

Um, my name is Tristan Hightower Skidmore, and I'm the senior executive director of revenue at the Just One Project.

Hi, I'm Becky Barrero, the program director.

Um, so we're here requesting funding to support our youth case management program.

So the youth case management program is one of our newest initiatives.

It was formally launched in January of 2025.

Um, but its history is also a little bit longer organization.

Um so we had a previous program known as Leadership Academy that ran from on the spring of 2022 to December 31st, 2024.

Leadership Academy was a 90-day full-time curriculum where at risk transition aged youth would come to the Just One Project, do basically a school day with a set curriculum, and they would learn about mental health, financial literacy, workforce development, education, opportunities for civic engagement, just really the whole gamut to try to help folks transition to self-sufficiency.

What we were finding in 2024, although a lot of clients did have positive outcomes, is that we were continually getting referrals for youth whose needs would not have been addressed with a set curriculum in a one-size-fits-all kind of way, or who needed more than 90 days to address the needs that they were encountering.

So to that end, in January 2025, we transitioned leadership academy into our youth case management program, which really emphasizes this one-on-one intensive case management that's personalized to the individual youth client.

When a youth visits the Just One Project for the first time for youth case management, they meet with the youth case manager and they do an intake assessment.

They look at what are your current emergencies?

Do you have food and housing right now?

What are the medium-term goals and barriers?

So could you get a job if you had your identification and is that something we can mitigate?

And then they also look at long-term goals like where do you see yourself and what would help you be fully self-sufficient and sustainable long term as an adult.

All this information is taken by the youth case manager and the youth, and they create what we call a stabilization plan.

The stabilization plan can be different depending on the youth's needs.

It can be realistically one-time assistance, such as one-time barrier mitigation, and then the youth can continue their path towards self-sufficiency.

Or it could be a multi-tier sort of plan where you look at what are your emergency stabilizations that are needed right now, and then how can we get you into more sustainable housing or a job for a longer term goal?

Youth are encouraged while they're in the program.

I encourage they're required to touch base with their case manager at least once per month, and they're encouraged to follow up more frequently as they need.

Progress towards stated goals is documented in HMIS and their case plan.

And youth are exited from the program once they have met their program goals, they have no more barriers, and they're can certify that they're moving into a position where they're stable and self-sufficient.

Funding requested from CDBG is to support a portion of the youth case manager, as well as these barrier mitigation services that we really are continue seeing in youth that are coming to us for assistance, such as identification workforce support, both with certifications but also clothing, because sometimes the barrier can be closed-toed shoes and black pants to get a job.

Thank you.

I'll take any questions.

Thank you.

With that, I'll open up the floor for any board members that may have a question.

And the chair recognizes Joan, Miss Member Jones Segaro.

Hi, it's Barbara.

Jones and Giro.

I'm wondering where do you find most of your youth come from?

Is it out of the foster aging out of the foster program?

Or is it just homeless kids?

So we have a long-term partnership with the Las Vegas Metro Dream Program.

So we get a lot of referrals from folks that are graduating from Dream but still need more help to make sure that they're self-sufficient and stable long term.

We also get self-referrals, so some you know youth contact us because they realize they have an emergency and they need that assistance, and we also get referrals from community partners like NPHY or other housing providers.

Chair recognizes Member Kelly Endel.

Hi, thank you.

Allie Calliando, um, you describe that the evidence-based practice that this program is supported by is housing first.

Um can you explain how this program works together with your housing stability program so that it connects for me?

So this program, uh, youth case management, it provides case management to a specific population, but works with also our other housing programs and other supportive services programs to make sure that youth are connected.

So if a youth comes to us, we first look at do they have stable housing?

Um is that they're you know where they currently are, or do they need to be placed in an other housing arrangements?

We have a shared housing program that's been really successful for a lot of these youth.

So we've had a lot of success for that, and really just making sure that uh folks are housed first for stability and have food and their other basic needs are met, and then we can look towards long-term goals.

Member Jackson.

Hi, Jamie Jackson.

Um you uh indicate you use volunteers, and I commend you for that.

Um so in what capacity do you use volunteers?

So the Just One Project has a lot of volunteers.

Um realistically, most of our volunteers are um consolidated in our food programs as opposed to direct case management just for confidentiality, but we do try to provide youth that are in need of food with food assistance.

So we'd be looking at volunteers helping our staff to create food boxes to help with move-in assistance if they're moving in, or to make sure just that youth have access to all of our food services if they're in need of them.

Member Pradle.

Yeah, uh so this is a uh, if I'm following here, uh program that started in January, so it's new to C DVHG, but you've been doing it uh January of 2025.

Apologies.

So we at the time that this was submitted, maybe not not a full year.

Can you just let us know how it's going?

So the first year went well, but we were able to serve limited clients because we are doing this new program service, so it was single source funded.

So we had good outcomes.

We served about 30 youth, but we're looking at this funding with doubling that to serve 60 youth, with 50% of them being city of Las Vegas C BG qualifying youth.

All right, seeing no further questions.

Thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

Next, we like to call access to health care.

Thank you, welcome back.

Remember, you have five minutes to do your presentation.

And five minutes for the board to ask questions.

Um, your presentation.

I will give you the one-minute warning.

When it's time, thank you again.

Uh, thank you.

Uh Trevor Rice, again, CEO Access to Healthcare Network.

Um, it's an honor to pleasure to be here today to talk to you about our proposal for CDBG, uh, which is to create a senior depression isolation program.

Um, shortly called Pearls.

Um, so access, we are statewide nonprofit.

We serve about 25,000 people every year across the entire state through a myriad of services and programs that all are designed to address uh the clinical and social terms of health.

Uh, real quick, one division of care which is instrumental to this program is called our senior services division, access senior services.

In operation since 2010, every single year it serves about 6,000 seniors, most vulnerable seniors in our community every single year, focusing on what's called aging in place, which is being able to age in your home and avoid long-term care uh placement, but doing this for about 15 years now.

Uh that's done through social service coordination, food housing, transportation, clinical services, uh, intensive level case management, uh, including home visits and dementia care acute crisis programming in partnership with hospital health systems and first responders.

And lastly, medication assistance in partnership with Nevada Agent Disability Services Division.

Uh, this is what our uh Pearls program will be embedded into is the senior services division.

So Pearls, what is it?

It's an evidence-based program uh that has been um uh uh created by the University of Washington and is recognized by both the NIH and the CDC as being evidence-based and impactful on improving um depression outcomes for vulnerable seniors.

Uh the population that we'd be looking to serve that this program serves, again, that was created by the University of Washington is seniors with mild to moderate depression uh that also uh potentially suffer from social isolization.

So this isn't for folks who have major forms of depression uh and need access to that level of clinical services and care.

Um the program is staffed by CHWs or LSWs, uh either one and LCSWs, that clinical oversight uh perspective part of it.

And it's all about re-engaging these seniors back in the community.

One to uh tackle that issue of social isolation, but two also to have that impact upon depression.

Um, and then also to uh strategically manage uh help that individual to manage their depression by providing them with tools, um, education and supportive counseling to help them be able to take that on their own, uh help them manage their depression on their own.

Um, and of course, then there's uh clinical behavioral services such as PHQ9s that are CHWs uh are able to offer, and then in conjunction with the LCSW to find if this person is needed in a higher level of care.

This is not meant to take someone again who has a higher level of depression, right?

We can refer those people out to appropriate clinical sites.

Those are folks with mild to moderate depression uh who are targeted this program.

Uh impact.

Um, as evidenced by uh the research uh about this program is that it is able to uh provide significantly improved um outcomes for depression in about 70% of the population that is served, which is very significant, so that's huge.

That's huge.

It improves participant quality of life, so not just to lower depression symptoms, but actually improve their quality of life, again, re-engage them back in the community, uh look at socialization.

Um it improves participant independence, which is a big piece of what we try to do again, is to help seniors age in place, stay in their home, right?

That's the whole point and purpose of what we do is to keep them inside their home.

And if you do that, you can uh lower health care costs across the system, um, primarily mainly by reducing unnecessary ER and inpatient emission utilizations.

This is proven, it's effective, it does work.

Um, and of course, then lower long-term health care costs because if you keep someone in their home, they age in place, you avoid long-term care and all the costs associated downstream with that whole issue.

So that's the impact that has been shown to happen in communities where they uh um uh place this program, such as Washer County and other places across the country in what we expect to happen here as well.

And then community collaboration um is we've been doing this uh now for about 20 years at Access Healthcare Network, and we believe a big part of our success has always been that we don't do this alone, is we understand that to have a true impact in your community, you'll have to do this with collaborators, uh community partners.

Uh it'll be no different here.

So, one, Washoe County, uh, they've been doing the Pearl's program uh up north for about five years now, um, and they have graciously offered to provide us with technical assistance to teach us um how they implemented this program.

We'll go to University Washington, they will teach us the program, they'll give us a box, basically a kit.

Washa County will say this is how we implement it and provide technical assistance over time for this program.

Uh with providers such as Nobital Health Centers, we've been in partnership with them for about 18 years now in various services, uh, UMC, um, uh UNLV, so on and so forth to provide uh referral to the program, clinical care coordination, health insurers such as Ambetter and Wellcare, who will act as a referral source, service coordination and program sustainability as well, is is our hope.

That's our goal.

And then, of course, community-based organizations who will tackle uh the social service aspect of this in the community.

Um, and then leadership.

Um, so our senior service division.

It's been an operation again for 15 years.

Uh, this program will be embedded into that division.

And the leadership team, including myself and the division director, have 50 years of experience working in nonprofits and implementing and managing programs across the board, which includes management of 300 million dollars in federal uh uh federal dollars.

All right.

There you go.

And we have a perfect audit.

You made it to the belt.

Thank you very much.

I'm gonna open the floor up to board members that uh may have questions.

Uh member Caliendo.

Thank you.

Ally Calliendo.

Um, so you're bringing in an evidence-based program, which means your team will need to go to University of Washington to be trained, and then Washo is managing the fidelity.

What's the time frame once, let's say these funds are awarded to when you're able to actually implement on the ground for clients here?

Uh good question.

Uh though one is Washoe County will not be doing fidelity.

We will take that on, they will teach us how they did it.

Um, but I'm going to guess probably about two to three months uh between having to hire a staff person, which we may have someone in house to do that already, um, and then it's going to get the training from University Washington.

Um, I'm have already started conversations with Washoe County right now to get ahead of the curve.

So this won't be, you know, you say we get funded, and all of a sudden we have to start day one, is we're already working on this right now.

Uh member Conyers.

Hi, so based off of your the different programs that you have, you're trying to help seniors stay in place.

And if the senior has dementia or they have they're isolated.

How does that work if they are in place, aging in place in their house, and if they live alone, and with all of the other aspects of home management, like do you guys help them with like changing light bulbs or if their AC goes out in the summer?

Like how does that all work?

Sure.

Um, so for this program in particular, no, we would not be actually in the house changing the light bulbs or fixing the the heater or the ACE units.

Um, is what we what we do is we uh form relationships and partnerships with other entities that can do these kinds of things and have the funding to do those kinds of things, right?

We act as a basis of quarterback as a coordinator for those kinds of services.

In this one, um, our focus and our purpose beyond our senior service division, again, would be to tackle uh the depression aspects of aging in place.

So that's what these uh um employees would be trained to do is tackle that piece of it and refer into our own network of senior services for anything else they might need, whether it's housing support, food support, transportation support, and then refer back out in the community at large to tackle those issues that we just don't do ourselves.

Again, it's a team effort to make this happen.

As far as um so for any of the one that's like aging in place, they have dementia and they're isolated, you defer them out.

So are you able to track if they are being helped and serve in the way that they need?

Uh outside our four walls, yes.

And one clarification: this program isn't targeted as someone who has dementia.

That would not be a viable participant for this program.

They need a higher level of care than what this program could deliver.

Um but in general, yes, our database system allows us to track both internally quality measures, outcome measures, but also then track referrals on the community to see where they're at with those steps too, because uh, as far as program success, if we don't know what's happening outside of four walls, um then it doesn't work very well.

That's the coordination of a clinical and socioeconomic treatment plan requires that kind of information.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Member Joan Segaro.

Uh just just quick uh couple comments here.

Um I do notice a lot of more homeless senior citizens out on the streets.

Um it sounds like you guys are trying to do preventative care for them so that they don't become homeless.

Um, and then I see a line item for rent and occupancy cost.

So, do you actually help with rental assistance, or is it solely a mental program that you're working with here?

Um good question.

So the rents and occupancy is actually for our own staff for our building.

Um, and again, this is meant to tackle folks who are socially isolated, mild amount of depression, uh, who are not yet homeless, but to try to keep them inside their house and age in place to prevent that from happening.

Um, this program is not designed, uh it doesn't have the capabilities to go after someone who is currently already homeless in place that requires a lot more resources than what we've designed to bring to bear on this program.

Okay, quickly, member Prado and then member Calliendo as we close out.

Kind of two quick questions.

One is just understanding the client number 70 across all jurisdictions and 70 C D GB is that because the portion that the C D BG is meant to fund is 70 clients, and it's a larger client number with the other sources of funds.

It looks like about 400,000 from uh other sources and 128,000 being requested from C D BG.

And then similar question earlier the requests are sometimes so much larger than the the sources.

So is it scalable somehow if the uh if we're not if not able to fund the whole amount, what's the impact?

Um yeah, first question.

That 70 is a conservative estimate is how many people we believe we can serve through this program given all sources of funding.

Um, and that's based upon uh what was told to us by both uh University of Washington and Washoe County.

Wanted to be a bit conservative.

We can go higher potentially, but wanted to have a number that we can actually hit.

Um, two is scalability.

I believe so for a couple reasons.

One is um we are a very large organization, uh, which means that if we don't get all the funding here to support this, then I can pull from potential other sources and also use our own admin dollars and also potentially get funding from the health insurance companies to make up the difference.

So I believe so, yes.

Okay.

Member Caliendo, I mean, is there member Jackson?

My little Jackson quickly because we're out of time.

I think I think my question, I medi can you uh access Medicare dollars and Medicaid dollars?

Uh yes, vicariously, if we prove the effectiveness of this program in this community, I believe so, yes.

All righty, thank you so much for your presentation.

I appreciate it.

All righty.

Next up, we have Tech Impact.

Thank you.

Just a reminder, you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for questions from the board.

I will give you the one-minute warning when you're getting towards your five minutes.

Please make sure you speak loudly and when you speak, um, please make sure you give your name for the record.

Thank you and welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Heidi Urpling Welch.

I'm the chief program officer at Tech Impact.

Hi, my name is Amy Starling.

I am the workforce development program manager.

Uh thank you for having us today.

We appreciate this time with you all.

Uh Tech Impact is a nonprofit that serves in three main areas.

Uh, first area of operation is within capacity building for other nonprofits.

So we are the IT support desk for about 400 nonprofits around the country.

Second pillar is around data and innovation for nonprofits and government entities, and then the third pillar is really around workforce development, and that's what this proposal is addressing.

Uh the proposal that you have in front of you is for the pathway to middle skill, which is our IT works program followed by additional training for our alumni.

The IT works program is a 16-week program, 11 weeks of instruction, five weeks of paid internship for individuals who are 18 to 26 years old without a college degree.

Um, within that 11 weeks of instruction, 80% of the curriculum is IT-based.

The other 20% of the curriculum is the skill sets that are necessary to be successful in the workplace.

So those are things like leadership, communication, uh, professionalism, resume writing, things like that, and they are done by partner organizations for our employer partners.

So the employer partners actually bring our students in-house to learn those additional professional development skills.

After the 11 weeks' worth of instruction, all the students will be sitting for certification exams.

These certification exams are nationally recognized.

They every single student will have the Cisco IT essentials certification, modern AI essentials certification, and every single student will sit for the comp TA plus, which is the entry-level IT certification.

The thing that is most impressive about the program is the outcomes of the program, though.

90% of the students will complete the program and is typically much higher than that.

And last year we had 86% of our students in an IT position within six months.

After that, in 2024, we recognize that entry-level IT positions really are not family sustaining wages any longer.

So we launched what we call the pathway to IT or middle skills.

And within that, we have additional training for students who've been out of the program for at least a year.

So after you've been in the field for a year, we bring you back and we help with network skills and cybersecurity skills.

So there's our more advanced skills that will get them to much higher salaries.

And after the pilot of that, we've seen really great success with individuals seeing between 16 and 21% salary increase within 12 months of completing those programs.

Each of these programs are free to all of the students.

So we're typically serving low to modern income individuals, obviously, but there's no cost to the student.

We collect we connect them to different employers, connect them to volunteers.

Every single student has a mentor who's one-on-one with them.

And then we we provide additional support for those students if they have any barriers to completion.

So if there's any barriers to completion, such as professional clothing, transportation issues, child care issues, things like that.

We either secure those for them or we refer them out to other nonprofits.

So there's a huge community partnership to ensure that our students are successful.

And I open the floor to any questions.

Alrighty, thank you very much.

I will open the floor up for any board member to ask questions.

The chair recognizes uh member Hadad Bennett.

Thank you.

Hi, uh, thanks so much for your presentation.

Um, you were talking about the sort of the middle skills component where you're bringing folks in that have completed the 1.0 course a year prior.

Um, can you talk a little bit about the connection with those students in that period of time when they are employed and that you're trying to sort of reignite the relationship with them?

Of course, we don't have to reignite it, they'd never leave.

We the students all come back and volunteer, they continue to support the students that are coming through the program.

Um so our students are very engaged throughout the entire process, um, and they continue to stay in contact with us with no problems.

We actually had 112 applications for our alumni programs, and we only had 18 spots in those.

Um, so there's a lot of demand and a lot of support from our students, um, and we don't have to do a lot to recruit for them because it is no cost to those students, and they typically can't afford to continue their own education on their own.

All right.

See no other questions from the board.

I'm not seeing a green light.

All right, thank you very much for your presentation.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

All righty.

And now we'll call forward unshakable.

Please remember you have five minutes for your presentation, five minutes for questions.

I will give you the cue that you are at one minute left in your presentation.

Please make sure that you speak.

Um you give your name before you speak.

And thank you and welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Laura McAllister is our program director, and Kat Handels are of our financial Unshakable is a nonprofit that serves women recovering from trauma.

We identify that as homelessness, substance use disorder, domestic and sexual violence, and human trafficking.

And we focus on uh helping our clients return to the workforce, and not just for a JOB, but for really identifying careers, and um we're really focused on creating new opportunities for uh women that have maybe never been exposed to different jobs, so uh not necessarily certification jobs that we do that too, but you know, we like to get creative about it and uh introduce the women through our Empower to Employee program to careers such as a floral assistant or um Hawk Wrangler or working in an aquarium or a planetarium.

So maybe you don't need a four-year degree, and they've never had the opportunity, but our goal is to help uh the women identify the career they want and not really select a career based on our funding or grants.

And our program is three phases.

Uh, the first phase is our I am series, and I'll have Lauren speak to that.

Yeah, our AM series is a selection of about eight to twelve workshops that are all focused on business acculturation where we teach developing your personal brand, interview skills, financial literacy.

And all of our classes are taught by volunteer faculty who are business professionals in their field that are actually doing the work that they talk about every day.

And then our next phase is our career coaching.

So we always say therapy will have you looking back.

Coaching is about moving forward, and that's what this program is.

Like for us, their clients' past doesn't define them, but we believe that men and women face different barriers in recovery.

And so we are a direct services in addressing those barriers.

So we offer some rental assistance, we offer clothing, we work with a food pantry, we pay for vital docs, really anything that's going to help.

What we like to say is women become moms, sisters, aunts, uh, and daughters again.

All right, thank you.

Excuse me, pardon me.

Um I will open the floor for any questions for any board members that may have for unshakeable.

The chair recognizes Joan uh member Jones Sangaro.

Hi, uh Barbara Jones and Gero.

As a woman in a male dominated industry, I work in a casino in poker.

Um I understand some of the things that the women face.

My question is first of all, where do you get your clients from?

Um I know there's a lot of trafficked women who are out on the street.

There's also the shade tree who domestic abuse.

Uh do you partner with those organizations?

Yeah, forgive me, I should have mentioned that.

Uh, what makes Unshakable unique is that we don't charge other nonprofits for our program, so we are partnered with uh Safenest and Safe House and Foundation for Recovery and Westcare and C C D C and the City of Las Vegas municipal courts.

So we are bringing our empower to employ program to other nonprofits.

So when you work with us, we're really serving the community that way.

And now the question I have for you is as a woman who has been battered or trafficked, uh what their special needs to get them back into the workforce.

So how do you deal with yeah?

The program was designed with a trauma-informed specialist, and so that is the one area that we are intentional about outsourcing is mental health resources, and we have multiple partners, but we're really uh critically focused on taking a business approach and helping the women uh know how to go to work to continue to work, like stay at work.

It's not just about getting the job, but it really is about keeping that first employment and then moving them through that and giving them skills throughout the day to so that somewhere between nine and twelve months, we're looking at a second opportunity for them to advance their career.

All right, seeing no further questions.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

We appreciate your time.

Thank you all very much.

All right, we are moving on to the ninth level of our agenda.

The citizens' participation section.

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 the subject is on the agenda and is a scheduled uh for action.

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

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

Seeing no public comment, I will entertain a motion for us to adjourn for our first day.

So moved.

I second.

It has been moved and seconded, and I believe I broke my record.

Nine minutes.

We stand adjourned.