The Business of Giving

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You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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People live in Hello everyone and welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And our chamber brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. The show the business of giving is all about highlighting that synergy the value of two pillars of the community for profit businesses as well as nonprofit businesses, and we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com If you want to learn more about what we do. This valuable show is made possible through the generosity of our series sponsor solar up an energy solution and conservation company specializing in solar and battery storage systems, including solar panels. To learn more about them, visit Seoul up.com. And as I've been mentioning, over the last couple of weeks, we're going to be having Seoul up in the studio in the coming weeks. They are going to be coming in with Nevada Conservation League and it's going to be an excellent show that will air on December the third will continue to give you updates about this exciting show again, we greatly appreciate having sold up as a partner of our show. We had an excellent give back event a couple of days ago over at opportunity village it was on Sunday they had their whole Halloween hot exhibit. It was just so much fun. I was talking with some of our fellow members who were there participating we went and did a volunteer spot there. Again just had a great time about how many years that this has existed and how much value opportunity village is bringing to the community with events like these and it was just a great way lots of kids lots of candy thoroughly enjoyed the event out there at opportunity village, the Halloween actually H O L L O V E N is the title of the event that they do out there. So what I would encourage anyone if you want a great place to take your children during the upcoming Halloween holiday take them out to opportunity village. Maria Perez will not be a part of this broadcast today. However, as usual, she has been booked an outstanding guest we are going to have a nonprofit organization that is doing a lot for the community as so many are. It will be Kelly Christo. She's the Executive Director of Project 150 Kelly, welcome to the business of giving podcast.

Unknown Speaker 3:16
Hey, thanks for having me.

Unknown Speaker 3:18
Project 150 is an organization as I had mentioned before that is helping didn't actually get into the way that you help the community will you give us an overview of the services you provide?

Unknown Speaker 3:32
Of course. So project 150 provides basic necessities to homeless displaced disadvantaged high school students here in Nevada. And we've been doing that for 12 years. So anything from food, clothing, school supplies, hygiene products, whatever a student may need, that posing a barrier to their education, we step in, we provide those for free just using their student ID and we partner with all 75 local high schools here in Southern Nevada.

Unknown Speaker 4:03
And homelessness among teens is a topic that has become very prominent in recent years. Kelly why why do you think that the advocacy of making sure that children particularly as you mentioned a lot of high school kids are not homeless? Why? Why has this become a topic that is is so popular and talked about so much?

Unknown Speaker 4:23
Well, I think just homelessness in general is a you know, topics that we've all talked about and found ways to try to bridge the gap and help but you know, when you're talking about a teenager and a high school student you're talking 1314 1516 years old, you know it's awfully young to be making decisions on your own with no parents or guardian you know for your welfare your well being so you know, that's definitely a topic of concern for us as a community to find ways to support students that are experiencing you know, homelessness are unsheltered through no fault of their own. You know, like I said, these are these are young people people that can barely navigate day to day living. Imagine just being out there on the street not knowing where your food or your meals are coming from, and then tackle education on top of that, you know, got a responsibility to go to high school and get an education. But how do you focus on your education when you're hungry? Or you have no clothes or no shelter? Those are all struggles.

Unknown Speaker 5:20
Right? Yeah, just being a homeless person as an adult, it I would imagine would be a very challenging thing. But as you mentioned, before, there's the whole other element of being a child and not even being able to make a living, not even really knowing how to fend for yourself at all. And being for whatever circumstances right, I'm sure there are lots of different circumstances that cause a teen to be put in a position like that. But I think people really empathize more, even more with a very young person being put in a position like that.

Unknown Speaker 5:52
Right? I mean, when you look at the community, and you look at homelessness as an adult, you know, you wonder, you know, is it job loss is it you know, something addiction or something that contributes to their homelessness, and they can make a decision to help themselves or know how to navigate the system to get support and help. But when you talk about a child, it's fresh to them. They don't know what resources are out there, they don't even understand, you know, how the impact is going to affect the rest of their life. I mean, as an adult, they're going to remember when their child you know, as a child, they struggled having food and shelter and things like that. And what does that do for mental health as an adult? You know?

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Yes, it's just so great that there's an organization like yours. And as you're pursuing your mission, which is, obviously to help young people to be able to navigate some of the challenges that come with being being homeless and being a young person, how do you how do you go about that?

Unknown Speaker 6:50
So we do whatever we possibly can we have, you know, cute boutiques where the students can come and pick out 10 outfits for free every month, they get full size hygiene products, they get school supplies, they whatever they need, that they that will help them to be successful in the classroom, then when they're away from the classroom, because so many students that are experiencing, you know, homelessness or displacement, there's an issue with, you know, what do we do over the weekend when we're not at school and have access to food. So we do family meal bags, where there's non perishable food that will hold them over, you know, till they return back to the classroom, we also do things for the family where, you know, holiday meals are critical to a lot of families can't afford to have a big grand holiday meal. So we step in, and we provide those for the students and their families that are in need. I mean, whatever we could do to relieve some of the burden off of the family, whether that's a financial hardship, I mean, you know, the cost of living today is very expensive, and they have to choose between paying for rent or food or buying new shoes for their kids. We don't want anyone to struggle to have to do that. So that's what we're here for. And we have such an amazing support system in the community that offers to back our mission and help us do that. So we are able to make such a great impact here with helping over 7000 kids a year here in Southern Nevada,

Unknown Speaker 8:11
the social impact of of homelessness is so broad, as you had talked about before Kelly, and I think the family aspect that you just talked about the the way that you come in to to help the overall family situation is also a very critical element to to understand is that these kids are homeless, but it's not always a matter of their parents kicked them out. I think a lot of times when we think of homeless teens, maybe that's how we perceive that the situation is, but there can be so many situations, situations, right, Kelly, that could cause a family not to be together and for one of these teenagers to become homeless?

Unknown Speaker 8:52
Well, yeah, it's not always, you know, it's easy as mom dad kicked out their child and the kids on the street. I mean, there are other circumstances that surround the youth for you know, being on the street, there's families who've moved here to this town to make a living and then may have fallen on hard times, they packed up and relocate wherever they came from, but they leave the student behind to finish school or to stay with a grandparent, and then a grandparent passes away. And now you've got a student that has to learn how to fend for themselves. It's, there's so many different variables, and there's so many different stories that we've heard from students on how these, you know, found themselves in this circumstance. And, you know, it's unfortunate it's very sad to know that there's a kid out there trying to navigate a city like Las Vegas alone.

Unknown Speaker 9:40
Yes, it's just so heartbreaking. I see a lot of young people actually just in my day to day moving around in town, Kelly, and it is really heartbreaking when you see them and they're very young, and you can tell that they're homeless. And as you as the executive director of this organization, what is the day to day is your day to day tasks look like? How do you go about being the leader of this organization.

Unknown Speaker 10:06
So I mean, just because I'm the executive director doesn't mean that, you know, I have this massive staff that go out and do all the work. We are very small team, we're 11. And we run two operations here in Las Vegas. So we're a staff of 11, full time folks out there doing the work. I mean, we roll up our sleeves, I get dirty all the time, too. I jump in, I've helped in the bowtique, to help the students pick out clothing, we help with Tom closet, you know, it's our day to day it changes obviously, every day here, because not everybody's situation is very cookie cutter, we have situations that walk in the door that are critical, then we have ones that are like, I just need a few things to get by. And that's it. But I mean, we shift gears here all the time, I could be at my desk working on the budget or writing grants. And the next hour, I could be in the bowtique helping students shop for clothes, I could be preparing family meal bags that needed to be sent out to the schools the next day for delivery, we all do that here. So we're a little family of ourselves that do this. And, you know, and again, we you know, have the generosity and help of the community in terms of volunteers to we you know, we have a lot of volunteers in our building everyday to kind of help us navigate that the system with the students and the need.

Unknown Speaker 11:22
Let's talk about the volunteerism aspect of that you just touched on Kelly, um, I mean, when whenever you're running an organization that is multifaceted as as yours is, you need that volunteer element, how are people coming in to help you out as volunteers.

Unknown Speaker 11:40
They come from all different places. So we partner with a lot of the businesses here in town, they want to do a team building exercise, or they want to come out and, and give back, it's amazing to see how many youth come out to help our mission of helping youth which I think is just so amazing to watch young people helping other young people. But the schools offer volunteer activities for the kids to come out and help individuals, they love to come out and help us as well. And I think that that's really important, because one, it's good for the soul. You know, volunteering just makes you feel good. But then at the same time, knowing that you're helping other students in this community is the other part. So it's kind of twofold, you know, yes, you're giving back to the organization that's giving, but you're also helping directly those students and they don't even realize they're doing it, but our volunteers actually helping the botique to so they interact with our students, when they're shopping, or when they're here looking for whatever they need school supplies or hygiene product.

Unknown Speaker 12:42
Yeah, it's just wonderful to have that that type of backing and a big thing that we do at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, Kelly, the the organization that actually is the sponsor of this show, is that we are huge on preparing people to go out and be volunteers to be able to go and contribute to an organization like yours. And when you're when you're training people to be able to help you how do you go about that?

Unknown Speaker 13:09
It's really simple. I mean, we don't have a whole lot of, you know, tasks that require training. You know, we're sorting donations of clothing that comes in from the community, when they donate, we're hosting events where we just need extra hands or body. So it's really just for us, if you have a passion for helping and giving and you can do it with a smile, you have to love working with us because that's all we deal with. So, you know, you really have to have the desire to help young people and students. I think that's easy enough. I mean, you either have it or you don't you know, so it doesn't require training. The only time we would offer anyone training is to talk about our mission, if they're going to go out on our behalf and, and talk to companies or businesses about Project 150 In our mission, we would like to the messaging to be consistent. So that's the only training we would offer. But other than that, I mean, I feel like if you have an open heart and time, you know, you don't need training that you're good at that. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:07
bring your open heart and be a part of project to 150 By the way, you're listening to the business of giving podcast brought to you by the cross marketing Chamber of Commerce and our guest for today is Kelly Christo. She's the Executive Director of Project 150 a nonprofit that's helping a lot of young people. Solo up and its channel partners are providing complimentary solar to local charities supporting for Hope link transitional housing properties, solar to feed pets of the homeless Volunteers of America and opportunity village. Their founder sits on the board of Nevada Conservation League. Also wanted to share with you about a relatively new member to the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. It's called Olive quit, view. Terrible olive crest. Our focus at Olive crest is address Nursing each child, teen and parents unique needs one life at a time with your help. Beautiful transformation stories are not only possible, but happening every day. To reach olive crest. Please visit their website olive crest.org/las Vegas, and I'm still here speaking with Kelly Christo with Project 150 Community Partnerships drive nonprofit organizations on a lot of levels. Kelly, how about your organization? What types of community partnerships do you have that enable you to be able to carry out your mission?

Unknown Speaker 15:41
We partner with a lot of folks in the community I mean, businesses, you know, they, they partner with us in a variety of ways. One, we talked about the volunteer aspect. Most of them come to us first as a volunteer, fall in love with us and our mission and love what we do, then they become a supporter, a financial contributor. So we often receive funding from some of those same businesses and companies. And I think it's, it's just part of being in Las Vegas, we're actually a really small town, even though people think we're kind of big. The generosity in this town is phenomenal. I mean, when, when there's a need, and we reach out to the community, they come together and fulfill that needs like I've never seen, I mean, we we saw it during the pandemic, here at Project 150. And it's just continued to grow since then. So I feel like you know, Vegas as a community, they understand philanthropy they understand giving. And I think the most important piece is they understand how important it is to work with an organization that works with youth, because they are the future of this city.

Unknown Speaker 16:48
Yes. And you being in the unique position to kind of shape youth I know, again, they're they're coming to you and challenging situations. There's homelessness, there's a lot of trauma, but that that social impact actually being able to guide young people, I would imagine that that's also a big part of what you guys do over it, Project 150, as well, Kelly is setting them on a path so that they can have brighter futures and move into adulthood from a better place.

Unknown Speaker 17:20
You're absolutely right. I mean, when, when a student comes to us, they're in a place of uncertainty, right. So, you know, they're not sure what to do. It takes a lot for a student between the ages of 13 and 17, to ask for help. I mean, if you think back to when we were that age, you know, we didn't ask for help there. You know, it just wasn't something that was common. But these are kids that actually take advantage of the resources to better themselves. They're going to school, which is hard enough. I mean, you think about not having what your peers have clothes, basic necessities, shoes, and food. But you still show up for school everyday to understand the importance of your education and know that in order to succeed, you need that first your high school diploma in order to navigate adulthood, right. And so we do have a unique opportunity to start them on a path of success, we want to set them up for success. So we give them all the tools and resources that are available to us. And in turn, we helped shape them, we know that at this age, they can make two choices, they can make one to be a part of the system, or they can make the better choice and finish school graduate, we can help them find employment, we offer college scholarships to get them higher education, and even help them you know, navigate work after college. So I feel like you know, we're we're a revolving door in some instances, but at the same time, we're a critical lifeline to make a decision whether or not you know you're going to be a successful adult and have a bright future. Or, you know, you choose to not attend school dropped out. And, you know, I don't know what services will be available at that point.

Unknown Speaker 18:58
And I'm sure there are a lot of success stories that you've had throughout the years Kelly, I would imagine with with people having gone through your program, you being able to help them get them on the right track. And of course as they are young people they end up going out into society and becoming a productive citizens. Can you share a specific story or a couple of stories about a person of course you don't have to identify the person but someone who who came through your program and it really turned their lives around.

Unknown Speaker 19:29
You know, it's hard to pick just one like I said we serve over 7000 students here in Southern Nevada year but I know that there are several that you know have come to us during their high school years for services and have taken advantage of our scholarship program gone on to graduate at UNLV have gone on to a master's program or their PhD. I have several that are employed here at resorts properties in town, after you know us helping them through their high school years and offering them college education as well. Well, so there are very, very strong success stories that the program does work. I think the most impactful piece is we're keeping kids in high school, we're stopping them from dropping out for reasons like not having basic necessities. So you can see the graduation rate increase here, you can see the absenteeism rate decrease. I mean, those are all important pieces of just how this program really works. So they're all success stories for me.

Unknown Speaker 20:26
Yes, really, really interesting. I've heard a little bit about Project 150. Before, but it's just such an eye opener, the amount of services that you have for the youth and their families. Kelly, it's, again, we always enjoy doing these interviews, because we learned so much more. We go so much more in depth with the nonprofit organizations in this time that we have to see what's a good fit for different people. And boy, just great information that you shared with us today.

Unknown Speaker 20:57
Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad you guys. I'm glad you learned a little bit more about us because I feel like that's the part that people don't know, they hear the name. They say, Oh, they help high school students. Well, we don't just help high school students. I mean, we really change lives, you know?

Unknown Speaker 21:11
Yeah. How about any upcoming events, I was on your website, and I saw that there was an Events tab and I saw that there were a few things coming up that our audience might be interested in participating in.

Unknown Speaker 21:23
Yeah, so our holiday meal program is coming up. So that's always a fun one for volunteers to come out and help pack 4000 Plus full holiday meals that we distribute in November and December, for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then we also do prom closet in March every year, which that's That was so fun, because kids come out and try on formal attire, they get head to toe fittings, they get to take the outfits, they pick and attend their prom. So we take care of all their formals their formal wear. That's always a fun one to help sort donations set up prom closet, huge events. And then our scholarship luncheon is in June every year where we reward students with college funding to attend UNLV usnr CSN or NSU. Last year, in June, we did 97 scholarships for $250,000. So

Unknown Speaker 22:13
wow, I'm really excited.

Unknown Speaker 22:16
Yeah, always, always easy to get involved with us, we make it really easy for everyone. I mean, there's a volunteer tab on our website where people can sign up and pick what days and times they want to be here. They don't even need us, you know, to help them navigate that.

Unknown Speaker 22:29
Again, this was a great opportunity to learn more about Project 150 Kelly, and for our listeners out there who would like to learn more about your organization or participate as a volunteer or donate or just be a part of, of your space that's helping a lot of young people get set on the right course in life. And homelessness again, is is such a huge topic in the news all over right now. But amongst teens, I think that that strikes a particular chord in people's hearts, and how can they get in contact with you to learn more about Project 150.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
There's a website that has all of the information about our organization on there. It is project one fifty.org real simple to navigate the system, there's a there's a volunteer tab, there's a Donate tab, there's also information on upcoming events. And then there's just our overall mission to let people know what we do. We also publish our annual impact report every year so they could see where their contributions go, how we spend their funding and the impact they actually are making in the lives of the students here in Southern Nevada.

Unknown Speaker 23:34
Well, thank you, again, so much for being a part of the show, Kelly, and we wish you nothing but continued success with a nonprofit that is really benefiting the community.

Unknown Speaker 23:44
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the time.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
All of you listeners out there. This is a type of nonprofit organization that deserves our support, not as if all of them don't, but they're just doing great things for our youth. And so this is a cause that speaks to you. I want to also reach out to all of you to encourage you to follow us on our social sites. And we've also got an event that's coming up on November the 21st. It's called the cause and business education series. This is an online event that features a successful entrepreneur or a nonprofit organization. For more details about this event that's coming up on the 21st from 6pm to 7pm. It's an event that you can learn a lot from please. The business of giving podcast was brought to you by soul UPS underwriting of our series. Thank you so much for tuning in as always, and always remember to give and do business for good. Have an amazing day.

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The weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people gets older most of us only care about money

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