Las Vegas NowHomeless Teens Get Helping Hands

Homeless Teens Get Helping Hands

On any given day about 300 young people are living on Las Vegas valley streets. According to the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, most of those young people are at high risk of becoming parents, contracting STDs and many are suicidal.

One volunteer group wanted to draw attention to the problem, so to help some teens who don't have a permanent place to call home, they spent the weekend making some temporary teen housing a little nicer.

The volunteers are a group of people who recently graduated from a program called Leadership Las Vegas. It's an intensive leadership development and networking program offered every year by the chamber of commerce. This year, the leadership class decided to make helping homeless youth the focus of their final project.

"It's been challenging but it's been great. We are having a lot of fun out here," said program graduate Todd Palumbo.

He is one of more than 40 people who volunteered to make life a little nicer for eight young men living in the care of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.

While several engineers from the convention center volunteered to do the electrical and plumbing work, Palumbo and 41 other white collar professionals put on t-shirts, grabbed paint brushes and got to work.

"We're almost all shirt and ties," said Palumbo. "So we have no business doing this but were getting it done."

Every year, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce puts about 40 professionals through an intensive 10 month leadership development program. The class is made up of top professionals from across the valley, including executives and vice presidents.

As their final project, the Leadership Las Vegas class of 2007 decided to spend all weekend renovating three condos where several teens live. With the help of the young men who live in the condos, they painted, retiled the floor, installed new light fixtures and renovated the kitchens and bathrooms.

16-year-old Jonathan Reaves was moved by the volunteers' dedication. "I shook most of their hands but I wish I could shake them all." he said.

Reaves says the condos weren't in bad condition, but the volunteers have made a big difference in the place he now calls home. "They've got a kind heart, that's all I can say."

"A roof over their heads, that's where it starts," said Matt Hirsch, Executive Director of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. "That's why these condos are so important to us."

Hirsch says without volunteers like the Leadership Las Vegas class, it would be difficult to maintain the condos. The young men living in them are a part of an independent living program that helps them complete school and find jobs. The condos not only give homeless teens shelter, they also give them with a chance to survive.