I am not what you would call politically savvy. I usually don’t get involved, and don’t favor one party over another because as the chief executive officer of a non-profit that serves our community, I need everyone’s support and I keep my political opinions to myself.

But, this winter and spring, I dipped my toes into the governmental waters in Carson City. Why? Because it was paramount that our legislature understood what HopeLink does, our impact on tens of thousands of households in the community every year, and that we need their support. By providing HopeLink with a financial allocation, we can continue to operate and serve the community while waiting for billing reimbursements, which, at times, can run more than a million dollars.

So, myself, my board chair and his team went to work! In February, on one of the coldest days of the year (19 degrees and snowing), I hopped on a plane and headed to Carson City. The snow also reminded me why I kept my parka from the 2010 Winter Olympics.

We spent an entire day at our capital, visiting face-to-face with assemblymen and women, senators, and in particular, chairwoman Danielle Monroe-Moreno and Speaker Steve Yeager, along with many others. During the legislative session, our capital buzzes with people and activity and I was surprised by how welcoming and accessible everyone was.

We also had several productive conversations in the hallways while on our way from office to office. I was even invited to sit on the Assembly Floor with Assemblywoman Clara Thomas from North Las Vegas, seeing firsthand how the legislative process works. The entire day was an amazing experience!

A couple of months later, we returned to Carson, this time taking HopeLink’s Chief Operating Officer, Aaron Sheets along. Aaron has been with HopeLink for more than 10 years and has a unique insight into homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing. He is also our primary contact for local governmental jurisdictions.

We returned to meet with more of our representatives on Nevada Affordable Housing Day, sponsored by the Nevada Housing Coalition, of which we are an active member. Their organization does amazing work in the state and was very instrumental in the Governor signing AB310 which will provide millions of dollars annually for permanent supportive services! These funds are essential, especially for our seniors and those who are unable to work and provide their own care and shelter.

As a non-profit, we carefully and thoughtfully steward the charitable investments that are made to our organization to carry out our mission. Like other non-profits, we must justify spending money for travel, lodging, and advocacy since our everyday dollars are dedicated to delivering important services to our clients and the community. But these dollars were well spent; we had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with decision makers and advocates who can become champions of our mission and organization at the highest level in Nevada.

As a result of our efforts and our candid and open conversation about what HopeLink needs to continue our work in the community, assisting more households on the verge of homelessness, (or already homeless) HopeLink was included in AB525, which passed!

This bill provides appropriations for various purposes relating to health education, employment and other community services and allocated $2 million toward HopeLink’s work – our first legislative appropriation ever! These funds will allow us to accept additional work and increase our programs and services, further preventing homelessness for more southern Nevadans than ever before!

In 2021 and 2022, HopeLink served over 10,000 households, provided more than 88,000 individual services, and 12,000 nights of emergency shelter to more than 500 individuals (most being single mothers and children), assisted seniors and those with income under $60,000 with more than 1,000 tax returns filed through the VITA program saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and, provided 500 children with their own beds as their families moved out of homelessness. We did all of this without this additional funding. Can you imagine what we will be able to do now?

But this doesn’t mean that we don’t need your help – our friends and neighbors, our small and large businesses, foundations, and civic organizations to continue supporting our efforts! Host a hygiene supply drive, a food drive, a household drive for things like saran wrap and toilet paper. We still need your charitable financial investments as most of our funding comes with stipulations on how we can use it. Your support could help provide our clients with what they need as they work to become financially stable and self-sufficient, support general operating costs, or establish funding for projects that will allow us to be as effective, nimble and efficient in our daily work, programs and services as we can.

You can find us at HopeLink of Southern Nevada – www.Link2hope.org or reach out to us at info@link2hope.org anytime.

Finally, on behalf of our entire team – all 55 of us, our board of directors, and the thousands of households who turn to us in their time of need, we express our gratitude to our legislators, both local and state for their support, and their trust in the amazing work our team does to change lives forever!

HopeLink as of today (July 19, 2023), is now officially in a Comprehensive Campaign to further attract resources needed to continue expanding our impact in the community. Stay tuned and get involved!

Reach out to me anytime at stacey@link2hope.org to learn more and to find out how you can be a part of HopeLink and all of the transformational work our team does day in and day out here in Southern Nevada.

Together, we can have a larger impact to help the most vulnerable in our community and HopeLink’s mission of preventing homelessness, preserving families, and providing hope.

Stacey Lockhart is the CEO for HopeLink of Southern Nevada.