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In late 2004 and early 2005, NPEF met with key leaders and stakeholders in youth and education fields to present Ready for Life as a concept and seek their commitment to participate. With a tremendously positive response, these leaders and stakeholders became the steering committee for Clark County and helped to refine the Ready for Life vision established by NPEF. As the work began, funding that had been committed to NPEF for Ready for Life did not materialize. While this resulted in an inevitable shift in implementation, the NPEF Board courageously pressed forward, recognizing the significant numbers of struggling students and out-of-school youth in Nevada, and the need for an intermediary organization to convene and connect stakeholders around this issue.
NPEF did not provide a planning grant to Clark County; instead, NPEF staff developed, managed, facilitated, and staffed Ready for Life in Clark County from its inception, with tremendous support from steering committee members. NPEF conducted research to compile statistics on the numbers of youth in Clark County within Ready for Life’s populations of concern, and held focus groups with those youth to assess their challenges and reasons for disconnecting from school.
With support and direction from the steering committee, NPEF presented this information at the first Ready for Life community convening in November 2005, which about 200 individuals representing approximately 100 organizations attended. This event galvanized the community and resulted in a collaborative structure in which community committees, with dozens of active participants, serve as centers for planning and networking to leverage opportunities, resources, and activities for struggling students and out-of school youth. Participating organizations have developed and expanded programs to meet the youth needs identified through Ready for Life and prioritized in the strategic plan developed by the steering committee in June 2006. Some of those direct impact programs were funded by NPEF through a Ready for Life Clark County competitive grant process in spring 2007.
In late 2007, Ready for Life was “adopted” as the organizing framework for a newly-formed regional Committee on Youth, under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition. This is evidence of the tremendous community ownership and engagement around Ready for Life, and will provide significant support and sustainability through public and visual ownership from elected officials. NPEF retains a key leadership position in Ready for Life Southern Nevada as a member of the appointed Committee on Youth.
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