Aaron Sheets & Nevada’s HopeLink – We Stop Homelessness celebrates a proven impact organization and the business minded CEO who leads it. Here’s your introduction to HopeLink!
Diane Parkinson was unemployed two years ago and afraid she might become homeless through a cold Las Vegas winter. The New York City native and mother of two called HopeLink, which put her life back on track. You see, HopeLink works to get residents back on their feet through housing assistance and food supply. HopeLink Caseworkers put Parkinson, 43, and her 13-year-old daughter into emergency housing in Henderson and referred her to CareerLink (HopeLink Program) that helps with resumes and works with local employers to get clients interviews.
You see, Nevada has the greatest shortage of affordable housing for low-income households in the nation.
Nevada has the greatest shortage of affordable housing for low-income households in the nation!
Parkinson said CareerLink helped her clean up her resume, which includes several jobs in the medical field and time at a warehouse printing shop. Parkinson has struggled to keep a job while she navigates her teenage daughter’s struggles with mental health.
“From day one, Diane was motivated to re-enter the job field,” HopeLink wrote in a statement to the Review-Journal. “We met numerous times, and each time made steps closer to employment.”
“It’s been great,” she said. “They always check in on me. If they didn’t hear from me, they shoot me an email. I like the fact that they’re intuitive and always making sure that their clients are OK. A lot of people don’t care.”
In the meantime, Parkinson is working to rent an apartment and checks in daily with CareerLink employees for new opportunities and job fairs.
“I’m grateful for HopeLink,” Parkinson said. “I felt bad. I felt like a loser getting out into the work field and not having a solution. The HopeLink team gave me more than hope, they gave me a plan and the support I needed be successful.”
Each year, together we help more than 10,000 people find shelter, pay their rent and utilities, have healthy meals, and send their children to school with needed supplies, often the first steps to self-sufficiency and financial stability.
HopeLink Changes Everything
PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS. The 2023 community count revealed that there are more than 6,500 unsheltered members in our community on any given night. Many believe this is a grossly underreported number. Evidence shows the most effective and least expensive way to prevent homelessness is to provide rent, utility, and deposit and mortgage assistance, along with other supportive services designed to keep people safely housed where they are—services HopeLink is equipped to provide. An acute need exists for senior assistance. Because fixed senior incomes are outpaced by the cost of living, residents are being evicted from their homes in staggering numbers. When people become homeless, the costs of re-housing them skyrockets ten-fold. When senior citizens become homeless, it immediately becomes a life-threatening situation.
PRESERVING FAMILIES. Single unit emergency shelter services through our partnerships with hotels, motels, weekly rentals, and apartment property managers keep families intact allowing adults and their children to be housed together. Scattered-site properties like these provide guests with housing while preserving privacy and dignity. It also provides safe places for people fleeing violence, including vulnerable individuals who are often unsafe in communal shelter settings.
PROVIDING HOPE. In any crisis, people need to know there is always hope. Hope is the first and most important currency that leads people to recovery from hardship. Hope is the exchange within which our staff is both passionate and fluent. At HopeLink, our integrated approach to preventing homelessness and its recurrence changes the normal for more families, children, and seniors immediately, and then for a lifetime. We have been, and still are, Southern Nevada’s number one provider of hope.
Hopeful Numbers…Hopeful Outcomes
Aaron Sheets & Nevada’s HopeLink – We Stop Homelessness
Aaron Sheets, a successful Las Vegas company owner, came out of retirement to serve his community. As HopeLink’s CEO, Aaron brings his business acumen to save and transform lives. Here’s what Aaron has to share about Hope Changes Everything Campaign.
Hope is what we do! More than 90,000 households in the Las Vegas Valley at risk of homelessness are seeking hope. Our mission, to prevent homelessness, preserve families, and provide hope, has an impact that reaches beyond those we serve. When everyone in our community thrives, you and your family also thrive.
With partners like you, we have served our community for more than thirty years, helping individuals, families children, and seniors build a path to self-sufficiency. Currently, we change more than 10,000 lives in Southern Nevada each year and we’ve just begun to scratch the surface.
The need in our community continues to accelerate, as evidenced by the more than 1000% increase in service dollars we have facilitated over the past five years. All research indicates the need will at least double in the next 8-10 years.
To meet the growing need, within the next three years we will enlarge our staff to serve more than 40,000 people, including a concerted outreach to seniors who have been acutely affected by the rising cost of living. We will expand our facilities to meet the increased caseload and staffing needs and we will establish a $6,000,000 endowment to ensure hope for people in crisis long into the future.
Thank you for celebrating 31 years of service to the community. Join us in our mission to prevent homelessness, preserve families, and provide hope for decades to come.
Aaron Sheets
Chief Executive Officer
178 Westminster Way
Henderson, NV 89015
702-566-0576
[email protected]
www.link2hope.org
Aaron Sheets & Nevada’s HopeLink – We Stop Homelessness was first posted at 501c3.buzz
