She leads what's billed as a "transformational project to address homelessness in Southern Nevada."

Kim Jefferies, CEO of the Campus for Hope Foundation, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

She's dedicated her life to helping others.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, it's there where she served as CEO of Haven for Hope.

Its mission is to empower people experiencing homelessness to transform their lives, and that model is what she's now tasked with implementing here in Southern Nevada.

Kim Jefferies, CEO of Campus for Hope Foundation, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you for having me.

-We talked off camera.

You said you moved here in March, so you've got a few months under your belt.

Having been born and raised and lived in San Antonio your whole life, what are your impressions of Las Vegas?

(Kim Jefferies) I love it here.

You know, it's interesting, because San Antonio is like the biggest small town you'll ever meet.

And I feel like, you know, Las Vegas is the same.

The community here has like this heart to it that I think if you're not-- if you only come to the Strip, you don't get to see the other side of this community.

So I've gotten to see that in the four months, and it's been really welcoming and warm and hot, but a different kind of hot.

And so I'd take the dry heat over the humidity any day.

I'm loving it.

-It's a dry heat.

-Yes.

-So four months not only did you move, but you started a new job.

Those two things are considered some of the most stressful things people do in their lives.

How are you holding up?

-Well, if I'm being honest, it's been great because I am grounded in faith.

I feel like everything in my life has led me to this role, and so I know I'm not walking it alone.

And so my pastor was a grandfather, and so grew up in the faith.

And so knowing that I'm doing this with somebody else by my side helps me know that it's going to be successful and I'm going to be okay.

And don't get me wrong.

There's some days that it's been a little daunting, but I also know what I have the opportunity to create with this community, and it's going to be incredible.

-What do you remember about your grandfather's work as a pastor?

-You know, he passed away right after I was born, so not many years, but he started the church where I grew up.

So I remember back in the day, we would, you know, go to the church.

We would clean the church on Saturdays.

We'd be there in Sunday school.

We'd be in the choir, sing in the choir.

I was baptized, confirmed, married there.

My girls were baptized, confirmed there.

And so it's just been in the family for so long.

And faith, you know, we were always taught the gifts you've been given should be used in service for others.

And so I've tried to-- I didn't, I didn't find my path in a linear way, but I got there.

And I've tried to really, you know, honor my grandfather's memory by doing that.

-Twenty-five years of experience working with nonprofits.

Do you remember when you were first introduced to what a nonprofit could do?

-Yeah.

It was kind of by accident.

I was looking for a job after taking some time off to go to get back into school, because I had dropped out of college when I was younger, and then fell into Brighton Center, this organization working with kids with disabilities, and immediately fell in love.

And I was doing all the back office stuff, so Medicaid billing and HR and then got into development and different things.

And over time, just had the opportunity to really see the impact that a nonprofit can have on a community and on, you know, the individuals you serve and just was hooked.

-But not from that back office work, right?

That would be hard to be inspired from.

-Yes and no.

I got, I got into doing-- you know, they would need somebody to run a program.

They're like, Hey, come over here and run this program while we're in between.

Then it was like, Hey, now that you know this, why don't you do this?

So I got to work it from the inner workings and throughout all the programs and then worked my way into the CEO position there.

-And that makes me think of, I read that you are a data driven person.

-I am.

-When did that happen?

What opened your eyes to the importance of data?

-Well, you know, when you're, when you're working to change lives, it's like, how do we really know?

And so that was the question that came up.

Brighton Center, yes, these kids are making skills and learning new skills, but how are we really changing their life?

And so how do we track them long term?

How do we see what they're doing in school?

How do we see how it translates from those early years to school?

And so that's when data became really important, because it was like, if we're really trying to change people's lives, let's figure out what that looks like.

And let's track that information, and let's use it.

When it's not doing well, like, how do we use it to change the program and do something better that gets the better outcomes for children or individuals.

And so that really inspired me.

-What's it like knowing that you have followed someone's life from childhood up to adulthood?

-Oh, it's, you know, I think it's-- Working with clients is one of the things I'm missing right now in this because we're still in build mode.

But there's so many clients from, we helped as babies and toddlers who I went to their middle school graduations and their high school graduations and to see them and the success that they've achieved.

And because it was them, you know, just like individuals at this campus, it will be them doing it.

But they have put in the work.

But to see what they can accomplish is really incredible and just rewarding for me.

-At the other end of the spectrum, I read a story about a gentleman who was at Haven for Hope and who was about to pass away, and he did not want to leave.

What was happening?

-That was one of those-- I don't want to cry.

It was one of those heartbreaking moments, because it's such a beautiful thing, because you have this individual, and he had terminal brain cancer and homeless, experiencing homelessness, and was at our facility.

And three times the night-- Our staff knew.

Our staff knows the people, and they knew he was close.

They called the ambulance three times, and the third time when he refused the ambulance, you know, the staff member was like, Why don't you want to go?

And he said, Because I don't want to die alone.

I want to die somewhere where I'm loved and cared about.

And so what a beautiful moment.

What a sad moment for our society, but what a beautiful moment that we got to give somebody in their last moments, surround them with love and compassion.

And so like being able to do those kinds of things for other humans is such a gift to me.

-And what a gift to Southern Nevada now that this is coming here.

-Absolutely.

-When you got the job, did you consider not taking it?

It's a long time to be in San Antonio.

It's a big move to leave where you've accomplished so much as well.

-It was difficult because San Antonio was my home community.

Born and raised there, like you said, and so I wasn't necessarily ready to leave Haven either.

There was still more I wanted to accomplish there.

But I think seeing this opportunity, knowing the impact that Haven had on my community, thinking about how this could be replicated in another community and have just as a profound and likely larger impact, because we know a lot more than we did when, when I worked at Haven.

And so that, that to me, was really kind of the next step in my career and, like I said earlier, what I think God was leading me to all this time.

And so that was really, for me, I understood that that was part of my purpose in this world, and so I needed to take the opportunity and take the leap of faith.

You have called it the professional opportunity of a lifetime.

Yet at the same time, you're also facing opposition from homeowners in the area of that Campus for Hope site who do not want a homeless shelter in their backyard.

How do you deal with that?

What do you say?

-Yeah.

You know, it's interesting because we're talking about building a campus.

And we are, we're going to build a campus.

But why I consider this the professional opportunity of my career is to really create a movement.

I think, for so long, people who are experiencing homelessness have been looked away from.

And you know, it's easy to say, I don't want them near me.

I don't want them near me.

So how do we create a movement that we are accepting and there's no judgment and it's a judgment-free zone, and we can show the world that when you wrap somebody in love and compassion and opportunity, it can change their life?

And how do we do that, not just in the Las Vegas community, but in the community at large?

So it's not about-- It is about building a campus, but it's more about building that movement where it can change the way people look at this issue not just in this community, but nationally.

-The fact that the staff-- I'm not sure if all staff will be, but the trauma-informed staff, that's a big part of this, being informed about trauma.

Can you explain to people who may not understand what that is, what it is and why it matters?

-Yeah.

It's really-- The first thing is understanding that everybody who's going to walk on this campus has experienced some sort of trauma in their life.

And so the statistics tell us that for people experiencing homelessness.

And you and I may have had trauma in our lives, but these people's experience was different.

And so instead of, you know, meeting them with, you know, What's wrong with you, and How do we fix you, we get to meet them with, What happened to you, and How do we help you overcome it?

So it's really about creating safety.

It's creating opportunity.

It's believing in them when they don't believe in themselves.

It's loving them when they don't love themselves so they can regain that sense of purpose, that sense of belonging.

Everybody has gifts to offer this world, and, you know, the fabric of our community is weakened if one person isn't sharing their gifts.

So how do we give everybody that opportunity?

And it's creating that safe environment, meeting them with dignity and respect and accountability, but also no judgment.

When they walk on the campus, they can see the possibilities for themselves that they couldn't see when they were out on the streets.

-I want to read a quote from an article you wrote in the San Antonio Express.

I think this was a column you wrote.

Quote, Until I walked through the gates of Haven for Hope for the first time a year ago, I lived a sheltered and naive life.

While my childhood family was not rich and, in fact, likely closer to poverty than I realized, I never knew how many people end up homeless every year.

Is this what you are preaching to people, that there are folks out there?

We're closer, perhaps, to homelessness than sometimes we even realize or people that we know are.

I think that's a better way to put it.

-Yeah.

And it's "But by the grace of God go I," because if I grew up in a different family or had different experiences as a child or didn't have a support network.

You talk about the 18 year old who's in foster care.

That family has been fractured.

That's why they're in foster care.

They have no support network.

They graduate from there, 18.

When I was 18, I knew nothing.

So we're talking-- When you hear the clients' stories, you think, man, that could be me, or what if that was my child at that age?

What would happen if we weren't here, if we both passed away?

And they have-- My kids have a support network, but these children didn't.

And so it's really just being able to put yourself in somebody else's shoes when you start hearing those stories.

Or the elderly man who has a stroke and loses his house, that could happen to any of us.

And so I think that's the movement we're trying to make is, we don't want it to be any of us, but it could be any of us.

And if it is, how do we meet you with the right kinds of opportunity and compassion so that you can rebuild your life?

-What do you think are some of the most important services that you offer, will offer at Campus for Hope?

-I think it's a continuum.

You have to have a continuum.

So substance use treatment, behavioral health services.

I think mental health has had such a stigma for so long, and we're starting to get over that a little, but there's still discrimination and there's still a stigma.

So how do we give people those opportunities and give children on our campus those opportunities?

Those are critical.

Workforce development is critical.

Making sure we have a myriad of housing interventions.

It's not just one housing intervention that people need.

It's, you know, what are the different opportunities that meet different people where they're at so that they can move to stable housing.

Medical, dental, vision.

The kennel and the cattery are important, because people won't leave their pets.

Having couples rooms is important so men and women without children can come in and stay together so they don't have to separate.

Meeting basic needs.

Those are all really necessary for people to feel comfortable so that they can take a breath and then start to rebuild their lives.

-Do you have a proudest accomplishment at Haven for Hope?

-I would say it was the creation of our young adult program.

And so there wasn't a specific dorm for 18 to 24 year olds like we're building on this campus, and so we had to retrofit it.

And we had an idea of what we thought we were going to do.

Then we started doing listening sessions with 18 to 24 year olds who were experiencing homelessness--some on our campus, some at day centers, some in overnight shelters.

And when we started talking, then we realized we needed to hear from them, so we created something, and we said, this is what we've created.

And they said, Oh, you forgot about this and this.

And we went back and recreated and then opened it and had incredible outcomes for the young adults because we listened to what they needed.

-Kim Jefferies, CEO of Campus for Hope Foundation, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thanks for having me.

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