Group’s goal is to keep girls, young women off streets

It's Your Life is a new program providing educational and housing assistance to Las Vegas girls and women aged 14 to 25.

The nonprofit 401c currently assists 12 young women (18 more when you count their children).

"It's so important, because if we do not help these kids now, these are the same kids we're gonna find either strung out on drugs or going into prostitution, and their kids are gonna be caught up in the system," says Toni Mims, who founded the program in February and serves as its only employee.

"I'm trying to break the cycle of poverty by showing them something different -- because a lot of them just don't know."

For eight years, Mims worked with at-risk teens as a case manager for Nevada Partners and Nevada Business Services.

"I could see that the component that was missing was that we couldn't keep up with the kids," she says. "If they were homeless, it took us months to find them, and then by the time we found them, they would be much worse off."

In addition to mentoring, It's Your Life offers payment assistance for books and summer school. It also makes six rooms available, either free or for reduced rents, to its members.

Mims estimates that the It's Your Life operating budget will be $20,000 for its first year, all of which will come from her own pocket. (Mims earns approximately $50,000 per year working two full-time jobs, as a property manager and a child care center supervisor.)

"I don't get anything out of it, other than the satisfaction of knowing I've just saved another person's life -- because that's how I look at it," she says. "When I was in foster care, I was abused and nobody cared, and I remember the pain and agony I went through.

"So I figure, if I can help another child to deal with the pressures they deal with as a teenager, to me, I feel like that's success by itself."

Mims says a budget of $50,000 to $100,000 would enable her to help more young girls.

"But it's hard to get funding for a small organization like ours, because most of the money goes to larger organizations that they say can provide more services."

For more information, contact It's Your Life at 415-4610.

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.