Local nonprofit remodels transitional house

The Inspiring Children Foundation nonprofit focused on helping children and young adults has unveiled its most recently remodeled transitional house with the help of an organization within the Henderson Chamber of Commerce.

The houses are used by the foundation for its transitional housing program, which helps 45 to 50 students per year, according to a news release from the Henderson Chamber of Commerce.

Matthew Sypert, an alumni of the foundation’s program who lives at the newly renovated house, credits Leadership Henderson and the Henderson Chamber of Commerce for helping the foundation to “beautify and renovate the homes completely.”

“It means so much,” Sypert said, “because it means that they’re in tip-top shape for more kids who are going to come in and go through the program.”

The foundation offers support to those students through services including transportation, mentoring, counseling and health care. The foundation’s goals are to improve the lives of youth by focusing on mental, physical and emotional health.

Leadership Henderson, an eight-month course for selected local professionals to learn about community issues, including social services, health and education, has been a major force behind the transitional home remodeling project, according to the organization’s website.

For its final project this year, the current class of Leadership Henderson elected to help the Inspiring Children Foundation.

What becomes the class’s final project is presented to the group in the form of “bids” for the class to choose to pursue, according to Marcia Campbell, a member of Leadership Henderson who works for Helix Electric.

The initial bid for this project was just to help give repairs to the transitional houses, Campbell said. However, the organization was able to bring in multiple sponsors to raise more than $350,000 to completely renovate one of the homes and help the foundation buy three of its current houses.

The sponsors of the project include IKEA, Martin-Harris Construction, Helix Electric and FOCUS Plumbing.

Dustin Klein, a member of the current class of Leadership Nevada, said that he works regularly with charities that help adults and notes that the work done by the Inspiring Children Foundation probably will help young people later avoid needing help from other charities.

“It’s been wonderful being able to talk to them and hear their stories. You know, it’s a tear jerker,” Klein said. “A lot of these kids come from unsafe homes. Some of them have suffered from extreme depression, mental health issues; some have suffered from addiction.”

Sypert, a resident of the newly remodeled home, joined the Inspiring Children Foundation in 2020.

He said the foundation helped him get through struggles that included depression and suicidal ideation. He started interning with the program after graduating high school and said the program helped teach him how to come out of his shell and accept himself.

“A big part of my story was coming here and just opening up to people and coming out,” he said.

Sypert came from a religious household, and his work with the foundation helped him come out to his parents and gave him a safe space after the news wasn’t initially well-received by his parents.

The support in the house helped Sypert heal and eventually repair his relationship with his parents.

The renovation of the house was significant to Sypert partially because he saw his own personal self-improvement reflected in the improvements made to the house.

Sypert said he looks forward to working within the newly renovated house.

“It just means the world because it means we can do even more and now that everything’s running and working properly,” Sypert said.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCredicoII.