Friends, Supporters, and Extended Project REAL Family,
As the year wraps up, we wanted to share an exciting update and a brief look ahead to what’s coming next.
After the first 8,600 Southern Nevada Youth Resource Guide pocket guides arrived in November, they were gone within three weeks. What followed was something we had not experienced before: a tsunami of sudden demand at a scale and pace that was unprecedented for us.
Many of you responded immediately when we announced a plan to address that need. Over the course of a single week, supporters collectively donated just over $3,800, allowing us to place the order in time for SNYRG ‘Digital Access Kits’ to arrive and move through schools and partner offices before winter break.
Within just a few days of arrival, nearly all of the 16,000 kits were distributed. CCSD’s School Services office took 11,000 and gave out 50 kits to each social worker in the school district! Additionally, kits went to Title I specialists, school resource officers, and even hospital discharge nurses following direct requests from system partners. The speed and structure of that rollout confirmed the guide was landing exactly where it was needed.
This first edition of the guide was developed to respond quickly to immediate community conditions. Over the next six to eight months, we’ll be working on an improved second edition informed by what we’ve learned and by feedback from partners using it in the field.
This fall was busier than usual. Typically, we spend more time in the fall making reservations for the spring. This fall was busier than usual with field work though. Since August, we served 2,714 students through courthouse field trips, REAL Ready talks, REAL Safe experiences where students received Adulting 101 guides, and two new schools using Choices and You. This is a trend we look forward to building upon in the years to come.
Looking ahead, we already have 800 students scheduled for field trips, 1,400 booked for REAL Safe (the relationship violence prevention experience built into Adulting 101), and 300 set to take part in our Harry Potter mock trials! That’s just what’s been RSVP’d so far though: we anticipate those reservation numbers to double by the end of spring, especially as we approach REALReady season in late April and early May.
That’s exciting on it’s own, but it doesn’t even begin to account for a planned Adulting 101 print run being funded by a Nevada Bar Foundation grant, and two match-funding challenges. Within days of our announcing the possible print-run, schools began submitting advance requests to have us distribute guides to their seniors in the spring. To date, more than 10,500 Adulting 101 guides have already been reserved for spring, pending availability from that upcoming print run.
We’re looking forward to filling all 10,500 of those requests (and more) as we complete the campaign to fund the next Adulting 101 print run.
Thanks to the Nevada Bar Foundation grant, we’re already $20,000 into the approximately $83,000 needed to print 15,000 copies for Spring 2026. From there, we have $22,000 in matching challenges to unlock over the spring, along with an additional $21,000 to raise to fully fund the project. While that may sound ambitious, it’s a path we’ve successfully walked twice before. Each time, the campaign has come together because the need is clear, the timing is right, and the value of Adulting 101 is easy for schools, partners, and supporters to see.
In the weeks ahead, we’ll be having more focused conversations around this effort. That will include individual gifts, introductions to small and large businesses interested in sponsorship, and partnerships that can help underwrite distribution at scale. Not everyone engages in the same way, and all of those forms of support matter.
For those already making year-end giving decisions, gifts made now will support the Adulting 101 print run and apply toward unlocking the matching funds as we head into the new year. If that feels right for you, you can give here:
https://projectrealnv.org/
However the year has looked for you, we’re grateful to be part of a community that shows up when the work is real and the timing matters, and we look forward to sharing what comes next.
Thank You, Best Regards, & Happy New Year!
-M.
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Mike Kamer
Executive Director, Project REAL
(702) 703-6529
mkamer@projectrealnv.org
