Berkley Announces Funding
For Boys & Girls Clubs;
At-Risk Teens $555,000 Will Help Build Andre Agassi Preparatory Charter School

Washington, D.C. (March 13th, 2001) — Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (NV-1) today announced over 2 million dollars in funding for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas to build a facility in partnership with the Andre Agassi Preparatory Charter School. The Boys & Girls facility at the Agassi school would house a teen entrepreneurship program, in which at-risk youth learn how to operate and manage a business.

"Innovative partnerships, like the one between the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Agassi Charter School, are creating a new dynamism in southern Nevada," remarked Berkley. "This funding will help our most at-risk kids in the inner city by providing them with marketable skills -- and at the same time, serve our businesses by providing a valuable service."

The federal funding will construct a facility which will house the New Era Sidewalk Cleaning business. The business is run by 12 at-risk teens working with the Boys & Girls Clubs. The teens will be taught how to manage the business themselves, thus learning valuable skills and gaining a history of employment. The teens, aged 14-19, are all at-risk youth from the area's most under-privileged neighborhoods, who might not otherwise be employable. As the teens gain marketable skills and business experience, they are expected to find more lucrative employment on the market, or start their own private businesses. The Boys & Girls program is modeled on a similar plan in San Francisco, that has proven hugely successful.

Deborah Verges of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas comments, "All kids can develop the skills they need to make them marketable. They just need a chance. That's why we really appreciate all the efforts of Congresswoman Berkley to secure this funding, and for being responsive to the children of Nevada. She's helping these kids get their fair share."