2018 Youth Homelessness Summit | Faces of Collaboration: Marquan and Patricia

The Las Vegas community joins together on November 2 at the 2nd Annual Youth Homelessness Summit in Las Vegas. Below are two stories from this collaboration between Las Vegas Sands and the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.

Marquan's Story

At 17 years old, Marquan became homeless after his mother's substance abuse and gambling addictions hit rock bottom.  After staying with friends, family, and even squatting in abandoned apartments, Marquan did a quick Google search on his phone and found Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY).  Marquan applied and was quickly accepted into NPHY's Independent Living Program.  After moving into NPHY's housing, Marquan enrolled in the International School of Hospitality and obtained a certificate in Concierge Services. He was able to find a job, receive his driver's license, and become an advocate for homeless youth like himself.  He is now working on furthering his education with hopes to one day work for a homeless youth organization like NPHY. 

Read our interview with Marquan here.

Patricia Cook-Craig

Patricia Cook-Craig is an associate professor at the UNLV School of Public Policy and Leadership in the College of Urban Affairs.  Her recent research has focused on the evaluation of violence prevention programming and the role that learning and professional social networks play in shaping individual and organizational outcomes.  Cook-Craig has served as the empowerment evaluator for the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs since 2005 providing consultation, evaluation, and training for their violence prevention programming and the evaluator for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services for the Sexual Violence Prevention Program since 2015. In addition, she has provided consultations related to violence prevention to a number of organizations and coalitions related to interpersonal and sexual violence as well as shelter-based services.  Among her recent work, she has served as the co-principal investigator on a five-year CDC-funded randomized control trial study to test the effectiveness a bystander prevention program in reducing dating and sexual violence in a statewide implementation in 26 high schools.  Over the past 15 years, Cook-Craig has also examined how professional social networks and organizational learning can be used to facilitate learning among social workers, organizations, and communities of practice in the United States and Israel.  Cook-Craig has a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Read our interview with Patricia here.