A North Las Vegas youth center that has given hundreds of teenagers a safe place to land after school is running out of time. Ty's Place, located near Commerce Street and Centennial Parkway, says it needs roughly $15,000 to $20,000 immediately just to keep operating, and the clock is ticking toward Saturday.
For nearly seven years, the center has served as a sanctuary for Las Vegas youth, according to 8 News Now, offering a secure after-school environment along with homework help, mental-health support and mentorship. Kasina Douglass-Boone, who also works for the Clark County School District, confirmed the closure to the station and said the organization's deadline for a miracle is October 31. The nonprofit behind the center, T.U.L.I.P.S., says it needs the funds to keep running through January 2027 while it searches for a longer-term fix.
Hundreds of Students Served Over Nearly Seven Years
The scale of what's at stake is laid out plainly by the people who run the place. “We've impacted about 600 students in the last seven years,” Douglass-Boone told the outlet, a tally that spans homework sessions, mentorship check-ins and the kind of after-school supervision that working families often can't arrange on their own.
Money is the core problem. It's becoming too expensive to afford rent, which runs about $6,000 a month, and the same report notes that a majority of grant money the center receives goes straight to paying its bills rather than expanding programming. That math has left little room for error as costs have piled up.
A Vision Born From Tragedy
Ty's Place carries the name and legacy of a man who never got to see it fully realized. The space was envisioned by the late Nevada Assemblymember Tyrone Thompson before his sudden death in May 2019, according to 8 News Now, and it opened as both a tribute and a practical answer to a gap in services for local tweens and teens. KTNV has described it as an after-school hangout and mentorship hub built specifically for North Las Vegas youth, a identity that has shaped everything the center has offered since.
Over the years, that identity expanded well beyond homework help. KTNV reported that the center hosted an academy designed to enhance basic academic skills in English, math and reading, giving students another reason to walk through its doors after the final bell. The same outlet also covered a mental-health discussion held at the center, billed as “a Safe Space for Teens,” that brought together students, parents and Clark County School District staff.
Few Easy Alternatives Nearby
If Ty's Place does close, T.U.L.I.P.S. says it plans to lean on libraries, temporary spaces and community partnerships to keep some version of its programming alive. But organizers acknowledge those stopgaps cannot fully replace a permanent youth center where kids know they can show up every day.
The broader landscape doesn't offer much of a cushion. Clark County has run its own late-night programming for teenagers, including a stretch from June 9 through July 31 when four recreation centers stayed open from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. for ages 13 to 18, according to News 3 Las Vegas. Those sessions featured basketball, boxing, DJ classes, fitness training, mentorship opportunities and workshops, with locations chosen after county officials reviewed crime data provided by Metro. But North Las Vegas itself did not plan to extend hours at its three recreation centers, the station reported, leaving fewer comparable options inside the city where Ty's Place operates. Separately, Clark County also sponsors a Leaders of the Future program for teens 13 to 17 through its Department of Parks and Recreation at the Robert E. “Bob” Price Recreation Center, though that program sits outside North Las Vegas city limits.
For now, the fate of Ty's Place rests on whether the community can close the funding gap before Saturday's deadline. What happens after that, and where the center's regulars will go if the doors do close for good, remains an open question the nonprofit is still working to answer.
