Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada announced today that Clark County has awarded funding for the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center to expand its services to all survivors of violent crime and to be available to assist in any future mass violence incident in the community. To coincide with this expanded mission, the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center has officially been renamed the “Resiliency & Justice Center.”

The Resiliency Center, our community’s first comprehensive, multi-agency collaborative serving survivors of mass crime, was born out of the tragic mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on October 1, 2017. Since then, the Resiliency Center has provided aid to those directly and indirectly affected by that event, offering navigation with local and national resources, free legal help, assistance accessing compensation through the Victims of Crime Program, and connection to mental health services.

In 2021, the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime awarded the National Crime Victims Service Award to the Resiliency Center for its experience, knowledge, and outstanding assistance to families and survivors of violent crime. In 2023, the Congressional Crime Survivors and Justice Caucus recognized the Resiliency Center with the Allied Professional Award for its extraordinary work serving survivors.

Federal funding for the Resiliency Center recently ended, but the consistent and urgent needs of survivors of violent crime continues. Today’s funding allows the newly renamed Resiliency & Justice Center to not only continue to serve survivors of 1 October, but to serve survivors of all violent crimes throughout Nevada with the ability to respond to violent incidents timely, with experience and knowledge. The Resiliency Center will provide aid to victims of violent crimes and their families by continuing to provide all of its services, cutting through court and government bureaucracy, and serving as a blueprint for other communities around the country dealing with similar tragedies.

Clark County Office of Emergency Management will activate the Resiliency & Justice Center during any community incident of mass violence, as it did recently for the first time since 1 October when a mass shooting occurred at UNLV on December 6, 2023. The Resiliency & Justice Center is currently assisting staff, faculty, and students affected by the shooting, as well as families of those who lost their lives or were seriously injured that day. In working with UNLV, Clark County, the UNLV Foundation, and Legal Aid Center, the Resiliency & Justice Center also set up a fund to accept donations for families of victims who died in the incident and suffered severe physical injuries. To date, 338 donors have donated over $107,000. Details are available through www.lacsn.org/unlvfund.

“1 October fundamentally changed how Nevada thinks about and reacts to horrific acts of violence,” says Barbara Buckley, Esq., Executive Director of Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. “We know that survivors and families of victims need comprehensive support and resources for building strength and resiliency in the aftermath of tragedy. The Resiliency & Justice Center is a national model on how to work with survivors. It is an honor to work so closely with Clark County, the State of Nevada, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and nonprofit and social service organizations to meet the needs of survivors. We’re so glad to see the center expand and to apply all we’ve learned to other survivors of violent crime in our community.”   

“The Resiliency Center was born of the 1 October tragedy and has become a national model for serving victims of crime,” says Clark County Manager Kevin Schiller. “Clark County is proud of our role in establishing the center and our continued partnership with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, the state of Nevada and other organizations to ensure that it will continue to be a resource for our community and all who may need its services.”

In addition to a new name, the Resiliency & Justice Center will move to a new location, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada’s Advocacy & Justice Complex. Design plans are still being finalized on the three-story statewide service campus that will house the Resiliency & Justice Center, along with Legal Aid Center’s Family Justice Project (which provides representation to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking) and its Guardianship Advocacy Project (preventing the abuse of the elderly, people with disabilities, and children facing guardianship). More information about the project is available here: www.lacsn.org/advocacyandjustice

To learn more about the services available to survivors of violent crime through the Resiliency & Justice Center, you can visit its updated website at ResiliencyAndJustice.org. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can contact an advocate at 702-455-2433 or resiliencyandjustice@lacsn.org.