One year ago, he was a gang-involved teenager with a growing arrest record and no interest in anyone wearing a badge.
Today, he is the second-highest GPA at Southern Nevada Trades High School. He has a trade certificate on the way, legal income, and a future that looked impossible not long ago. And when Officer Ben Baldassarre's team visited the school to recruit new students into the DREAM program, they found him there — waiting, smiling — ready to stand in front of a room full of skeptical teenagers and tell them what changed.
He came back not because he had to. Because he wanted to. That is what transformation looks like. And it is exactly the kind of outcome The Kash Foundation exists to make possible.
The Problem
Miles from the Strip, a Different Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a city of contradiction. The Strip gleams. The resort corridors bustle with money and lights. And just miles away, in east and west-side neighborhoods that most tourists never see, thousands of young people are growing up surrounded by gang violence, poverty, and a fundamental distrust of the institutions that were supposed to protect them.
The justice system processes these kids — through probation, parole, and mandatory intervention programs — but processing is not the same as changing a trajectory. What these young people need is not another checkbox. It is a relationship. An adult who shows up consistently, who takes the call at midnight, who refuses to give up on them when the rest of the world already has.
"Most of these kids have never had an adult consistently show up for them. When they realize someone actually believes in them, everything starts to change."— Officer Ben Baldassarre, LVMPD DREAM Program
Programs that serve this population are rare. Programs that actually work are rarer still. DREAM is one of them.
How DREAM Works
A Free, Structured Path — Twice a Week, for 12 Weeks
D.R.E.A.M. stands for: Discover, Redirect, Empower, Advocate, Mentor.
The LVMPD DREAM Program connects at-risk teenagers — ages 10 to 18 — with police mentors for a structured, completely free 12-week experience built around leadership, discipline, career planning, financial literacy, and personal responsibility. Students meet twice a week on weeknights for two hours per session. Three cohorts run annually across east and west Las Vegas sites, serving up to 120 students at a time.
Every meal at every session is covered. Every field trip, incentive prize, and cap-and-gown graduation ceremony at Red Rock Hotel — all of it funded externally. The only thing a family needs to participate is a parent's signature.
Referrals come from probation and parole offices, The Harbor (Clark County's juvenile justice gateway), school staff, and patrol officers who encounter struggling families on calls. About 30 to 40 percent of students come through The Harbor alone. Critically, DREAM simultaneously satisfies two court-mandated requirements — mentoring and gang intervention — that judges regularly assign to juveniles on parole or probation. No other program in Las Vegas fulfills both at once.
Inside the classroom, a chip-based incentive system rewards participation and initiative. At the end of each cohort, the top chip earner takes home a PS5. Second place earns shoes of their choice. Third gets a gift card. The program's core philosophy, which Officer Baldassarre calls "intellect over emotion," reinforces that message at every session: stop, think, and choose.
DREAM Program At a Glance:
- Free to every participant — ages 10 to 18, no cost barriers
- 12-week cohorts, twice per week — spring, summer, and fall
- East and west Las Vegas sites — up to 120 students simultaneously
- Fulfills mentoring AND gang intervention court mandates (unique in Las Vegas)
- Chip incentive system — top earner wins PS5, plus shoes and gift cards
- Graduation ceremony at Red Rock Hotel with individual plaques and awards
- Pre-, mid-, and post-program surveys track measurable family outcomes
The Man Behind It
Officer Ben Baldassarre: 17 Years on the Force, One Clear Mission
Ben Baldassarre is a Police Officer II with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department — 17 years on the force, and counting. He runs DREAM as its community outreach lead, and he will tell you without hesitation that it is the most meaningful work of his career.
His motivation is personal. He watched an older brother make choices that led nowhere good. That experience shaped a conviction he has carried ever since: right is right, wrong is wrong, and the difference is usually just one adult who was willing to stay in the room.
"I'd much rather you call me before you do something stupid. And when they actually call — that's when you know it's working."— Officer Ben Baldassarre, LVMPD DREAM Program
He answers those calls. At midnight. From teenagers in his program who are about to make a mistake they can't take back. He picks up, talks them down, and walks them through what "intellect over emotion" looks like in real time. That is not in any job description. It is a choice — made over and over — because he believes these kids deserve it.
"Every successful person I've ever met has had a mentor. When you become that outlet — the one they call when things get hard — it's a really humbling feeling."— Officer Ben Baldassarre, LVMPD DREAM Program
Real Impact
720 Graduates. Measurable Change. Lives Pointed in a New Direction.
Since launching in January 2021, the DREAM program has graduated more than 720 students — approximately 250 per year. A spring 2026 cohort launched with nearly 120 enrolled on day one. But the number that matters most is not the graduation count. It is what happens after.
The young man from the opening of this story is one example. Gang-involved at 15. Resistant to every institution that tried to reach him. He ended up in the DREAM program through court-mandated community service hours — and then, something shifted. He graduated. He enrolled at Southern Nevada Trades High School, which pairs a full Clark County diploma with a trade certificate. He is on track to enter the construction workforce with legal income and a credential. His parole officer has seen the change firsthand.
"It's a total 180 from where he was before we got him in the program to where he's at now."— Officer Ben Baldassarre
Another recent MVP — a young man with a juvenile record longer than most adults — won the chip challenge, earned a PS5, took home two pairs of shoes, and received a $333 mentor award at graduation. His parole officer attended the ceremony and left smiling.
"He walked away looking like he just had Christmas morning."— Officer Ben Baldassarre
Parents have reported children who stopped fighting, stopped getting expelled, and started calling home. One parent described a child who had been in nine fights and failed every class before DREAM. After 12 weeks: zero fights, no expulsions, improving grades, and a repaired relationship at home. DREAM tracks pre-, mid-, and post-program surveys for every family — building an evidence base that reflects the real distance traveled.
The impact extends beyond the classroom. DREAM has helped kids enroll in school for the first time. It has connected families to food assistance, emergency clothing, and housing relocation. It has placed youth on trade pathways and into legal employment.
"In 17 years as a police officer, this is by far the most rewarding thing I've ever done."— Officer Ben Baldassarre, LVMPD DREAM Program
Why The Kash Foundation Stepped In
Supporting DREAM Is Exactly Why This Foundation Exists
The Kash Foundation's mission is Back the Brave. Build the Future. The LVMPD DREAM Program is both of those things made real.
It is an act of bravery — officers choosing to go far beyond their job description, showing up personally for young people the system has already written off. And it is an act of building — constructing trust between law enforcement and communities that have every reason to be skeptical, creating pathways where none existed, and modeling what civic responsibility looks like when it's more than a campaign slogan.
Because DREAM is completely free to participants, it depends entirely on external support to function. The Foundation's grant funded the operational infrastructure: food at every session, graduation materials, incentive prizes, and the programming that makes transformation possible.
Without that support, the graduation at Red Rock Hotel — the moment a formerly gang-involved teenager walks across a stage and receives a plaque — does not happen. The chip challenge prize that turned a resistant kid into a program MVP does not exist. The midnight call gets answered by no one.
Mission First is not a tagline. It is the standard every decision gets measured against. DREAM meets it. The Kash Foundation showed up.
Closing
For Officer Baldassarre, moments like the one at Southern Nevada Trades High School are exactly why the program exists. A teenager who once seemed destined for the criminal justice system stood at the front of a classroom — steady, proud, encouraging younger students to choose a different path.
Programs like DREAM prove that with the right mentorship, the right resources, and adults who refuse to give up, the trajectory of a life can change. The Kash Foundation is committed to making sure that investment keeps reaching the kids who need it most.
The mission doesn't stop. Neither do we.
Sources: Interview with Officer Ben Baldassarre, LVMPD DREAM Program, March 2026. LVMPD Official DREAM Program Page: lvmpd.com/about/partners-with-the-community/dream-program.
Fox 5 Las Vegas "Behind the Badge," July 3, 2025. Client stories shared with authorization. Individual names withheld to protect privacy.
