LAS VEGAS – At the Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS) office in West Las Vegas, people file through the front doors every day seeking relief.
They sit patiently in the waiting room to talk to a state worker who can help them access health care, food and other critical services they need to survive.
While it’s only a few miles off the Las Vegas Strip, the office feels like a world away from the beautiful casinos, luxury stores and high-end entertainment venues that draw millions of visitors every year.
For Dawn Ashford, a family support specialist, the work she and her colleagues do is more than a job. It’s a calling to support children and families in need.
“It’s a lot of work. It is challenging and things are changing rapidly. But we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t care,” Ashford says.
She and her fellow AFSCME Local 4041 members at the DWSS connect individuals to services like Medicaid and nutrition assistance.
Earlier this month, Ashford welcomed another person who came in through the front doors. But instead of seeking help, he was there to offer it.
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) visited her worksite to see firsthand what Ashford and her colleagues are doing to support the most vulnerable.
As the co-chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus, Horsford helped lead the charge against the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
That law was passed by extremists in Congress, gutting SNAP and health care benefits to give massive tax breaks to billionaires who don’t need them.
Ashford told the congressman how the One Big Beautiful Bill has made her job even harder at a time when more families in Nevada are struggling to afford the basics. The state has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation.
She explained how she processes more than 10 cases on average every day, and how they are becoming more difficult because of time-consuming requirements in the new law.
“If it’s a brand-new application to our system, it can take anywhere from an hour and a half up to two hours,” Ashford said. Across the state, there are about 20,000 people who are in the backlog waiting for help.
Now that federal cuts to vital programs are beginning to take effect, some 43,000 Nevadans could lose their nutrition assistance in the next few weeks.
Rep. Horsford expressed his deep appreciation for the work that Ashford and her co-workers are doing to support those in need.
“Dawn, I really respect your work because it’s the dignity in the work that you do and the compassion that you provide to these people who walk through these doors,” Horsford told her.
He reaffirmed his strong support for workers to come together and create unions through AFSCME.
Across Nevada, state workers are building power through AFSCME. The state’s administrative and clerical workers recently filed to vote for their AFSCME union.
“Right now, we have people who are trying to take our rights away, our freedoms away, and our opportunities away,” Horsford explained. “But the power is in the people. When we show up and vote together, we win together. And that’s how I think we can uplift all of our communities.”