New Mexico Community Foundation
Begins the Year with New Board Members

SANTA FE, N.M., January 17, 2012 – - New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF) announces the appointment of two new board members. The staff and current board of NMCF are happy to welcome new board members from Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The Foundation is working hard to extend its reach to include members well versed in health policy and health services, as well as corporate finance.

“By engaging new leaders, we can create and promote issues that range from building rural economies to promoting equality and health reform for women and families throughout the entire state” commented Jenny Parks, president and CEO of the New Mexico Community Foundation. “Our foundation builds relationships with community leaders, nonprofits, donors and their financial advisors to create greater opportunity and prosperity in New Mexico.”

New members include:

Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D. currently conducts policy analyses and research at the University of New Mexico where he serves as the Executive Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as professor of Family and Community Medicine and Economics.  He coordinated a twelve-country adolescent health study throughout Latin America for the Pan American Health organization and currently serves on the international planning committee for the Annual Bi-national Health Policy Forum on Migration and Health.

Matthew A. Jaramillo is the Director of Government Affairs for the New Mexico Finance Authority. Matthew manages and directs the interaction with legislatures, legislative committees and staff as needed to educate and inform legal decision makers regarding the NMFA’s programs, vision and strategies. He received his Master of Business Administration from the Anderson Schools of Business at the University of New Mexico.

The two new members join an eight-member board that oversees New Mexico Community Foundation’s finances, grant making policies and practices, strategic planning and statewide outreach. Current board members include; Board Chairman, Jay Rosenblum, CEO and President of Sutin, Thayer and Browne law firm, Treasurer Bruce Bleakman, partner in The Rogoff Firm, New Mexico’s largest public accounting firm, retired Estee Lauder Companies CFO, Robert Bigler, attorney Teresa Leger de Fernandez, Ted Olin Harrison, founder and president of Commonweal Conservancy, Patricia McBride CEO and Managing Member of Santa Fe Investment Partners, Tony Monfiletto, founder and executive director of ACE Leadership High School, and Barbara Poley, Executive Director of the Hopi Foundation. Visit our Board of Directors page to learn more. 

NMCF Partner, Adobe in Action (AiA), has launched a new and improved Web site as well as announced a spring curriculum for those interested in learning about adobe construction or pursuing AiA’s Certificate in Adobe Construction. AiA provides adobe construction education for the benefit of community development and cultural enrichment and preservation. To reach a broad range of students, the courses are offered as a blend of online and live instruction and synchronize with ongoing Adobe in Action building projects. A certificate of completion is offered by Adobe in Action for each class successfully completed. Visit the new site to register for a course, to learn more about current projects and volunteer opportunities and to support the work of Adobe in Action!

This week AiA Executive Director Mike Lopach and Paul Derby, a professor from Vermont’s Castleton State College, will connect with other leaders promoting environmental and cultural sustainability at the Sustainability Conference 2012 in Vancouver, B.C. Lopach and Derby will inform conference goers of AiA’s work through a presentation entitled  “Adobe in Action: Students Learning Sustainability through Experiential Education”.  The presentation will use firsthand reflections from students from a small, rural state college in Vermont who partnered with AIA to construct a home for a low income family. Through this experiential learning opportunity, students learned that adobe construction provides a holistic education of environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability. The collaboration between AiA and students highlights how the organization works to better communities with engagement and participation from many sources.

Eldorado Safe Zone contest winner, Amelia Adcock, with her art teacher, Roni Rohr

In October and November of 2011, New Mexico Community Aids Project (NMCAP), a partner of New Mexico Community Foundation, helped train 80 teachers, nurses, social workers and counselors who work at Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) as part of the Safe Zone Program. This program offers support to students who are the targets of teasing and bullying, as well as those who are struggling with identity issues. By decreasing isolation and marginalization among these young people, NMCAP hopes to improve their well-being and academic success while decreasing the incidence of HIV, substance abuse, depression and suicide. Additional training and program expansion are planned for 2012.

The SFPS Safe Zone program was officially launched this November with all middle schools, high schools and community schools in the district participating. A student competition was held within SFPS to design a logo for the program. Amelia Adcock, an eighth grade student at the El Dorado Community School, created the winning design which was incorporated into the sign that will be used to designate the classrooms and offices of Safe Zone contacts in the district.

In addition to Santa Fe Public Schools, NMCAP is also working with the Safe Zone program at the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). With support from a local donor, NMCAP is supporting the leadership of this program in creating a strategic plan to sustain and expand the program. In collaboration with the Santa Fe Mountain Center, NMCAP is providing training for a group of APS students who will provide support for the program in the schools they attend.

Junior high and high school age volunteers from Ghost Ranch's Summer Youth Service Corp learn to mix adobe.

Adobe in Action, in coordination and partnership with other entities, promotes access to affordable, quality, sustainable and energy efficient housing to those who have fewer resources. This year the organization has employed thousands of labor hours from dedicated volunteers and students from over twenty distinct groups in exchange for education in traditional brick building skills. All told, volunteers have produced over 6,000 adobe bricks which will be used to build Adobe in Action’s first home for an Espanola family in need. Adobe in Action is hopeful to begin construction on their first home in June 2012. In the future, Adobe in Action strives to create synergy between motivated citizen volunteers and experienced adobe home builders in order to continue building energy efficient housing for families in need. Follow their progress and learn more about volunteering at First House Blog.

This February, with the help of a newly hired Director of Education, Adobe in Action will begin offering an adobe building curriculum both online and at the First House work site. A final curriculum, course dates and other educational opportunities will be posted to their website in a few weeks.

View New Mexico Community Foundation’s 2010 Annual Report.

– Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Dasheno

Click image to read a letter from Santa Clara Pueblo Lt. Governor Bruce Tafoya

This Sunday, the national edition of Parade Magazine will feature their Annual Giving Issue. Parade Magazine, which is distributed in more than 500 newspapers, will feature the Santa Clara Pueblo “We Will Heal Seedling Project” as one of their nine stories about communities that were devastated by natural disasters in 2011. “We Will Heal” is a fund held by New Mexico Community Foundation that was established to help in the restoration of Santa Clara Pueblo’s land after the Las Conchas wildfire, the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history, destroyed 80% of their ancestral lands during the summer of 2011. Each donation of $5 goes directly towards the purchase, planting and tending of one seedling.

“This is our only homeland, the place we have been entrusted with since time immemorial,” noted Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Walter Dasheno. “Never again in our lifetime will we see our Santa Clara Canyon as we have known it.”

In this season of giving, Parade magazine encourages their readers to donate in honor or in memory of someone they love. These gifts of money seek to restore the beauty of the fertile Santa Clara Canyon for this and future generations of tribal members.

Parade Magazine is hoping to accomplish an outpouring of donations, be it goods, services or funds, from its nearly 70 million readers who wish to help these communities get back on their feet. For Santa Clara Pueblo, the need comes for the rehabilitation of the Pueblo’s ancestral lands. 17,000 acres of Santa Clara Pueblo’s tribal forested land was devastatingly impacted by wildfire and subsequent flooding.

“We are thrilled to have this Fund Featured in Parade Magazine. We hope that it will significantly help the Pueblo reforest the Santa Clara Canyon, which is so important to the Pueblo’s history and culture” remarked Jenny Parks, President and CEO for New Mexico Community Foundation.

Federal agencies have stated that it will take approximately 100 million dollars over a period of ten years to address the 90 plus project in Santa Clara Pueblo. For more information, please watch Las Conchas Fire Aftermath in Santa Clara Canyon.

To make an online gift to the Santa Clara Pueblo Fund, please visit our Greatest Needs or visit our Give Now page for information about phone or mail-in donations. Visit Parade Magazine to read more about the Santa Clara Pueblo “We Will Heal Seedling Project”.

Letter from Santa Clara Pueblo Lieutenant Governor Bruce Tafoya
November 18, 2011

Jenny Parks
President and CEO
New Mexico Community Foundation

Dear Ms. Parks

Santa Clara Canyon has been inaccessible since the August monsoon floods. The area from the Ranger Station west to the 4th pond area has been washed out by the floods. Large boulders and fallen tress now line the area. In some areas the Santa Clara Creek bed is gouged out almost 15 feet when it was a foot or two. This inaccessibility has hampered assessments by various federal and state agencies. The north and south sides of the area adjacent to the canyon are3 open to wood cutting and hunting to tribal members.

The tribe, in coordination with its partners, has estimated it will take 100 million dollars over the next ten years to address some 90 plus projects to rehabilitate the forest, provide for fishery and recreational opportunities, assure continue agricultural viability with access to non polluted water from the headwaters, and most importantly, access to spiritual and cultural sites. The tribe has embarked on the “We Will Heal Seedling” Project, an intergenerational effort to plant seedlings over the 17,000 acres that were impacted. This intergenerational effort will bring children, youth, adults and elders together to plant seedlings in the spring and fall of the years to come. They will plant, nurture, grow and spiritually be with the trees for decades. They will grow together. Grandma and Grandpa can tell their grandchildren these are trees we planted when we were your age years ago. We, the forest and Tewa people, will heal together.

However, a major concern is potential flooding during the spring runoff in 2012. Santa Clara experienced two partial evacuations of homes adjacent to Santa Clara Creek during the past monsoon season. Although the creek has been lined with Jersey barriers and sand bags this past summer, a flood of 5,000 cubic feet/second or more would cause major flooding in the village. It would affect all the homes along the creek, the Community Neighbor Facility, Senior Center, Adult Day Care Center, and the Day School. The Pueblo has an evacuation plan in place that needs to be tested as an emergency exercise. We expect flooding but do not know the magnitude it will be.

Lt. Governor Bruce Tafoya

Photo by Frank Keillor

Artesia Special Hospital District Healthcare Occupations Scholarships (ASHD) is a new fund of New Mexico Community Foundation, offering scholarships to students who reside in the Artesia and surrounding communities of New Mexico. Through the generosity of this fund, ASHD will provide grants to students in the healthcare field for the Spring 2012 semester. Individual scholarships will be awarded at a $1,000 minimum.

To be eligible for an ASHD Healthcare Occupations Scholarship, applicants must be currently employed by the Artesia General Hospital. They must have at least one semester of college with a GPA of 3.0. Applicants must be pursuing careers in the healthcare field (administration or operations). The scholarships awards will be determined by financial need, and given for education at accredited institutes of higher learning only. Scholarship awards are to be used for on-campus room and board, the cost of tuition and books, or supplies and equipment required for course instruction, not to exceed the total cost of attendance.

Application deadline is December 16, 2011.

Download the Guidelines and Criteria:

ASHD Scholarship Application (.doc)

ASHD Scholarship Criteria for Students (.pdf)

Vista Grande Public Library (VGPL), a nonprofit public library serving unincorporated areas of southeast Santa Fe County, is a new partner of New Mexico Community Foundation. They seek a creative, organized and user-oriented Library Director to work with a dedicated group of volunteers and a dedicated Board of Directors.

The Vista Grande Public Library is a nonprofit corporation established to serve the residents of area communities with free and equal access to resources, materials and services that encourage and support their educational, cultural, recreational, intellectual and informational interests. Its mission is to stimulate a life-long love of learning in an environment that fosters community interaction.

Unlike other public libraries that operate with local government funds, this library is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, with its membership consisting of adult library-card holders. VGPL has worked with New Mexico Community Foundation to set up a fund that will assist the library in receiving donations needed to cover their operating costs.  To learn more about VGPL, visit their website: www.vglibrary.org

Qualified participants are encouraged to submit a cover letter with resume, three professional references and salary requirements, to the address provided in the Job Posting by December 10th.  Download the VGPL Library Director Job Posting (.pdf)

The New Mexico Centennial Garden Program is an initiative of the New Mexico Centennial Foundation, working in partnership with state agencies and private partners. Through the generosity of the Coca Cola Foundation, the NM Centennial Foundation is able to provide grants to support school and community garden projects in New Mexico in 2012. Grants will be available at levels of $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000.

To be eligible for a Centennial Garden grant, applicants must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or nonprofit K-12 school that is developing or currently maintaining a garden project that will help communities engage with fresh fruits and vegetables. Garden projects may be at any stage of development; planning, construction or operation. In selecting grant recipients, priority will be given to both limited-resource communities and to projects that demonstrate strong collaborations and community support. Relationships with food banks or other outlets to distribute food to New Mexicans in need are a plus.

Download the guidelines and application or visit the NM Centennial website for more information.

Contact:  Jodi Delaney, 505-984-2012

Women leaders working to effect positive change in New Mexico

According to the New Mexico Teen Pregnancy Coalition, a current recipient of the New Mexico Community Foundation’s (NCMF) Women Building Community collaborative, four out of ten New Mexican teenagers will become pregnant at least once before they reach twenty-one years of age. New Mexico has the second highest rate of teen birth in the nation at a cost of $550 million per year to the State (according to the most recent data collected in 2004) and immeasurable costs to individual and community health.

On Thursday, November 3, Renee Villarreal, Director of Programs and Community Outreach at NMCF, Adriann Barboa of Young Women United and Sylvia Ruiz of the New Mexico Teen Pregnancy Coalition, spoke with Elaine Baumgartel on the KUNM Call-In Show (a fiscal sponsor recipient of NMCF) about sex education, reproductive justice and the biggest problems facing young women in New Mexico today. Listen to the show and learn more about how organizations supported by NMCF are promoting positive community change, such as enhancing the health and economic well-being of women and girls, by investing in women leaders and their local efforts.

In 2010, the Women Building Community Fund extended $300,000 in grants to help fund the community-based work of 12 women of color-led organizations and their designated projects. Grant making for 2011 included seven women of color-led organizations with projects focusing on a reproductive justice framework. Learn more about Women Building Community and invest in women leaders by visiting our Greatest Needs page.