100% New Mexico Initiative

100% POWER HOUR

100% Family Services Directory Project

PLEASE NOTE: This page contains supplemental information for attendees of the 100% New Mexico initiative Power Hours. Attendance is free, but registration is required. Please register here. This page also guides local readiness workshops for county initiatives.

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100% NEW MEXICO INITIATIVE: COUNTY RESOURCES

100% Family Service Directory Project

We are providing the slides and narrative text used in the 100% Family Resources Directory Project webinar being offered by the Anna, Age Eight Institute. The webinar is designed to give 100% New Mexico initiative members an overview of key concepts and issues related to implementing the initiative in their county with a focus on strengthening family service directories and linking residents to vital services in each county. Currently ten counties are engaged in the initiative.

Webinar participants are encouraged to enroll in the 100% Power Hour 7-part webinar series for more background in the initiative. We also invite you to use this page for local presentations in order to increase public awareness of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, social adversity and the data-driven prevention strategies of the one-stop service hub model, the community schools model and ensuring 100% of families have access to the internet.

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Before we begin our presentation, we want to allow for a moment of quiet reflection. Please take a minute to perform the self-care of your choice.

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The learning objectives of the 100% Family Services Directory Project are that participants completing the webinar will be able to describe an overview of: the 100% New Mexico initiative, the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma and social adversity on families, schools and community; identifying services with the capacity to meet needs, the focus on ten vital services being accessible, key strategies to increase services; and getting started.

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Participant Guidelines: The 100% Power Hour process is designed to create a vehicle for building awareness of the initiative and serve as a catalyst for ongoing local community dialogue. The presentation design follows the “teach the teacher” format, developed to allow participants to provide the presentation to their initiative members and local stakeholders. To create an environment for community dialogue, we offer simple guidelines.

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Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the contribution of all initiative members across the state who have been part of the iterative process of developing the 100% New Mexico initiative to meet the unique needs of rural and urban families, as well as those serving culturally and economically diverse populations in the south and west. We also are grateful to the state and local lawmakers who have supported the initiative.

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PART ONE: 100% New Mexico initiative: Challenges and Solutions

The 100% New Mexico initiative, like many health initiatives across the state and country, seeks to prevent the costly challenges that diminish the lives of children, students and adults. We don’t lack data that documents our students’ health and safety challenges. Every state department of health provides data on the incidence of illness, injury and violence, along with reports that detail our students’ troubling experiences with challenges outside the home. We don’t lack data to illustrate how many of our students are struggling with schoolwork or dropping out. We know the risk for ongoing substance use disorders, violence, untreated mental health challenges and joblessness.

We are united in ensuring that 100% of county residents have access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. This presentation will provide an overview of one of the three key strategies for empowering students and families called the community schools model.

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The 100% New Mexico initiative is the centerpiece of the Anna, Age Eight Institute’s programming. It was developed by institute co-directors Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello who are the co-authors of Anna, Age Eight and 100% Community.

Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment guides communities in addressing epidemic rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that occur in the home and social adversity that families face outside their door. The book also addresses the role of schools in preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma.

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100% Community: Ensuring 10 vital services for surviving and thriving is the blueprint that 100% New Mexico initiative participants are using to assess barriers to vital service and build a countywide system of care that includes timely access to vital services. The book details how we collaborate to build the services in each county. One of the ten vital services would be a fully-resourced community school.

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The 100% New Mexico initiative is working, county by county, to ensure the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. Our children, students and families can only struggle without these services shown to increase health, safety and resilience for residents of all ages. The initiative aligns the local work of county and city leaders committed to health equity and racial justice.

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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are ten forms of adversity, abuse and neglect that children endure in the home. As we begin, we wish to point out as many as a fourth to half our students are enduring the ten ACEs. Even those students who may be fortunate enough to score a 0 on the ten-question ACEs survey navigate a homelife, school and community of those with much higher scores.

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The impact of ACEs does not stay in the home. Almost all our costly health and social challenges can be traced back to ACEs, trauma and the ways people cope with damaged families. Adults with untreated trauma due to ACEs can struggle to learn, parent, work and become a contributing member of the community.

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Social adversity arrives once one steps outside their door. Adversity in the form of service barriers, discimination, lack of access to the internet and living in areas without good paying jobs can diminish the lives of children, students, parents, caregiving grandparents and all county residents.

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Our initiative is guided by a “Framework for Change.” In our “Framework for Change” action is the “D” part of the four-phase continuous quality improvement process. Action, including fundraising, is all part of the change process that leads us to “E” and engagement. This means leadership and a local movement committed to our desired result: 100% of our kids and families thrive.

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The county initiative teams are building and strengthening relationships with a variety of partners on the state, county and city levels. The partners are key to securing funding and support for local 100% New Mexico projects.

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Change agents work on our three key strategies: 1) creating a 100% Family Center which is a “one-stop shop” and central hub for ten vital services, 2) making every school a fully-resourced community school which serves as a service hub with ten services, and 3) ensuring internet access across the county to make web-based services and supports a reality.

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REFLECTION QUESTION: As you think about the problems and solutions presented in the initiative overview, take a few moments to reflect on the potential challenges families face when seeking services.

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PART TWO: What is the directory?

The 100% Family Services Directory Project is part of the county-wide 100% New Mexico initiative. The initiative is a county-focused capacity-building process, headed by local stakeholders who are identifying barriers to vital services and working to ensure easy and timely access for all family members.

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The Family Services Directory Project was created to engage local stakeholders in the process of assessing the capacity of ten vital service areas to meet the needs of local residents living within a county’s borders. These services were coined as the “services for surviving” and “services for thriving” in the book 100% Community: Ensuring 10 vital services for surviving and thriving. The directory is created and curated by local stakeholders. Directory staff always connect with and discuss a service with the organization before posting it.

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The initiative represents a large tent where residents from different service sectors, elected officials and the arts community meet to dialogue and brainstorm the best way to achieve health equity goals by addressing disparities and barriers to services. The goal of the Directory Project is to create an online directory (which can also be replicated in print form) to link residents to vital services. The Directory is part of a community capacity-building process that seeks to understand barriers to services and remove them.

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The Family Services Directory is different from most other online directories in many ways. Before a directory is produced, county stakeholders review data on the accessibility of ten vital services. The directory is an assessment tool for local change agents who are working to increase service across the entire county.

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REFLECTION QUESTION: How can a local directory serve as an assessment tool for those seeking to ensure vital services?

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PART THREE: How is this directory different from most?

The goal is for local stakeholders to take ownership of a directory that serves all the communities within a county’s borders. Local people know their residents and their local service better than those outside the region. Through the process of assessing ten vital service areas, directory designers are able to identify which service areas need to be strengthened and where.

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The problem with many directories, including searches online for services, is that there is no assessment of the service being posted. For example, a person may launch a youth group but have no training in youth development. Nor might the person pass a background check. Some services require certain types of licenses and some providers require certain types of accreditation. Without a local screening process, there is not a guarantee that a particular service is reliable, safe or dependable. We know that local people know their communities best and can vet all service agencies before posting them on a local directory.

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The directory project, part of the larger community development process, is learning how families can face barriers to survival services and services to support thriving. In some counties, 30% of families struggle to reach medical care (before and during a pandemic). Almost 50% of survey respondents in one county reported needing and struggling to access behavioral health care amid an epidemic of family trauma. Many families reported seeking job training but struggling to access it.

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REFLECTION QUESTION: Who in your county and city government is working to remove barriers to vital services?

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PART FOUR: Service directories and ensuring services

The Directory Project sheds a spotlight on a variety of challenges for the county to address. The project also provides the catalyst for new opportunities that include:

  1. Developing a one-stop service hub called the 100% Family Center
  2. Developing a process to transform schools into fully-resourced community schools with health center
  3. Ending the digital divide so all households can use the internet to access information, education, care or support. Many services now offer web-based services that we wish to ensure all residents can access.
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We often hear a government or agency representative say, “We are connecting families to resources.” Our action teams engaged in the 100% New Mexico initiative have the data to illustrate how many services are inaccessible to families. We must always be willing to question statements that make broad assumptions about services for residents. Without data, one does not know what’s accessible across all communities within a county’s borders.

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100% New Mexico initiative Action teams learn which communities within a county struggle the most to access services. They can be both rural and urban areas where services are scarce or lacking the capacity to provide user-friendly services. The Directory provides an opportunity for residents to rate service in a variety of areas (such as cost, accessibility, hours, cleanliness, etc), which action teams can review and make a plan to address.

The 100% Family Services Directory is always growing, as services grow to meet the needs of all children, students, parents and caregiving grandparents. Action teams work in alignment with city and county government staff to coordinate the work of ending service barriers.

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REFLECTION QUESTION: What is the status of web-based and written service directories in your county? How are they updated regularly?

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NEXT STEPS: Reflect on the presentation and your notes. Review the books and links to research provided. Reach out to colleagues, friends, family, neighbors and local elected leaders to discuss the 100% New Mexico initiative. We have designed this presentation so that it can be used with local elected officials within city and county government and school board members, agency leaders (representing the ten vital services), representatives from local higher education, faith-based and community-based organizations and your neighbors and friends.

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Consider registering for the next 100% Power Hour 7-part webinar series to learn more about the 100% New Mexico initiative. We hope to see you there. For any questions about the webinar series, the initiative, research guiding the process or practical steps in starting the initiative, please contact us annaageeight@nmsu.edu.

Additional Resources

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