Question: Can you share a little about the visionary work of the 100% Socorro initiative?

Sharon Sessions: 100% Socorro is a county-wide initiative with the goal of ensuring that 100% of residents have access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. It is part of the 100% New Mexico initiative, orchestrated by NMSU’s Anna, Age Eight Institute, and driven locally by our community members who are working toward the vision of “100% thriving.” Our partners and collaborators include the entire membership of the SCOPE health council, educational partners including New Mexico Tech and the Socorro Consolidated School District, government partners, non-profits, and local businesses working together toward this common goal.

Question: You have been collaborating with the 100% New Mexico initiative since its launch three years ago. With your county initiative formed and your 100% Summit scheduled for November 18th, what are the key questions you are asking your county residents?

Sharon Sessions: What would it take for 100% of Socorro County residents to have access to the vital services needed to survive and thrive? Services like food security, housing, medical and dental care, behavioral healthcare, and transportation to get to these services? What would it take to ensure that all families had access to early childhood education, parent supports, and youth mentoring? What would it look like if all schools were community schools with personnel who could connect students and their families to the services they needed? And for job training programs to be available and accessible to everyone who needed them? What would Socorro County look like if this were our reality? 

Question: What are the questions the initiative members are asking as you work in alignment with stakeholders across the county? 

Sharon Sessions: It starts with knowing where we are right now. We have to ask, based on our assessment of families in our survey, how far away are we from 100% Socorro, a place where everyone can connect to vital service, being our reality? For the answer to that question, we ask the people who live here. Our surveying and conversations are asking important questions. What is your experience? Have you ever needed medical care? Mental healthcare? Have you had difficulties getting these services? What were the difficulties? Did you know where to find them or were they too expensive? Could you find a provider but not transportation to get there? 

Question: Why are these questions important?

Sharon Sessions: Understanding the barriers to these ten vital services is the first step toward finding solutions to remove them. The second step is working together to find solutions.

Question: What did your first survey tell your local stakeholders?

Sharon Sessions: In 2019, before the pandemic, Socorro conducted one of the first 100% New Mexico surveys in the state. Over 500 residents from across the county responded. At the time, 88% reported needing medical care. Of those, 30% reported difficulty accessing it, with the primary difficulties including too long of a waitlist, high cost, and finding a quality provider. The same barriers were reported for the 38% of people who reported difficulty accessing mental healthcare (out of 35% who reported needing it).

Question: How has access to services changed since the lockdown ended?

Sharon Sessions: It is now 2022 and the needs for these services have undoubtedly changed due to the pandemic. To identify our present needs, Socorro will be re-administering the 100% New Mexico countywide survey from mid-October through mid-December. We are hoping for at least twice the number of respondents, including members from all towns across the county, and New Mexico Tech students. Understanding common and unique challenges across all populations will provide opportunities to share resources and strategies that will amplify the impact of the actions aimed at reducing barriers to these vital services. We are encouraging all Socorro County residents (over 18) to participate in the survey. In return, we commit to working together to reduce the barriers to the vital services needed for 100% of Socorro County residents to survive and thrive.

Question: For some people, the work of the 100% initiative which involves assessment and policy changes, sounds abstract. How would you explain to people what the work of ensuring services means?

Sharon Sessions: What the work of 100% Socorro means, in the real world, is that a child like the eight-year-old called Anna, from the book Anna, Age Eight, won’t have to endure hunger, housing instability, and lack of medical care. It means that our children and youth won’t have to endure adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and social adversity.

Question: We live in an information-overloaded society with nonstop messages about crises that can be distracting at best and paralyzing at worst. How do you keep from being disengaged by all the messages of gloom and focused on the positive work of the initiative?

Sharon Sessions: It is important to first identify 1) what is really important, and 2) what you actually have the ability to influence, then focus your energy on the intersection of those two things. Most of the messages about crises are completely outside of our control yet paralyze us with fear, affecting our ability to impact the things that matter and we can control. Another important strategy is to find other people who are dedicated to helping with the problem. Talking with others and actually planning action is an extraordinary antidote to paralysis by fear and apathy. We have an incredible team in Socorro and solid support at the state level. They are dedicated and their energy is contagious, which provides the inspiration and energy to continue on.

Question: What can you tell us about the 100% Socorro Summit?

Sharon Sessions: The summit is an opportunity to bring all our initiative members and partners together under one roof to strengthen our shared vision and goals, as well as offer practical information on how to remove barriers to ten vital services. The gathering will strengthen our collaboration across service sectors, improve the alignment of the work, and make stronger connections between NM Tech and the county. We will have presentations on the power of being visionary and the practical aspects of the work that includes funding, policy, and moving from a scarcity mentality to the belief that we have the resources to make every childhood trauma-free, with families empowered to succeed in well-resourced schools and communities.

More information and data will be presented during the 100% Socorro Summit on November 18. The survey and information about the summit can be found at www.100nm.org/socorro/summit (survey coming soon). 100% Socorro can be found here: www.100nm.org/socorro/ You may download a free copy of Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment, one of the books guiding the 100% Socorro initiative, here: https://www.100nm.org/anna-book/.

Some content from this post originally appeared in a guest column by Sharon Sessions in the newspaper “El Defensor Chieftain.”