Anna’s story is never far from our thoughts. Each workday, we do our best to create a New Mexico where her story, one of a little girl who wouldn’t see her ninth birthday, inspires us to advocate for strategies that ensure the health and safety of every child.

If Anna’s story taught us anything, it’s that our families struggle to survive. Many are vulnerable because of their inability to access the vital services for surviving and thriving. 

As a society, we permit the proliferation of adverse home environments while failing to ensure universal access to essential services for well-being. 

Mothers and newborns are frequently discharged from hospitals into precarious home environments lacking adequate support networks. 

Moreover, the crucial formative years of a young child’s life often pass unnoticed, with signs of trauma overlooked upon entry into childcare or kindergarten.

Despite being education pillars, schools often lack the resources to address the adversity and trauma students endure during their 13-year academic journey. 

Our youth graduate from school already enduring substance use disorders without a caring network to heal their trauma, adversity, and feelings of hopelessness. 

The systemic failure to allocate adequate funding and ensure access to prevention and treatment perpetuates a cycle of distress, leaving individuals grappling with mental health challenges that extend into adulthood. 

And thus, the cycle of trauma endures across New Mexico.

Trauma is everywhere.

Crucially, adverse childhood experiences and trauma transcend socioeconomic boundaries, affecting households across all income levels. Dismissing trauma as happening on the other side of town ignores its systemic impact. Today, trauma impacts all of us, either directly or indirectly.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can create 100% Family Center: One Stop Service Hubs that link all family members to vital services onsite, online, or through navigation. For those counties with shortages in healthcare providers, teachers, and social workers, our hub has the staff to grow workforces through strategic partnerships with public school, vocational education, and higher education. While not a quick fix, we can start a “grow your own” program to address local workforce shortages in each county today. In the meantime, Hub staff can use their creativity, community connections, and tenacity to bring in caregivers, educators, and professionals in all ten service sectors through a telehealth model. With advances in artificial intelligence (AI) happening faster than we can type on our keyboards, we do not lack the technology to create state-of-the-art service hubs in rural and urban New Mexico, aligned with public and private sector partners.

Possibility abounds.

All of this is possible today. As we support proposals in 15 counties to develop and launch 100% Family Centers, some of which will be community-based while others school-based, we ask one very important question. Can the strategy of one-stop service hubs prevent another case like Anna’s, which represents all the children and youth currently in child welfare custody or at risk of entering child protective services?

Sustainability is key.

Many families are coping with emotional challenges and lack trust in the help of local programs that have historically come and gone with limited funding. Our strategy is a way forward, building a sustainable base of local operations with the staff of professionals to link New Mexicans of all income levels to existing services and, equally important, build services in all ten sectors. We have the science, frameworks, and research briefs to support this bold and audacious undertaking.

We all navigate a traumatizing society and some of us struggle more than others. We know how to change the trajectory of traumatized lives with a vision, mission, goal, and strategy that provide the services to thrive to every family. It will make a difference to every child like Anna.

To support the development of the 100% Family Center: One Stop Service Hub in your county, please contact us.