Town of Hagerman, NM Signs Resolution for 100% Chaves
County and city resolutions are sending a strong message that local government plays an important role in ensuring vital services for families.
by Dominic Cappello
January 16, 2023
Like all counties across New Mexico and the nation, adverse childhood experiences and the adverse social determinants of health impact all residents directly or indirectly through a lack of access to vital services. In Chaves County, stakeholders have kicked off the 100% Chaves initiative to address historical challenges. The initiative is a collaborative and data-driven process with the goal of creating an environment where every child can thrive.
Chaves County, New Mexico is the home to approximately 65,000 residents within it the county seat of Roswell and the towns of Hagerman, Dexter, and Lake Arthur. Of the 23,691 households, 37.7% are supporting children under the age of 18 living.
100% Chaves initiative founder and city councilor Dan Jennings shares, “The Town of Hagerman approved resolution 121322-1 in support of the 100% Chaves County initiative with the goal of ensuring ten vital services for surviving and thriving in Hagerman and all of Chaves County.”
Taos County passed a similar resolution last year, supporting the 100% New Mexico initiative. Addressing epidemic rates of adverse childhood experiences requires some heavy lifting and the collective energy of all local stakeholders within the public and private sectors. Local support of mayors, city councilors, county commissioners, school board members, state lawmakers, and tribal leaders is key to the success of a local 100% New Mexico initiative.
Jennings has been busy, recruiting local stakeholders for the Anna, Age Eight book club and the ten initiative action teams, each team focused on ensuring access to one of ten vital services that include medical care, mental healthcare, food security, housing security, transportation, parent supports, early childhood learning, community schools, mentor programs, and job training. The goal is to create a seamless system of care and empowerment to support self-sufficient and healthy families and allow students to achieve success in school and become job-ready. Jennings also designed an online environment to house all the resources to support and guide the 100% Chaves initiative, including the promotion of their survey of residents asking, “Can you access vital services, and if not, what are the barriers?”
Hagerman Mayor Tony Garcia understands, “This is what we needed. Many times families in rural areas get left behind due to not having the resources that bigger communities have.” By supporting the 100% Chaves County initiative, we can “bridge the gap that any resident in the Valley may have to help them connect to a better life.”
Jennings is reaching out to all county and town leadership, as well as school leadership and the health council, to work in alignment with a shared vision. Dan offers:
In my conversation with Dan, it’s clear that he and his initiative participants are big-picture people, seeing how everything connects. Services need to support families in getting the first five years right so kindergarteners are trauma-free and ready to learn in twelve years of public school. School success depends on students and the entire school community being well-resourced, with state-of-the-art curricula along with easy-to-access healthcare. The goal is for all students to be high achieving and healthy, ready to develop the skills to find good jobs, and able to contribute to a local economy.
We applaud the vision and work of 100% Chaves, strengthening systems through collaboration with local government and all community stakeholders.
The full text and signatures of the resolution follows. Please download and share a PDF copy of the signed document.
RESOLUTION 121322-1
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF 100% CHAVES COUNTY INITIATIVE
ENSURING 10 VITAL SERVICES FOR SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN HAGERMAN, NEW MEXICO
WHEREAS, the 100% Chaves initiative in Chaves County, part of the 100% New Mexico initiative of the Anna, Age Eight Institute housed at New Mexico State University, is a data-driven and collaborative countywide strategy with the goal of acknowledging historical trauma and historical service disparities, and preventing adverse childhood experiences, family trauma and social adversity with the goal of creating trauma-free childhoods in fully-resourced communities that lead to safe households, school achievement, community engagement, job readiness, and a self-sufficient and healthy life in New Mexico, and
WHEREAS, the 100% New Mexico initiative is a collective impact process that has identified 10 vital services for surviving and thriving and is committed to ensuring that the 10 services shown to empower children, students and families are accessible to all, and
WHEREAS, the five services for surviving are medical and dental care, behavioral health care, housing security programs, food security programs, and transportation, and
WHEREAS, the five services for thriving are parent support, early childhood education, community schools, youth mentor programs, and job training, and
WHEREAS, we understand that these services are provided by a patchwork of public sector and private sector entities, some supported by state, county, and city governments, and that the strategy is not to ask local governments to fund all ten services; instead, it asks us to leverage our people and policies to support and encourage all the providers of vital services, as well as innovators throughout the public and private sectors, to work in alignment and collaboration, and
WHEREAS, 100% New Mexico provides a tested framework that connects the dots between vital family and community services, informed by data and research, empowered by technology, and guided thoughtfully by collaboration and the commitment to work in alignment with county, city and tribal stakeholders, and
WHEREAS, 100% New Mexico initiative in Chaves County has already established a multidisciplinary team representing ten vital service sectors with a shared vision and goals, working to identify gaps in vital service areas and addressing them through a process of assessing, planning, action, and evaluation, and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Hagerman supports the 100% New Mexico vision and goal of ensuring that throughout Chaves County the 10 services shown to empower children, students, and families are accessible to 100% of our residents.
Mission: The 100% New Mexico initiative is dedicated to ensuring that 100% of families can access ten vital services crucial for their overall health, resilience, and success. This university-sponsored endeavor necessitates the local implementation of evidence-based strategies encompassing both community and school-based service hubs, aiming to prevent the most pressing and costly public health and safety challenges, including adverse social determinants of health and adverse childhood experiences.
Dominic Cappello
Cappello is a New York Times bestselling author and TEDx Conference curator with decades of experience advocating for health, safety and education. He has a Master of Arts in Liberal studies with an emphasis on Language and Communication from Regis University. He worked for the New Mexico Department of Health Epidemiology and Response Division and the New Mexico Child Protective Services Research, Assessment and Data Bureau, where he co-developed the Data Leader for Child Welfare program, which he implemented in New York City, Connecticut and New Mexico.
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The 100% New Mexico initiative is a program of the Anna, Age Eight Institute at New Mexico State University, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service. Contact: annaageeight@nmsu.edu or visit annaageeight.nmsu.edu to learn more.
