SANTA FE, July 28, 2022 — On Wednesday, July 27, the Governing Body approved a total of $3,871,950 for three years of funding of community services through several nonprofit agency partners. This is the largest amount the Human Services Committee has ever recommended for funding.

The funding prioritizes goal areas identified in the Human Services Committee Strategic Action Plan to address adult health, behavioral health, community safety, and equitable society. An additional intention is to support nonprofit agencies in their efforts to screen individuals for social determinants of health—access to health care, housing, healthy food, transportation, and other social and material supports—and to link these individuals to the services and resources to address those unmet needs. This navigation takes place via the CONNECT network, a joint partnership between Santa Fe City and County that consists of over 60 programs and more than 250 navigators at clinics, hospitals, schools, and community service organizations across Santa Fe. Community members can self-refer into CONNECT through santafenm.gov/connect.

Director of Youth and Family Services Julie Sanchez says: “Funding unmet social and human services for our community is critical not just for the well-being of those residents but for the overall health, safety, and quality of life of the community at large. The City is fortunate to have so many partner organizations that have proven track records of providing services effectively and efficiently.”

The Governing Body approved these three-year contracts:

• $286,500 to St. Elizabeth Shelters to provide navigation and safety net services to homeless individuals;
• $286,500 to the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center to provide legal immigration and/or navigation services to individuals;
• $286,500 to Coming Home Connection to provide navigation services, caregiving services, equipment loan services, and cleaning services to individuals;
• $207,750 to Esperanza Shelter, Inc. to provide emergency shelter to individuals who are adult victims of domestic violence via the residential program and to provide community navigation to nonresidential individuals who are domestic violence survivors or offenders;
• $475,500 to Interfaith Community Shelter Group, Inc. to provide navigation and safety net services to individuals receiving services at Pete’s Place;
• $239,250 to The Food Depot to provide critical hunger relief safety net Services and to provide navigation services to individuals; 
• $248,700 to Partners in Education-Fathers New Mexico to provide navigation services to parents, immigrant families, or individuals with identifiable challenges in accessing food, housing, education and employment resources;
• $286,500 to Las Cumbres Community Services to provide specialized safety net and navigation services to adult immigrants and newly arrived Afghan refugees;
• $286,500 to La Familia Medical Center to provide diabetes prevention, chronic disease management, medical, health education and navigation services to low-income residents;
• $223,500 to The Life Link to provide low-barrier navigation services to individuals experiencing homelessness and untreated mental illness;
• $286,500 to YouthWorks to provide navigation support services to disconnected youth seeking assistance in accessing housing or food resources.

The following three-year contracts are recommended for funding by the Human Services Committee and are subject to approval by the City Manager:

• $176,250 to Kitchen Angels to provide prepared meals to low-income, homebound, chronically and terminally ill individuals and to provide navigation services to newly enrolled individuals;
• $192,000 to Literacy Volunteers of Santa Fe to provide Basic Literacy and English as a Second Language tutoring to individuals:
• $129,000 to Solace Crisis Treatment Center to provide navigation services to individuals who are victims of sex crimes;
• $129,000 to The Birthing Tree to provide prenatal and postnatal services to individuals;
• $129,000 to Santa Fe Dreamers Projects to provide DACA related legal services, Green Card-related legal services, and to provide Naturalization-related legal services to individuals.

The Human Services Committee consists of seven members who are appointed by the Mayor for terms of three years with consent of the City Council. The mission of the Human Services Committee is to build and strengthen community capacity to address the most critical community health and wellness needs and improve outcomes for adults and families throughout Santa Fe. The primary responsibilities of the Committee are to advise and recommend health and human service policies, assess and advocate for human service needs, coordinate resources to maximize cost-effectiveness, evaluate local human service programs, provide technical assistance to programs, and make funding recommendations to the City Council to support nonprofit organizations that provide and maintain a safety net of services to meet the essential health and human service needs of the residents ages 18+ of Santa Fe. Committee members have backgrounds in population health, evaluation, policy, behavioral health, community services, and some members are licensed medical professionals.

Committee Chair Carrie Thielen and Vice Chair Tres Hunter Schnell: “We would like to congratulate the grantees on this award of funding for fiscal years 2023 – 2026. We are grateful for the time and attention grantees put in to developing applications that address the HSC Strategic Action Plan priorities and health indicators. We look forward to partnering with the grantees to improve population health and the social determinants of health for Santa Feans. We are encouraged that, through strong and effective collective actions, we will achieve our stated result with these funds of equitable access for the people of Santa Fe to a happy, healthy, safe and thriving life.”