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New Mexico Health Equity Partnership News


Generously supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Santa Fe Community Foundation

Click these links to "jump" to sections below:

Network Engagement

The New Mexico Health Equity Partnership (HEP), an initiative at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, believes every New Mexican should have the opportunity to lead a healthy life, live in neighborhoods where our children and families thrive, and have a say in the decisions that impact their communities and lives. To work towards this vision the HEP team:
  • Brings people together via gatherings to cultivate relations, create critical connections, and work towards a common goal;
  • Provides funding, coaching, and training to support community-driven research projects designed to inform decision making; and
  • Invests in movement building in Doña Ana, McKinley and San Juan counties to create the conditions where all New Mexicans are healthy. 
In this newsletter, we share highlights from HEP’s 2018 Statewide Health Equity Gathering on Friday, October 19. We invite you to an upcoming gathering for Environmental Public Health Advocates on December 6, and share reflections from HEP’s recent partner meeting in the northwest region of New Mexico. We encourage you to get involved in HEP by participating in an upcoming gathering, joining HEP as a network member, or donating to support the partnership’s efforts here
 

 
HEP’s Statewide Health Equity Gathering 
“Building Solidarity for Vibrant Communities and Families”
on Friday, October 19th!
On Friday, October 18, 2018, 120 HEP partners, network members, and allies from across New Mexico participated in an all-day gathering in Española at Northern New Mexico College. People traveled from Albuquerque, Aztec, Farmington, Gallup, Las Vegas, Lordsburg, Mexican Springs, Santa Fe, Sheep Springs, Shiprock, Taos, Torreon, Zia Pueblo, etc. to build relations across New Mexico’s diverse communities and sustain a network to advance health equity and social justice. We extend our gratitude to the over 50 community organizers and leaders who facilitated ice breakers, workshops, and small group sessions and supported with back-end logistics. Participants facilitated change, through peer sharing of community knowledge, organizing tools and techniques, and best and promising practices to build community power. Collectively, they created a space for participants to feel connected, inspired, empowered, engaged, excited, and informed. So far participants are using the following words to describe the gathering!

Positive * Revived * Relationship * Humble * Fulfilling * Mind-expanding * Family * Informative
 
If you attended the gathering and haven’t completed the evaluation, please do so here. We want to hear your reflections and feedback. Please visit and like our Facebook page to view more photos.
 
The gathering was followed by a reception at Northern New Rio Grande Heritage Center, where everyone enjoyed good music, delicious food, and a fun photo booth.
On October 20, many HEP partners also attended a transformative day-long fundraising training, Building People Powered Movements: Grassroots Fundraising Fundamentals in Española at Northern New Mexico College. Participants came together to strengthen fundraising skills and foster abundance, community accountability, and strong relationships to build power for grassroots movements. HEP is honored to have partnered with the national organization, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), who facilitated the training, Chainbreaker Collective and NewMexicoWomen.Org to organize this important event.
photos courtesy of NMWomen.org

Policy & Advocacy

December 6 Gathering of
Environmental Public Health Advocates

A small group of environmentalists and public health people is working to bring more public health voices forward in the debates over public policies, especially at the state and national levels.  Information about environmental conditions can be hard to access for a variety of reasons. And the linkage between environmental conditions and health effects can also be obscured. This makes it challenging to communicate with and persuade legislators and elected officials that action is needed.
 
An example might illustrate this point. Chlorpyrifos is a particularly toxic pesticide that attacks the nervous system of animals and humans.  It has been widely used across the country, as well as in New Mexico. But New Mexico has never made information available about where it is being used. Thus, there is no identification of children who live near fields and golf courses that are sprayed with pesticides, nor is it possible to identify the farmworkers who apply the pesticides. (Some other states require this information). How would a health provider link symptoms to these exposures? Will health providers step up to ask that pesticide information be made public, and that dangerous pesticides be banned? A federal court has finally ordered that EPA ban the use of chlorpyrifos, but it is unknown if the Trump administration will prevail in its appeals. These are the places where we need to work to advance public policy.
 
The environmental community is eager to expand our work with the public health community. We will be convening a meeting in Albuquerque December 6 to talk more about how we do this. Please let us know if you’d like to be included. And, if you want to see more about some of these issues, check out the Environmental Protection Network on Facebook, NRDC, EDF, the Sierra Club, or one of many other activist groups in our state and country.  Thanks for the work you do.
 
Carol Romero-Wirth (carolrw@newmexico.com)  and Denise Fort (fortde@law.unm.edu)

Capacity Building

San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity –
2018-2019 Iina Baa Hozho Family Conference

The San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity (SJCHE) works to identify and address the social, economic, and environmental causes of health inequities for Diné communities in northwestern New Mexico. SJCHE strives to build the leadership and partnerships necessary to improve health outcomes. They utilize a decolonized thought process to bring about positive social change and transformation, focusing on Diné identity and survival. SJCHE’s vision is for Diné communities to live healthy, sustainable lives, in harmony and balance.
 
SJCHE works in collaboration for sustainable growth with the Iina Baa Hozho Health Wellness Committee and various Health Providers within the Newcomb Schools region. This year the Iina Baa Hozho 2018-2019 School Year Kick-Off Family Conference was held in summer 2018 to promote healthy well-being. Over 75 people joined the event. The Family Conference offered participants opportunities to develop skills, awareness, and the abilities necessary to strengthen the identity and culture already inherent in the children through their families. The guiding principles underpinning the project will address the need for a long-term vision to promote and strengthen the community through communication, collaboration and learning. The project fosters collective growth and strives to connect community and school leadership; as well as to provide families opportunities to develop a "Wellness Toolkit".
Both photos above are of the Kindergarten Boot Camp. The children in the left photo are learning the Food Pyramid.
The above photo on the left is of the registration sign-in and information table. The table was managed by Teacher, Ms. Kristen Simo and Elvira Dennison. Standing in the white pants is Newcomb Elementary School Principal, Ms. Deborah Belone. All three women are very proud members of the Iina Baa Hozho committee! Thank you so much to these outstanding leaders!

Submitted by Hazel James, SJCHE Coordinator
McKinley and San Juan Counties
Core Partners Visit Reflections
 
Throughout the year, HEP core partners take turns hosting quarterly meetings to highlight community efforts, share wisdom, and learn with and from each other. On September 19-21, 2018, the McKinley Collaborative for Health Equity and San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity hosted core partners and community members from Doña Ana, McKinley, San Juan, and San Miguel counties, the HEP team, and Santa Fe Community Foundation Leadership. Partners described the experience as transformative, inspiring, thoughtful, thought provoking, spiritual, grateful, amazing, beautiful, uniting, and loving.
 
Here are some reflections regarding what partners learned and took away from the visit.
  • Going to the farm was so informative – the connection to the earth,
  • My big take away was the importance of collaboration in the areas of health, justice, equity. Working in collaboration rather than seeing themes divided. While there are specifics to each place, the issues unite.
  • What was most important is learning that you have to speak up. It is hard when people are not heard... I look up to the people I met. They are very strong to do what they love and cherish.
  • It is important that the stories are being shared with your families and communities – they are coming to life. The stories keep the fire going – the fire of awareness and love.
 We’d like to thank the McKinley Collaborative for Health Equity and the San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity for being such gracious hosts and for sharing their knowledge.
  
Please visit and like our Facebook page to view more photos.
Partner Capacity Building Opportunities and Events 

Santa Fe Community Foundation - The HEP’s institutional home, the Santa Fe Community Foundation (SFCF), is committed to supporting nonprofits in achieving their missions with excellence. The SFCF’s Philanthropy HUB has been designed as a learning and gathering place for the philanthropic sector. The HUB's programs strive to: 1) deepen philanthropic practice; 2) build nonprofit capacity; 3) provide support for professional advisers; and 4) provide platforms for learning about social issues in community. Upcoming trainings and presentations include: 
If you are a HEP network member and you have an upcoming training, workshop, or other capacity building opportunity open to community members and organizations, please send information about it to David Gaussoin and the HEP team can include it an upcoming newsletter.
Join us for a panel discussion with a powerful group of Native American women entrepreneurs who have tackled racial and gender barriers head-on to create inspirational pathways of business success, uniquely woven with cultural identity and community values.
 
We invite these remarkable, resilient business and community leaders to share their personal journeys. Their reflections will be on what it would take to fully harness the power of Native American women entrepreneurs and to shift the past narrative of negative bias, trauma, and wealth disparities to one of lifting the communities with entrepreneurship, self-determination, capacity, and network of supportive relationships.
 
We will also invite perspectives of philanthropy on why this matters especially in New Mexico and what authentic partnership should look like to ensure success and long-term change.

A short report from the inaugural Native Women’s Business Summit attended by over 200 Native American women in business (held in April 2018 in Albuquerque, NM) will provide a foundational context for a rich panel discussion followed by question and answers, and networking.

The Panel is second in webinar/speaker series of the New Mexico Asset Funder Network and hosted by the Santa Fe Community Foundation.
When: November 5, 2018 from 2pm - 4pm
Where: Santa Fe Community Foundation

Click here to register
Donate Today
New Mexico Health Equity Partnership – Generously supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the Community Foundation of Southern NM, and RISE Boys & Men of Color for more information, please visit nmhep.org

Our mailing address is:
P.O. Box 1827, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-1827


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