When Brian Blalock entered his new job as cabinet secretary at the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) approximately a year and...
Government officials and public health professionals say there’s no sugar-coating it: The coronavirus outbreak that’s done a number on the Gallup area...
“On call” means something different these days for Johnnie Bradford. As the longtime housing supervisor for Carlsbad Transitional Housing, she has always...
Transitioning out of juvenile justice is already laborious for many young people. It’s infinitely more difficult during a global pandemic. “They’re literally...
The arrival of the coronavirus in New Mexico in mid-March toppled the lives of the state’s foster and at-risk youth, who were...
The COVID-19 pandemic spotlights the disproportionate impact of crises on our most vulnerable communities, particularly here in New Mexico. Reports across the...
As a longtime advocate for children, youth and families in New Mexico, I wholeheartedly believe in the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage...
For decades, we have repeated and recapitulated: Our nation’s foster care system is broken. New Mexico, which receives the lowest markers of...
Las Cumbres Community Services is providing crisis services to immigrant families and children in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organization is...
New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment and that certainly holds true. In the four years I had the joy...
The child welfare challenges brought about by the current COVID-19 pandemic have easily been the most disquieting for Maria Calderon, protective services...
Javier seems like a well-adjusted teenager on the surface. He’s gregarious, funny, sometimes brutally blunt and also a bit awkward. When the...
New Mexico’s already low performance in child welfare hit rock bottom on Sept. 22, 2018: Thirteen foster youth, represented by Disability Rights...
For a couple of years, homeless foster youth, runaways and other at-risk children in southern New Mexico had a handful of emergency...
When the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness applied for a HUD grant on youth homelessness in 2018, they weren’t expected to...
All over America, there are people who can’t stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some always knew their jobs carried risks: Doctors...
For a child, separation from a parent — even one who may have been neglectful or abusive — can be very traumatic....
I am 20 years old. I was a foster kid for the majority of my life. CYFD (New Mexico Children, Youth &...
As a young person who was in foster care as a teenager, I have come to realize that there are many misconceptions...
Youth who enter the foster care system in New Mexico and nationally tend to be between the ages of 1 and 10...