Healthy & Safe Communities
Safe and supportive communities build resilient families and a strong state. But our communities, workforce, and economy cannot be healthy when so many New Mexico children and families lack access to a comprehensive and high-quality system of physical and behavioral health, prevention, and wellness resources. And none of us can be healthy and safe until we do a better job of taking care of our natural environment, which includes lessening our collective carbon footprint and protecting our air, land, and water.
Featured Content
Art as an Alternative
Given that so many youth within the state’s juvenile system have faced multiple adverse childhood experiences, any effective rehabilitation efforts must address their long-term impacts. This report looks at how informal diversion programs based on the arts can help youth who are dealing with ACEs heal and reintegrate into their communities while saving the state money.
Health-in-All-Policies for New Mexico
Your state of health is dependent on many variables – including where you live, how much you earn, and even how far you went in school. These are called “social determinants of health” and they not only impact your health but they also impact your ability to choose a healthy lifestyle. Everyone’s health could be improved if lawmakers took these determinants of health into account when creating public policies. This report offers an overview of the determinants of health as well as the policies that can improve health for all.
Ending Childhood Food Insecurity in New Mexico
New Mexico’s childhood food insecurity rate has long been at or near the highest in the nation. The pandemic and resulting recession only made it worse. This report looks at why food insecurity is such a problem in New Mexico, how it impacts children and families, and what the state can do about it. (State- and county-level data on food and economic insecurity)
Recent Publications
From Poverty to Prosperity: How SNAP Benefits Impact Child Poverty and Well-Being
By Emily Wildau, MPP Download this report (May 2025; [...]
New Mexico Rural Medicaid Fact Sheet
Fact Sheet Medicaid is essential for providing health coverage to New Mexicans, particularly in rural communities. Children and non-elderly adults living in small towns are more likely to rely on Medicaid for their health insurance. Potential federal cuts to Medicaid would be devastating for our state, threatening a vital lifeline to health care.
Recent Blog Posts
The Big Beautiful Bill Passed – What We Need From You
Dear Friends, On July 4th, the President signed a [...]
Federal SNAP Changes Will Mean More Hungry New Mexicans
No one deserves to go hungry, and the vast majority of our friends and neighbors in New Mexico have held this fundamental belief for generations. But despite the proven success of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Congress is seeking cruel cuts to federal funding that will leave many families hungry.
Recent News Coverage
Advocacy group talks report ranking New Mexico last for child wellbeing
KOB--The 2025 National Kids Count is in, putting New Mexico at the bottom for child well-being. “A reminder that these numbers are from 2023, so we hadn’t fully implemented our almost universally free childcare and access to pre-K yet in 2023, it was just starting to roll out. That number we expect it to rise in coming years,” she said. Graduation rates are still trending upward, but stats that do raise some eyebrows are math and reading scores.
Report: NM’s child well-being shows mixed momentum
Public News Service--A traditional marker used to measure child well-being in the U.S. shows New Mexico notched both improvements and declines in several areas. The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count Data Book historically shows New Mexico at or near the bottom of its report, which puts it at 50th in the nation. Emily Wildau, senior research and policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children, said it is important to remember the data was collected in 2023, when kids and families were experiencing severe inflation from the pandemic.
Programs, Coalitions & Networks
The New Mexico Environmental Public Health Network became a program of NM Voices at the start of 2021. As our work both on public health and environmental health and justice had been ramping up over several years, it made sense to bring this project into the NM Voices family. As our previous environmental health focused on protecting federal lands and mitigating the harm done by oil and gas exploration and extraction, the NMEPHN work is more broadly based on protecting the state’s natural resources of air, water, and land.
New Mexico Civic Engagement Table A project of the Center for Civic Policy, NMCET unifies more than 40 diverse organizations from different sectors around a common agenda to strengthen our democracy. Among its issues are economic justice, early childhood education, climate justice, immigration reform, and economic development.