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
New Mexico Children’s Roadmap Report
Written by Emily Wildau, MPP, and Jonathan Salazar, M.Ed. [...]
2025 New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Book
NM KIDS COUNT Data Book Critical investments in a family- and child-focused policy agenda have improved the lives of families and children in New Mexico, but federal changes threaten this progress. This annual report provides data on numerous child well-being indicators related to economic security, education, health, and family and community, and includes policy solutions. (State-, county-, tribal- and school district-level data on child well-being.)
Recent Blog Posts
New Mexico is Protecting Healthcare Affordability
Boosting New Mexico’s healthcare fund is essential to keeping coverage affordable and helping families rise out of poverty. At the end of 2025, Congress failed to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that had helped millions of Americans afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Their expiration threatened steep premium increases for tens of thousands of New Mexicans who rely on the ACA marketplace for coverage.
Voces Innocentes: How Immigration Enforcement is Eroding Children’s Health and Well-Being
The possibility of encountering immigration officials can have a chilling effect on immigrant and mixed-status families, leading many families to avoid public spaces and services, miss critical pediatric appointments or delay or forgo necessary treatment as they fear the presence of immigration officers at or near health care facilities.
Recent News Coverage
OPINION: The next governor will inherit the investments. Our children will live the results
Albuquerque Journal--New Mexico has made historic investments in children. But investments are promises, not outcomes. New Mexico has taken a bold approach to investing in children and families. The state now provides free school meals to every public school student, expands Medicaid, makes childcare available without income limits, increases funding for public education and uses its extraordinary public resources to help protect families from rising costs.
The next governor inherits the investments
Santa Fe New Mexican--New Mexico has made historic investments in children. But investments are promises, not outcomes — and the next governor will inherit both. New Mexico has taken a bold approach to investing in children and families. The state now provides free school meals to every public school student, has expanded Medicaid, made childcare available without income limits, increased funding for public education, and used its extraordinary public resources to help protect families from rising costs.
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.