{"id":461558,"date":"2017-11-13T08:26:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T15:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=461558"},"modified":"2017-11-13T08:26:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T15:26:39","slug":"kids-count-goes-on-the-road-to-southern-nm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/11\/kids-count-goes-on-the-road-to-southern-nm\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids Count goes on the road to southern NM"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_461563\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-461563\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_2955-771x538-771x538.jpg\" alt=\"Southern New Mexico Kids Count Conference\" width=\"771\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_2955-771x538.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_2955-771x538-336x234.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_2955-771x538-768x536.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Sylvia Ulloa \/ New Mexico In Depth<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ngage New Mexico Deputy Director Lori Martinez, left, moderates a panel of Do\u00f1a Ana County elected officials including Las Cruces City Councilor Kasandra Gandara, County Commissioner Billy Garrett, Councilor Gill Sorg, and state Reps. Nathan Small and Doreen Gallegos at the first Southern New Mexico Kids Count Conference in Las Cruces on Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Amber Wallin, Kids Count director for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmvoices.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Voices for Children<\/a>, flashed up a photo on a screen during her presentation to childhood advocates and elected leaders in Las Cruces for the first Southern New Mexico Kids Count conference on Thursday. Anyone of a certain age would recognize the black and white photo of a motley bunch of kids in baseball uniforms: The Bad News Bears.<\/p>\n<p>Wallin said people in New Mexico were tired of being those Bears, tired of hearing the same old stats: 49th in child well-being, 50th in education, 49th in community and family. Some were tuning out, becoming numb, or throwing up their hands because it didn\u2019t seem like there was anything they could do to change the situation.<\/p>\n<p>What is her answer to that?\u00a0\u201cPolicy matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/11\/10\/kids-count-goes-on-the-road-to-southern-nm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez in 2013 accepted the federal Medicaid expansion &#8212; and the result of that is that the state has climbed in the rankings on health: 37th overall, less than half the number of uninsured children in 2015 compared with 2010, half the number of teens who abuse alcohol or drugs in that same period, and slightly fewer child and teen deaths.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re focusing on telling stories about the good things happening, and also talking from a solutions-based perspective,\u201d\u00a0Wallin said.<\/p>\n<p>She said that in the past five years, 4,000 more children have gotten access to New Mexico PreK and 4,000 more families have been served by home visiting programs. Home visiting\u00a0supports new parents, leads to more well-child visits and\u00a0has shown the highest\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/Entity\/LFC\/Documents\/Results_First\/Evidence-Based%20Early%20Education%20Programs%20to%20Improve%20Education%20Outcomes.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">return on investment<\/a>,\u00a0according the the Legislative Finance Committee.<\/p>\n<p>With a ranking of 49, there is a huge need in New Mexico for solutions.<\/p>\n<p>James Jimenez, director of N.M. Voices for Children, and Wallin said the numbers are just the start of the conversation. They brought the Kids Count Conference to southern New Mexico for the first time, at the invitation of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ngagenm.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ngage New Mexico<\/a>, a local education nonprofit, because they have been wanting to get closer to communities across the state.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Getting people involved at the local level is how to incorporate cultural values and customize solutions to tackle the grim indicators Kids Count tracks, Jimenez said. N.M. Voices\u2019 next step is to do some of what Do\u00f1a Ana County<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/10\/dona-ana-county-maps-out-plan-for-early-childhood-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> is doing<\/a>, he said: \u201ctalking to the people in our communities. We know what the solutions are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also at the conference were elected leaders from southern New Mexico, including Las City Councilors Kasandra Gandara and Gill Sorg, County Commissioner Billy Garrett, state Reps. Nathan Small, Doreen Gallegos and Joanne Ferrary, and Sen. Bill Soules. Several spoke on a panel about early childhood issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to keep the eye on the ball,\u201d said Sorg. \u201cAnd in this case the ball is poverty. And the way to fix that is education, education and more education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lori Martinez, deputy director of Ngage, who moderated the discussion, urged residents to reach out to their representatives, to talk to them about what they think New Mexico needs to do to improve the lives of children in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want you to engage with your elected officials. That\u2019s the point of this conference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a ranking of 49 in child well-being, there is a huge need in New Mexico for solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":461563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,125,146],"class_list":["post-461558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-education","tag-poverty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}