100% San Juan Initiative
Grants Awarded
The "Seeds to Stars: Bloomfield Youth Outdoor Learning" program is a 15-month initiative for about 25 students from Mesa Alta Junior High, providing outdoor education and job preparedness. Conducted in Bloomfield, New Mexico’s Gathings Community Gardens and surrounding areas, it emphasizes outdoor recreation, environmental learning, creativity, and job skill-building for financially or socially disadvantaged youth. The program aims to strengthen outdoor engagement and nature learning, impart environmental stewardship and local agriculture knowledge, cultivate job and leadership abilities linked to agriculture, and enhance social-emotional resilience through outdoor arts. The services are designed for primarily low-income, rural students, featuring the use of Emory University's Social Emotional and Ethical (SEE) Learning model to encourage compassion, self-awareness, and community responsibility. The program runs from July 2026 to December 2027, including planning and refinement stages, monthly outdoor sessions followed by weekly intensified outdoor days, and culminating in youth-directed projects.
100% San Juan Initiative is a collaborative effort bringing together partners across San Juan County ensuring that every child and family has access to ten vital services for surviving and thriving, including food security, transportation, parent supports, youth mentorship, and job training. The shared vision for San Juan County is that 100% of families can thrive. The shared mission is to strengthen local capacity so communities themselves can address the social determinants of health and education. After informal conversations in 2021, we began formal organizing in January 2022, and our funding has steadily grown each year. The initiative operates as a fiscally sponsored advocacy initiative with a shared-leadership model that includes 10 sector action teams (food security, housing, transportation, early childhood, youth mentorship, job training, community schools, parent support, medical/dental, and behavioral health), family resource leaders, and an outreach/success mentor role. Primary funding has come from a diversified portfolio that includes NMSU/Anna, Age Eight Institute, Con Alma, McCune, New Mexico Foundation/Anchorum Community Health Fund, and other local funders. Recent accomplishments include launching a Success Mentor in collaboration with the San Juan County Navigation Center for service navigation, hosting eight Family Hui parenting cohorts county‑wide, collaborating with Tres Rios Habitat for Humanity on an Academy on Community Action cohort, supporting food box and garden collaborations, coordinating cross‑sector summits, and maintaining a countywide family services directory. Together, these efforts have built strong partnerships with schools, nonprofits, and public agencies to implement evidence‑informed, community‑driven solutions that measurably improve family stability and youth opportunity.