PB&J Family Services

PB&J Family Services (PB&J) has been helping at-risk children grow and develop to their full potential in nurturing families within a supportive community since 1972. Our services include high quality wraparound support through case management, therapy, parenting education, home visiting, and youth safety and peer support groups. We serve families in Bernalillo, Valencia, and Sandoval Counties and the surrounding pueblos, most of whom have incomes below the poverty line and who all face challenges like mental illness, disabilities, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and/or incarceration of a family member. Some families also face challenges related to immigration status or are newly arrived as a refugee. Too often, child abuse and neglect are byproducts of these stressors. However, our families also exhibit tremendous resilience and perseverance in the face of generational and systemic obstacles to thriving. We support families as they strengthen bonds of love and attachment and healthier coping strategies to create positive environments for their children, tackling the child wellbeing crisis in New Mexico head-on. PB&J engages families in topics such as child development, positive parenting, safe environments, bonding, healthy eating, and life skills development. Services are provided through an intergenerational and trauma-informed approach. We meet families where they are, and often this means working in their homes, at schools and community centers, in parks and nature areas, and at providers’ offices (such as helping families apply for income support or accompanying them to doctors’ visits). Accomplishments include: * The University of New Mexico (UNM) Evaluation Lab has found PB&J’s interventions make statistically significant improvements in family outcomes as measured on the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) and Protective Factors Survey (PFS). These are our two primary, evidence-based assessments—the eight NCFAS domains include: environment, parent capabilities, family interactions, family safety, child well-being, social/community life, economic self-sufficiency, and health. The PFS measures client’s own assessment of social, emotional, and financial resources available to the family, and of parenting attitudes. Evaluation has been ongoing since 2016 and is helping establish PB&J as an evidence-based program. * PB&J launched new programming in 2022 to support school-aged youth with a recent US Department of Justice grant. As one of only nine grantees across the country, PB&J convenes a central New Mexico community planning team who is addressing youth violence and service access barriers. PB&J has created children’s support groups and girls’ safety groups in Title I schools, community centers, and within juvenile justice facilities to build social emotional well-being and increase protective factors to prevent or mitigate future victimization or acts of violence. * PB&J just celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2022. At its “Thanksgiving Family Reunion,” hundreds of volunteers, former clients, staff, and board members celebrated the tangible difference PB&J is making in the lives of families across central New Mexico. What began as a volunteer effort in 1972 to support children’s wellbeing has grown into a nationally recognized nonprofit serving more than 1,500 children and parents each year.