Support a Healthy Community

LEAD Santa Fe County

LEAD Santa Fe County was launched in 2021. The program focuses on harm reduction and diverts people with lowlevel nonviolent offenses tied to substance use away from arrest and toward intensive case management.

A partnership with the Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney, and Public Defender, this project is designed to reduce arrests and jail for eligible nonviolent offenses and to provide individuals the resources to help them stay healthy.

Senior Services

While Senior Centers were closed in 2021 due to COVID-19, services continued. Senior Services expanded food delivery routes from five to eight, and provided healthy, homedelivered meals to seniors. 143,512 healthy meals were delivered to seniors’ homes. ICAN Nutrition Education was provided with 1,606 delivered meals.

Transportation services were offered to take seniors to essential medical appointments and 1,206 trips were completed.

Youth Services

A Youth Services division was added to the Community Services Department in 2021, tasked with streamlining youth education, recreation, and behavioral health funding to develop a comprehensive system of evidence-based services to meet the health and social welfare of youth in Santa Fe County.

In its first year, Youth Services funded 10 youth-focused programs. A public awareness campaign focused on the dangers of fentanyl was launched targeting youth and parents/guardians.

CONNECT

A key element of supporting a healthy community is the CONNECT program. CONNECT does exactly what its name implies, it connects people with the care and services they need to stay healthy. CONNECT is a network of navigators providing resources to support the social determinants of health including housing, food, utilities, transportation, and other assistance. As of 2021, CONNECT consists of over 200 navigators and 60 programs in community service organizations and governmental entities across the city and county of Santa Fe.

In 2021, using CARES Act funding, the CONNECT program contracted with community service providers to provide assistance to individuals and families affected by the pandemic. This included working with city and county utility departments to help residents pay utility bills.

Santa Fe County partnered with the United Way of Central NM and 2-1-1 to be the call center for CONNECT. In addition, Santa Fe Community Foundation provided funding for the creation of a wellness fund to support all organizations within the CONNECT network with flexible funds to further assist residents in need.

In 2021, CONNECT served 1,939 unique individuals with 5,107 assistance requests. From those requests, housing and shelter were the number one need in the community, followed by individual and family support including income support.

Support a HEALTHY Community

La Sala Crisis Center

La Sala Crisis Center opened in June 2021 providing much-needed behavioral health crisis services to Santa Fe County residents. With the support of the Board of County Commissioners and the County Manager and the vision of the Community Services Department, 2052 Galisteo Street was renovated to serve as a state-of-the-art crisis center.

Managed by New Mexico Solutions, La Sala uses a living room model and offers an array of mental health and crisis intervention services. La Sala provides inperson and telehealth crisis interventions as well as individual and group counseling. The Mobile Crisis Response Team operates 24/7 and utilizes La Sala after hours as necessary.

The development of La Sala has allowed Santa Fe Recovery Center to expand medically monitored detox services and to increase from 15 to 27 in-patient beds. Since opening, they have served nearly 25% more clients. Read more here.

Open Space,Trails, and Parks

Managing Santa Fe County’s Open Space is a collaborative effort between the departments of Public Works, Community Development, Growth Management, the Santa Fe County Wildland fire crew, and many partners outside Santa Fe County government.

In 2021, the following projects were accomplished with through regional partners.

• With Santa Fe County Fire Department wildland fire crew, implemented forest management activities at the Ortiz Mountains

Open Space.

• With Master Naturalist program, trained 16 new volunteers, bringing the total number of volunteer Master Naturalists focused on resource management projects to 38.

• With Santa Fe National Forest, stabilized the Rio en Medio to mitigate fire-induced flooding risks.

• With New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and Ecotone

Landscape Planning, conducted a wetland restoration project at

Los Potreros Open Space that included stabilizing the Rio

Quemado by installing Beaver Dam Analogs and enhancing the wetland vegetation. This project leveraged $250,000 of federal funds administered through the NMED.

• With Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, conducted wide resource management projects, including erosion control and wildflower seeding to managing forest health for wildlife.

• With Rio Grande Return, the state’s premier expert on beaver management, and Defenders of Wildlife showcased a “beaver coexistence” program at Los Potreros Open Space and La

Cieneguilla Open Space.

• With local tribal governments, coordinated efforts regarding the importance of resource management and cultural respect at

Thornton Ranch.

• With volunteers, improved pollinator habitat at Thornton Ranch.