Courtesy photo

Courtesy photo

LACF News:

Los Alamos Community Foundation shares an update on its Nonprofit Emergency Response Funds.

In collaboration with funding partners and generous donors, a second and final round of grants were recently awarded from the fund.

Nearly $31,000 was distributed to 20 organizations to aid in emergency response assistance. Please join us in saluting all of our grantees who continue to pivot, evolve, and show up every day to get the job done. Our communities are stronger as a result of your work.

This grantmaking would not have been possible without the support of our funding partners, and we can’t thank them enough! Each of these grantmaking institutions stepped up to the plate at a moment’s notice, pulling together in collaboration and solidarity to help meet the needs of nonprofits in our region during this trying time.

THANK YOU to Con Alma Health Foundation, Delle Foundation, LANL Foundation, LANL/Triad National Security LLC, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B), and United Way of Northern New Mexico. 

Together, along with contributions from donors in our communities, this collaborative effort awarded $60,270 to thirty-seven organizations doing important work in Los Alamos and Rio Arriba Counties. All of the emergency response funding has now been expended in full – with 100 percent of all contributions having gone directly to our region’s nonprofits! 

We are excited to share that this won’t be the last you hear from our collaborative group of grantmakers!  We are collectively working on the next phase of this effort, which will adapt to meet the ongoing needs of our nonprofits. We look forward to keeping you apprised! 

The nonprofits receiving funding in this final round include:

• 3HO Foundation of NM
• American Red Cross
• Cancer Foundation NM
• Dream Tree Project
• El Rito Art Association
• Embudo Valley Library and Community Center
• Española Humane Society
• Española Pathways Shelter
• Family Strengths Network
• Food Depot
• HELP-NM
• INSIDE OUT
• Los Alamos Arts Council
• Los Alamos Historical Society
• Luciente
• McCurdy Schools
• San Gabriel Historical Society
• San Martin de Porres Soup Kitchen
• Truchas Library and Service Center
• Self Help

Below we highlight a few of the many deserving organizations that we had the privilege to support:

Española Pathways Shelter

The Española Pathways Shelter closed its doors temporarily to dive into facility renovations so they can open later with four times the space, better ventilation, showers, and a more COVID-19 compliant shelter. But that has not stopped them from serving. Since then, Española Pathways Shelter staff took to the parking lot four evenings per week, screening for COVID-19 symptoms, serving food, beverages, PPEs, hygiene supplies, and clothing. They are also providing tents and sleeping bags, as their budget allows. At the same time, staff is busy helping guests get into detox/rehab and housing. Plus, they are connecting guests with financial assistance, food stamps, their families, transportation, and much more. Receiving emergency grant funding allows them to keep this work going!

Family Strengths Network

One of the challenges that FSN has faced during the pandemic is how to adjust an organization that thrives on “not” being isolated – to serve families without being with families. Fortunately, FSN was able to quickly move much of its programming to remote platforms. While it is hoped that someday soon families can meet together, creating remote networks for families at this time is critical. FSN’s remote programming includes parent education, parent discussion groups, and toddler parent activities. FSN has also opened the Toy Library and Beth Ladino Family Resource Library up to families by appointment.  Receiving funding during the pandemic means that FSN is able to offer resources to families at a time when families are facing an abundance of stress as they try to juggle jobs, finances, daycare, health, child education and more.

Rio Arriba Adult Literacy Program

RAALP was looking forward to a great Spring and Summer, with fully-booked tutor trainings, a new semester in partnership with Delancey Street, and rolling out a digital literacy program. When the pandemic hit, they had to cancel everything. But they didn’t go away!

Gradually, they have rebuilt their program for these new distance-learning realities. Debuting the digital literacy program early, they have distributed ten laptops, signed up six students to the language-learning app Voxy, and connected eight students to Windstream Internet. RAALP will keep meeting these needs for students, so tutoring and literacy learning can continue. Not only does this maintain RAALP’s services but it also sets them up with a wider toolset for reaching student needs. We could not be making these ongoing efforts without support from our community.

Self Help

Though fears around the COVID-19 pandemic are beginning to wane, its worst consequences are just beginning for the working poor, especially for those most vulnerable—undocumented people, single parents, the medically compromised. After losing income during the stay at home order, thousands of northern New Mexico families are behind on bills and frightened about their futures, and many are falling through the cracks of the services designed to help them. They need our help.

As one of the region’s oldest poverty aid nonprofits, Self Help is the safety net that keeps people from losing their homes or going without other basic needs such as water and medical care. Emergency funding grants helps to pay for vital emergency aid—ranging from emergency food, to drug copays, to rent and utilities and more—for families in Los Alamos and across northern New Mexico. Armed with hardworking volunteers, generous donors, and the partnership of community groups such as All Together Los Alamos, they are meeting a vast array of emerging needs.

As one client recently told us, “Mr. Rogers said to look for the helpers, and you guys are really the helpers. I don’t know where we would be right now without you and we won’t ever forget this.”