Our community has a vision for health equity, environmental and economic justice, and youth & family centered community development. Our neighborhoods in the Airport Road corridor are home to the majority of Santa Fe households with children under 18. For the last ten years, much of our work has been focused in the communities north and south of Airport Road. Hundreds of families, youth and adult allies have participated in workshops, facilitated dialogues, retreats, institutes and classes where we have collectively developed our leadership (defined as collective capacity and action rather than individual qualities). Our members are students and youth who have organized to ban plastic bags and respond to the climate crisis. 
 

Young people who have organized free soccer leagues and safe spaces for immigrant youth. Parents who have demanded more of their schools and their leaders, and organized support for young parents through Abriendo Puertas classes. Our members have led the struggle for the South Side Teen Center, which will finally break ground this summer, for school and community gardens, for bilingual staff in our libraries and interpretation at city and county public meetings. This past year our members organized the Santa Fe Mutual Aid Network and raised 500K to distribute to a network membership that has risen to 1,500 families and individuals.

Though the southside of Santa Fe has not seen adequate public investment in green spaces, culturally and linguistically relevant services, or community development resources -- our community is filled with vibrant cultural traditions, close-knit family networks, small businesses and economic ingenuity, and amazing leaders and visionaries -- young and old.

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Because of inequity, structural, historic and institutional racism our community here in the Airport Road corridor is also being hit extremely hard at the moment, and it’s growing as working families are displaced from the center of town. It is the most densely populated area of the city, and where development and displacement have concentrated poverty. We have been hit hard by COVID-19 because so many of our community members are essential workers on the frontlines of essential service provision, and because of inadequate linguistically and culturally appropriate outreach.