2006 Awards for Contributions to Community Sustainability
At the SFF06 Graduation, held June 7, 2006, at The Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts in Santa Fe, the group awarded local people for their contributions, often involving significant collaboration, to Santa Fe's sustainability as a community.
Literacy Volunteers is a non-profit organization that collaborates with neighborhoods, schools, Santa Fe Community College, families and employers to provide basic literacy and English as Second language services to the immigrant community for the purpose of building job and survival skills, encouraging citizenship and expanding educational opportunities. We recognize Barbara Arguedos, Director of Adult Basic Education at SFCC, Letty Naranjo, manager of Literacy Volunteers and Amanda Rivera, workplace program specialist as representatives of this program.
Katherine Freeman, Executive Director United Way for Santa Fe County, collaborated with the Santa Fe Public Schools, the Council for Educational Improvement, and the community of Agua Fria to establish the Agua Fria Children's Zone. The AFCZ program is working toward the establishment of a comprehensive network of support services and programs to strengthen family and community ties to create a safe, healthy learning environment. The AFCZ is a innovative model demonstrating how to strengthen assets in the community and embrace and support the public schools.
Beginning in 1993 with her involvement in the Center for Contemporary Arts Teen project, which later evolved into Warehouse 21, Ana Gallegos y Reinhardt has been an active participant in developing and nurturing artistic production, youth entertainment and entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth of our community.That young Santa Feans have an outlet for their artistic inclinations is largely because of one person's efforts to keep Warehouse 21 going.
Gail Herling is the Adelante program director from the SFPS office of student wellness. Adelante provides critical services to over 600 homeless students in Santa Fe. Adelante provides supplies and services to this population such as clothing, school supplies, tutoring, advocacy, transportation, emergency funds, food and after school program scholarships. Adelante enhances students opportunities in many ways and also provides services to disadvantaged families through their Juntos project.
David Kaseman, cofounder of Santa Fe Alliance and partner in Locals Care, has done much to educate the community about the importance of doing business with local businesses and recirculating money in the local economy. Locals Care is a newly established venture that rewards consumers with cash credit on purchases from locally owned businesses, and supports organizations benefiting children.
Al Lucero, owner of Maria's New Mexican Kitchen Restaurant, is honored for his commitment to employee welfare, demonstrating that business can thrive by valuing its employees as well as profit. Interestingly, but not unexpectedly, his employees have rewarded Mr. Lucero with exceptional loyalty.
Serving as a primary source of information for the Spanish-speaking population and as a forum in which immigrants have a voice in our community is La Voz de Nuevo M?xico and we recognize Flor de Maria Oliva for her commitment to the immigrant population as the editor of this publication.
Debra Oliver, owner of Common Ground Mediation Services and a facilitator with Community Dialogue Network, is honored for demonstrating the effectiveness of facilitated dialogue in creating effective communication between disparate groups with little apparent basis for common ground. We believe facilitated dialogue offers the best opportunity to break out of unproductive and worn-out patterns of interaction.
The Catholic churches play an integral role in welcoming the immigrants as part of our community, connecting them to resources within our community, supporting political initiatives to bring attention to the challenges immigrants face and embracing and celebrating linguistic and cultural traditions of the Mexican/Latin American population. Two leaders stand out in particular for their dedication to serving the needs of the immigrant population: Father Frank Prieto of the San Isidro Catholic Church and Father Tien-Tri Nguyen of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
Mark Sardella, Executive Director of Local Energy, is honored for promoting recirculation of money in local economy and reliance on local energy resources, helping communities develop and utilize local, renewable energy resources. We believe his proposal for a biomass-fired energy system to heat downtown Santa Fe (Local Energy received a $1.3 million USDA grant in 2003 to design the system) deserves approval by the city.
Taylor Selby, Executive Director of Earthcare International, which currently serves approximately 1,500 children annually in Northern New Mexico and has provided sustainability education courses for over three years through the Santa Fe Public Schools District Charter schools. Earthcare is currently involved in a resourceful collaborative initiative called Santa Fe Learns. This program is intended to build the capacity of our children from a whole systems perspective by bringing schools and communities to work together to support the well-being and development of students, their parents, and the larger community.
Margo Shirley, Principal, and Denise Mares, Vice Principal, at Ortiz Middle School, which serves an economically disadvantaged community and also has a high percentage of students that are English Language Learners. These individuals have worked tirelessly over the past six years to improve the school's achievement and resource gaps.
Kris Swedin, Steve Whitman, Craig Fiels and Linda Hall, of the City of Santa Fe Economic Development Division, were honored for developing and continued support of the city's Economic Development Plan. The plan is a major asset to economic development efforts,
Channel Segura Wilson is a Capital High School Teacher who is involved in the Advancement Via Individual Determination Program, which is a national college preparation program that targets underrepresented students who are defined as being in the academic middle. AVID is implemented locally by collaborative partnership between the Santa Fe Public Schools and the Santa Fe Community College and is at Capital high through the Northern NM ENLACE program.
Naomi Woodspring, owner of Solution Development and founder of the Middle Ground Project works to support and facilitate grass roots approaches to problems, informed by participants as experts of their own lives. Her work in community development and community organization provides an exemplary model of how we can create community spaces in which all members are heard and valued.