Current News
(click here to view MEN’s 2003-2008 history)
January, 2009: MEN receives a $45,000 grant from Unidos Funders Allied with Youth as seed money for the Fatherhood Program, to include a Teen Pregnancy Prevention component
February, 2009: MEN is one of 25 recipients (out of 350 applicants) of a $50,000 capacity-building grant from the National Fatherhood Initiative.
March, 2009: Steve Moser LMHC is hired as Fatherhood Program Director. The entire staff trains in the Native American Fatherhood and Family Association’s “Fatherhood is Sacred” program – the first-ever non-Native organization to become certified. Our offices are extensively remodeled to accommodate our staff of three and provide suitable conference and group space.
April, 2009: the first teen pregnancy prevention class is piloted at the Chrysalis School. Crispin Clarke and Steve Moser attend an NFI training in Indiana and are ready to launch the Fatherhood Program. A new at-risk teen group is begun at Vista Grande charter school. Board member Gus Gonzalez begins serving as Clinical Director and attending weekly staff meetings.
May, 2009: The Fatherhood Program is launched with an initial Young Fathers Group of all-teen dads. Evaluations for the ’08-’09 school year show stunning results for both in-school mentorship and the at-risk teen groups evaluations. The year-end field trip for mentees is a river clean-up of Pot Creek, followed by a barbecue. MEN helps organize a volunteer crew to pour a slab for the Chrysalis students. Of the eight boys who receive high school diplomas, six have been Tuesday Night Group participants. The school board proclaims the week of September 14-18 “Taos Nonviolence Week” district-wide.
April-June, 2009: MEN ramps up its networking and grantwriting efforts, formalizing MOU’s and partnerships with numerous partners and sponsors, including the entire NM delegation to Washington, D.C. The annual Mentors Banquet – this time including spouses and female partners and friends – is a success, with Judge Sam Sanchez as speaker. MEN is assigned $24,000 in funding in an appropriations bill introduced by Congressman Ben Luhan, Jr.
July, 2009: MEN submits its application for Mental Health Clinic status, which will enable Medicaid and third-party reimbursement for many services.
August, 2009: The Taos Municipal Schools Board of Education approves MEN's new edition of the Athletic Handbook. The document outlines a nonviolent model of sportsmanship and frames sports in terms of its potential for positive personal development. Coaches are directed to be positive role models for student-athletes, and in turn athletes are to be role models for the rest of the student body. A Parent Code of Conduct is also included.
September, 2009: The School Board, the Town of Taos and Governor Bill Richardson all proclaim the week of September 12-19 to be "Taos Nonviolence Week" with a focus on nonviolence as a topic of study in the school district. The week ends with a training and community presentation by Tony Ostos of GRIP (Gang Reduction is Paramount), a best practices early gang intervention program from Paramount, California.
September, 2009: The first ads for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative appear in the Taos News.
October, 2009: in conjunction with the Juvenile Justice Board, MEN pilots the GRIP gang intervention program at Ranchos Elementary School.
October, 2009: Joey Silva, LMSW is hired as Group Facilitator and will be working in both the Support Groups and Fatherhood Programs.
October, 2009: MEN is awarded a breakthrough four-year grant from the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Division: $75,000 a year for the Fatherhood Program!
