Service Pillars

CAASNM’s programs are organized into four allied “pillars” which provide a comprehensive array of health, financial, and social service programs. These pillars are: Family Wellness; Family Empowerment; Bridging Resources; and Community Connections.

  • CAASNM Family Wellness pillar programs work with families, home childcare providers and licensed childcare centers to improve access to healthy, nutritious meals for children and train providers on topics of nutrition, exercise, safety, and child development.
  • The Family (Financial) Empowerment pillar assists families to become more self-sufficient by providing programs and services that allow them to improve their economic quality of life. Activities include free computer literacy and financial literacy classes, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and Children’s Savings Accounts, free tax preparation, and business development and workforce development.
  • The Bridging Resources pillar staff connect families to community resources and benefits that can increase family and financial stability. Its Benefits Services program employs a highly skilled, case management approach to connect client families to community resources and benefits.
  • The Community Connections pillar represent collaborations between CAASNM and other independent organizations and programs in the community that CAASNM fiscally sponsors, such as Coats4Kids, The Children’s Reading Alliance (a separate 501(c)3), and Cancer Aid Resource & Education, Inc. (CARE) helping area cancer patients.

FAMILY EMPOWERMENT

The Family (Financial) Empowerment pillar assists families to become more self-sufficient by providing programs and services that allow them to improve their economic quality of life. Activities include free computer literacy and financial literacy classes, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and Children’s Savings Accounts, free tax preparation, and business development and workforce development.

FAMILY WELLNESS

CAASNM Family Wellness programs work with families, home childcare providers and licensed childcare. The Child and Adult Food Care Program (CACFP) provides reimbursement services for nourishing food for individuals who operate daycare services in their homes for children and adults with disabilities. The Healthy Kids Healthy Preschool initiative trains childcare centers to promote healthy eating, physical activity, reduced screen time and breastfeeding resources.

The Thriving Kids Home Visiting program provides critical life skills partnering for families of children ages 0-3 living in rural areas of Doña Ana County, NM. Adopting a nationally recognized and evidence-based early childhood education model, Parents as Teachers, it brings CAASNM mentors into the home setting to assess, educate, and support young families

BRIDGING RESOURCES

The Bridging Resources staff connect families to community resources and benefits that can increase family and financial stability. Its Benefits Services program employs a highly skilled, case management approach to connect client families to community services by screening them for benefits, including SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), health insurance, utility assistance and cash assistance. Access to these programs can make the difference for families in their daily struggles to meet their basic needs.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

The overall goal of CAASNM’s Thriving Families initiative is to partner and mentor with families to identify, pursue, and engage the community opportunities and services that will ultimately see them thrive as family units in society. Thriving Families is a whole family approach that creates change for families using intensive case management services. It will build on these strengths to create a next generation, truly wrap-around model with extensive community health implications.