“Well-being
is nourished
by being accountable
to a people and a place”
Larry Emerson, Community Learning Network co-founder (Diné)
People don’t just reside and work in communities. Communities are nurtured and shaped by the people and cultures within them, and much of their sense of the world and motivation is affected by parents, friends, teachers, pastors, tribal leaders, and more.
Families participating in ASCEND benefit by becoming creators and curators of what we care about most.
Anchoring our Empowered Learning activities in Community Schools allows families to draw upon three kinds of power: the power of place (relationships, languages and cultures); the power of goals in a family learning setting, and the power of coaching (providing family supports as work-based learning). All ASCEND solutions are evidence-based, which means that individuals, families and communities will have feedback and be guided to take actions to better reach their goals.
We have learned the power of using the arts to engage families and communities, to share intergenerational, intercultural expressions of the true riches of New Mexico: family and cultural traditions growing from our deep roots in the Land of Enchantment.
ASCEND Communities
Who: New Mexicans (elders, adults, youth and early learners) in families addressed by Yazzie/Martinez (students in poverty, English language learners, Special Education or Native American) currently unserved or underserved by broadband (high-speed internet)
Where and when: Public Libraries, Out-of-School-Time Programs, Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs)/ Community Schools (20 statewide) in five regions (Farmington, Gallup, Taos, ABQ, Roswell and Las Cruces) over the next year.
Here is a GIS map showing the communities we’re working with.