Surplus Stewardship® – The Causal Sequence
When a company engages ANEW to steward its surplus furniture, fixtures and equipment back into communities, the immediate effects are that (a) local organizations receive much-needed items which help them continue their good work in the community, and (b) the surplus is diverted from its most common destination, landfills. Once the surplus items reach their new homes in local organizations, much more can happen.
For this case study we focus on Moving Arts Espanola (MAE) .
Two years ago ANEW stewarded several dozen tables and chairs, shelving and cabinets to Moving Arts Espanola, replacing worn old furniture, providing a bright comfortable place for students and their families to dine or converse. As colleagues in the extended northern New Mexico community, ANEW and MAE communicated regularly. Glenn Sparks of ANEWMedia was offered a seat on the advisory board of MAE. As MAE media production liaison he lent a hand in the productionof this compelling documentary https://meowwolf.com/explore/series/community-voices, which illustrates the breadth & depth of MAE’s engagement with their community.
MAE co-director and co-founder Roger Montoya is featured in this 3-minute video segment of CNN Heroes.Montoya also works with United Way of Northern New Mexico, helping to expand the scope of Moving Arts’ work. Below is a partial list of the non-profit’s contributions to the community:
– Food Program creator/chef/teacher Laura Cox purchases fresh produce & food items at Espanola Farmer’s Market, supporting the local agricultural community.
– Funding from HELP New Mexico and USDA food reimbursement was basically chunks of government cheese in warehouses. MAE inspired them to consider new ways to reimburse, including better food quality and healthy farm to table meals for low income families & children. Funding then circles back to the local agricultural community. The MAE food program is now being connected by ANEW to one of their recipient organizations in Ft Smith, Arkansas, an expansion we hope to repeat in other locales.
– The popular Cooking With Kids Santa Fe program is about to reinstate with the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo community school. K-2 nutrition education and cooking instruction at MAE will be major parts of the program.
– Los Alamos National Laboratories, a STEM-based funder, is now condsidering the funding of Cooking With Kids.
– The MAE food program is being considered as a replicable model. The first implementation will be at Carinos Community Hub, a former historic campus, which is being reimagined as an incubator to integrate social services, arts, education and work force development. A service kitchen on the site will incorporate the MAE food program. The Hub buildings measure 36,000 sq ft. The large gym is being remodeled; other facilities and spaces will be uitilized for multiple community uses.
– Opioid awareness: MAE is coordinating the launch of a statewide summit. A comprehensive program, including a film by the Mark Walhberg Youth Foundation, organized by Roger Montoya, was presented at the Santa Ana Star March 6. Montoya changes to the model so it’s not a ‘say no to drugs’ axiom. Instead a local youth group was engaged, trained to lead and deliver consistent messages from a written script. 10 MAE kids 12-18 years old are engaged, working with youth leadership to train 47 peer facilitators. Local mayors will issue a call to action regarding anti-violence: are kids safe in their schools and cities? The programs include city and county governments, behavior health practitioners, law enforcement officials, government labs and schools. The intent is to reach all possible people in local, tribal, city, county and national environments.
– Rio Arriba County launched ReRoute, a program in which low level offenders are diverted to case management and services to deal with their illness of addiction instead of being prosecuted as criminals. A building near the Carinos Hub is now being considered for use as treatment center.
Many MAE families come out of adverse childhood poverty and drug addiction – 150 of 3,000 Espanola high school kids are homeless, 60% of teen kids at MAE live with grandparents or great-grandparents because their parents are dead or incarcerated.
– Espanola Pathway Shelter: RM and a formerly homeless drug addicted man are leading a drive to fund teen & adult drop-in centers, where people can also live temporarily.
– MAE collaborates on community projects with Northern New Mexico University, a major player in economic development and higher learning.
– ACES Institute (adverse childhood experiences) creates a healing network to address, ASAP, the effects of trauma, violence, childhood abuse. MAE produced an active exemplary model of how communities can respond with existing resources. From the MAE model ACES will collect data to build a program, and de-silo data & resources. The program is powerfully influenced by ‘Anna Age 8’ by Dr Katherine Courtney & Dominic Cappello.™