The letter below was sent to each of our donors, expressing our appreciation and recapping the current programs at Nonviolence Works.
Dear Donor,
Happy New Year! We want to begin 2017 by thanking you for your support of Nonviolence Works last year, and by sharing some of our accomplishments that your generosity helped make possible.
Familia y Mundo (FYM), our after-school and summer therapeutic program that provides individual and group counseling, served 120 youth during 2016. Now in its fifth year, and housed at Ranchos Elementary School through a cooperative arrangement with the Taos Municipal Schools, it provides youth with support and the opportunity to practice social and emotional skills in a safe environment.
Our seven-year-old Gang Resistance is Powerful (GRIP) program has expanded beyond elementary school to include middle school and some high school settings. The program is designed to reduce gang membership and continues to be positively received by all ages. Currently, it serves 384 students.
Twenty-three men and eight women have been served in our Nonviolence Awareness Classes (NAC). NAC is a strong and supportive skill-building curriculum for those who have experienced and/or were engaged in domestic violence. Additionally, 260 adults have been or are being seen by the clinical staff in a variety of therapeutic models that include couples therapy and individual counseling.
Most significantly, our staff has successfully processed suicidal impulses with 15 youth since August 2016. We have sponsored three special trainings in suicide prevention for Taos clinicians and other community members, and are collaborating with other local organizations focused on suicide prevention.
Last summer we considered a lease contract offer for the Teambuilder’s site. While it is an excellent, fairly new facility designed for behavioral health, we determined that it was not fiscally wise to expand at this time. Instead, to be fiscally prudent, we reduced our current rental space and cost by moving our FYM program to Ranchos Elementary as described above.
Lastly, we are blessed with an exceptional professional staff! All have advanced, clinically-related degrees, and thirteen of them were born and raised in Taos. They are passionate about making a difference in the lives of people and families in our community. Our most pressing challenge for 2017 is to hire additional professional staff, particularly in view of diminishing behavioral health resources combined with the increasing need in Taos . . . they are hard to find.
Thank you, again, for your support and helping us make a difference. You are making a difference for us and for Taos.
Most sincerely,
The Nonviolence Works Board
