Early ed program is going its own way

United Way of Santa Fe County breaks from worldwide organization to become Growing Up New Mexico

For nearly two decades, United Way of Santa Fe County has provided a free array of early childhood services, including preschool classes, for Santa Fe families — to the point where the organization’s name has become synonymous with such offerings.

But while the mission of that program will continue, its leaders are breaking away from the umbrella of the United Way Worldwide organization.

With that split comes a new name: Growing Up New Mexico.

“We wanted to have a name that will reflect the work we have been doing,” said Katherine Freeman, executive director and CEO of the Santa Fe entity.

The move will allow the local entity more freedom to advocate for policy changes at the state level, focus just on early childhood care and education, and expand those services, she said.

United Way Worldwide announced the move in a short news release late Wednesday afternoon, directing it through the United Way of Central New Mexico, based in Albuquerque. “A plan with United Way’s next steps in the Santa Fe region will be completed in early 2021,” it said.

Freeman said she and others in the Santa Fe program

have been planning this move since March, adding the parting with United Way Worldwide is amicable.

However, rising annual dues imposed by United Way Worldwide on the Santa Fe entity also led to the break, Freeman said. She declined to cite the amount but said it was “unacceptable.”

United Way of Santa Fe County board member Kelly Pope said another benefit of moving away from United Way Worldwide is that Growing Up New Mexico will not have to put time or energy into raising funds for its umbrella partner.

“It can be tough when a local organization has to raise so much money to send to the national board before it can do its own fundraising,” she said.

Freeman and others in the Santa Fe chapter have long been spirited advocates for both more funding and more programming for preschool children in the state.

In Santa Fe and under Freeman’s direction, United Way of Santa Fe County raised millions of dollars through its capital campaign to open a new early childhood education site for 3- and 4-year-olds at the former Kaune Elementary School in fall 2018.

The Santa Fe branch also operated a similar program for 4-year-olds in a building adjacent to Aspen Community School. That facility no longer serves children, but Growing Up New Mexico employees have offices there. The organization started the Agua Fría Children’s Zone in 2003.

Many reports about the impact of early childhood education programs — from preschool classes to high-quality day care and home-visiting programs for families with new infants — indicate those efforts pay off down the line through higher test scores, higher graduation rates and lower juvenile incarceration rates, among other outcomes.

Still, advocates and legislators have had a hard time finding ways to pay for such programs, leading to repeated legislative efforts to pull money from the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund — initiatives Freeman and others in her organization have supported.

United Way of Santa Fe County offered its programs for free, as will Growing Up New Mexico, Freeman said.

The organization also has a home-visiting program that can serve up to 170 families.

Though the Kaune site has the capacity to serve over 100 children, Freeman said that number has been reduced since the COVID-19 crisis began in March. For now, “we cut back service to families who absolutely need child care,” she said — about 20 on-site.

The rest are being served virtually, Freeman said.

Pope said she first took a tour of the Kaune site in summer 2019 and was “blown away with the quality of child care, the quality of the teachers, the preschool model in general — and it has a cafeteria on-site.

“They are focused on building trust among the parent community.”

She said she began donating to the organization almost immediately and joined as a board member a few months ago.

She said while she isn’t sure Growing Up New Mexico has a “direct plan to scale up our efforts into other areas of the state ourselves, we can put together a best-practices model and work more like hand-inhand partners with others around the state now.”

Freeman said the name change will not lead to any change in staff or board membership.

Pamela Springs, vice president of communications for United Way Worldwide, said by phone Wednesday night the Santa Fe early childhood center is “not shutting down. They are looking to do a name change. That’s the extent of my knowledge of the situation.”