News & Stories

In this episode of Community Matters, we speak with Karen Cain, an Animal and Human Rights activist, homeless advocate, licensed mental health therapist, and the Founder and Executive Director of the Northern New Mexico Street Homeless Animal Project. “SHAP” has provided vital support to the unhoused and their animal companions for over 25 years, offering essential vet services and providing supplies like food, leashes, and blankets to over 150 human-animal families each year.

Carla Freeman's love for people and animals extended beyond her life. She bequeathed a generous legacy gift to the Santa Fe Community Foundation (SFCF), providing endowments for Animal Welfare and establishing it as a field of interest within the Foundation's community grants program. Her bequest continues to support local nonprofit organizations like A Chance of a Lifetime and the Animal Welfare Coalition of Northeastern New Mexico that focus on the care and well-being on animals, ensuring that Carla's compassion for and commitment to her community endure.

As the only public interest nonprofit law center in the state focused on environmental justice, New Mexico Environmental Law Center's client-directed work prioritizes environmental issues that disproportionately impact Indigenous, Black, Latinx, rural and low-income communities. We advocate for equitable and just environmental laws and policies that protect the health and wellbeing of all New Mexicans.

The Randall Davey Audubon Center is Santa Fe’s nature center, with over 185 acres of habitat, trails, wildlife gardens, a historic estate, outdoor classrooms, and a new Nature Discovery Area. Their mission is to conserve birds and the places they need for the benefit of wildlife, nature, and people. We do this work through partnerships and on-the ground efforts in conservation, science, policy, and education.

For over 25 years, Quivira Coalition has helped foster resiliency not only in New Mexico's working lands, but also in the people who steward the land and the communities which rely on their vitality. Like almost everything in agriculture and social movements, change has to start at the ground level, and for Quivira, that means prioritizing soil health to help combat the climate crisis.

In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, our April episode of Community Matters features guest Maria Jose Rodriguez Cadiz, the Executive Director of Solace Sexual Assault Services. Solace is a Santa Fe-based nonprofit with a mission of preventing sexual violence and empowering survivors through restoring dignity, strength, and resilience.