Historic“ State of Black New Mexico” A Success
Director’ s Message
Yvette Kaufman-Bell, Executive Director
Historic“ State of Black New Mexico” A Success
The New Mexico Office of African American Affairs( OAAA) released a historic look at the“ State of Black New Mexico” through statewide town halls. The focus was a data hub designed to give a greater advocacy voice to the 3.1 %( 64,448) Black population. Community members, elected officials and organizational leaders from Lea, Dona Ana, Curry, Sandoval and Bernalillo counties discussed how the data hub could assist with targeted intervention strategies when working to decrease inequities in economic development, healthcare advocacy and education advancement. The town halls proved to bring increased awareness and understanding of multidimensional issues facing an underserved population, while beginning conversations about collaborations to ensure available resources reach those in the Black community who need them most.
The on-line data resource provides a single location for more than 50 different health, education, economic and socio-demographic indicators, providing users the means to extensively and quantitatively measure Black communities throughout New Mexico. The OAAA contracted the University of New Mexico Center for Education Policy Research to assist in the creation of an interactive online visualization depicting the disproportionate disparities that Blacks face in our state.
Where it has previously been difficult to obtain data without searching multiple sources, the data hub will provide various statistics needed for targeted intervention strategies for African Americans in New Mexico. The data hub will assist in the on-going establishment of approaches that will strengthen collaborative networks and policy action, yielding sustainable, continuous initiatives.
The data hub will also allow the user to make comparisons between the Black population and other racial and ethnic sub-groups to identify potential gaps in services and resources among regional communities. Dr. Kathy Powers and student fellows of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health and Policy have released policy briefs that will help the agency determine further policy implications and possible program development.
For more information on the State of Black New Mexico Data Hub, contact the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs at( 505) 383-6222 or visit the hub housed on the agency website at http:// www.
A“ Huge” thank you to all of our of our Community and Executive Advisory Committee members who helped organize the town halls in the following cities:
Hobbs town hall was held April 8 Las Cruces town hall was held April 13 Clovis town hall was held May 2 Rio Rancho town hall was held May 4 Albuquerque town hall was held May 11 Santa Fe TBA
oaaa. state. nm. us / dashboards. aspx. www. oaaa. state. nm. us 4