The Lab
Welcome to…
The Lab
Where science guides us to help solve society’s biggest challenges.
What we are living through seems like a sci-fi channel movie but it’s actually, really happening. Pandemic. Lockdown. Frightened masses. Services shutting down.
All terribly real. Add to that, we live in a culture where movies, games and publications push images of zombie apocalypse, violence and doom, instead of a future where everyone thrives. Rather than being empowered to solve some of society’s biggest challenges, we are told to accept the status quo, set low expectations and push off problem-solving to another day. We are told to live in the world of “No, we can’t.”
Here’s a quick overview of what you will find below.
In the EYE Lab, we focus on the opposite. We’re building a future that works for everyone, with no family left behind. This process is a grand experiment and quite honestly, has never been done in the United States. Are you ready to take on groundbreaking work? If so, you have come to the right place.
If this were a job interview we could say, “Experience being courageous preferred but not essential. You will hone your skills at bravery on the job.”
To achieve the EYE’s mission, we start with tough questions. Who gets to survive the week? What and who helps us succeed in life? Why do some people struggle to access vital services while others live in a world of abundance?
You’re invited to discover who gets access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. Learn who faces barriers to care and why. Explore how societies have addressed disparities using technology, innovation and collaboration. We empower you to solve the problems that have been considered unsolvable until now.
In our lab, every challenge has a solution, every question has an answer and everyone can be a heroic change agent. You’re invited to explore possibilities in what we call the world of “yes, we can.”
Inside The Lab
100% New Mexico
Here we provide an overview of our first-of-its-kind initiative, where your entire county becomes an experiment in compassion, courage and problem-solving.
Power Hour Course
Our “Power Hour” courses showcase the seven steps each county initiative takes to reduce barriers to vital services.
Everything Connected
Here we walk you through our “7 Steps to Ensuring 10 services for 100%.” to create a collaborative and data-driven county initiative.
Achieving Results
Welcome to our data-driven process of reducing barriers to services using Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): assessing planning, action and evaluation.
100% New Mexico
The first-of-its-kind initiative, where your entire county becomes an experiment in compassion and courage.
In the LAB we are taking on an experiment no state, county or city in the United States has ever tackled. We support local leaders in collaborating to create a society where 100% can thrive. With the 100% New Mexico initiative, developed on the local level, the EYE works with county stakeholders, supporting them as they implement a process of continuous quality improvement to ensure all vital services for surviving and thriving meet the needs of all residents.
The 100% New Mexico initiative was developed by the Anna, Age Eight Institute in 2018, based on the book 100% Community: Ensuring 10 vital services for surviving and thriving by Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello. The initiative is a data-driven process designed to solve problems in communities related to lack of vital services. 100% New Mexicans creates, with committed local stakeholders and elected leaders, a seamless system of care across a county, focusing on ensuring the ten vital services demonstrated to increase health, safety and resilience. To learn more about the initiative and its progress across New Mexico, visit www.AnnaAgeEight.org.
“As a city official I am committed to every child and we connect the dots between healthy and safe children and successful students and readiness for work. It is my belief that if we generate awareness and engagement of all our family-serving agency staff, businesses, community leaders and our policy leaders, we can prevent adverse childhood experiences.”
— Kasandra Gandara, Las Cruces city council member and mayor pro tem
“For all of us who believe that we can make every student’s and family’s health, education, safety, and resilience a priority, this initiative shows the way.”
— Senator Bill Soules, PhD, New Mexico State Senator
100% New Mexican initiative participants are committed to ensuring that all of our children and families are trauma-free, healthy and thriving, with access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. Local action teams are working to achieve measurable and meaningful results across the state, from Taos Pueblo to Las Cruces.
Think of the statewide 100% New Mexico initiative as one never-attempted-before experiment. With this statewide experiment with two million people are smaller experiments, focused on each county. Here at the EYE, whether in our virtual lab or connecting with us through the EYE’s sponsor the Anna, Age Eight Institute, we are a team committed to you and your commitment to children and families.
Individual Project Development
Ideally, you have visited your favorite center, focused on one of our ten surviving and thriving sectors. There you have identified a project you are interested in and could solve a priority problem in your county. The projects are designed to be developed by the 100% New Mexico initiative action teams, as they require support from a cross-sector group.
Anatomy of a Project
More than 200 innovative projects await, all focused on removing barriers to vital services within ten service sectors. County action team members can review the components of a project as it relates to the needs identified in the 100% New Mexico county survey.
As you read on, you will see how we approach challenges with the four phase process of continuous quality improvement: assessing, planning, acting and evaluating.
The most important steps you can take with a potential project is to first, share it with all your action team members. DIscuss the merits of the project and your capacity to take it on. It is also vital to review your county survey results to assess how the potential project can address the barriers to services noted in the survey results. You will also have the support the EYE lab to develop any project.
Systems Work
We encourage you to see how we solve problems on a systems level, looking at the entire county as one big experiment in a huge laboratory. Explore our 7 Steps to Success to better understand how we are working in counties across New Mexico.
Training
Consider enrolling in one of our workshops, seminars or our 4 Power Hour webinars, designed for 100% New Mexico initiative participants to gain skills in a variety of areas with a focus on designing and implementing innovations on the agency, city, county or state levels.
“The initiative guides us as we embrace the opportunity to design the new systems of care and safety we urgently need.”
— Matt Probst, PA-C, Medical Director, El Centro Family Health, NM and 100% New Mexico initiative director
“In order to grow and continue the healing of our communities from the long-endured trauma and suffering, it is essential that we come together as creative entities. It is vital to collaborate in ways that are unique, exciting and bring vibrancy to the zeitgeist of Northern New Mexico. We need it now more than ever.”
— Diego López, Española, Rio Arriba County, NM
“With the continued support from the Anna, Age Eight Institute, the Community Wellness Council receives the support it needs to launch the initiative in Valencia County. This is a game changer for our community.”
— Noelle Chavez, CWC Coordinator, Valencia County, NM
For any questions about starting work, please connect with us at annaageeight@nmsu.edu.
Join the 7 Power Hours with Dr. Katherine Ortega Courtney and Dominic Cappello, co-directors of the Anna, Age Eight Institute and co-authors of 100% Community and Anna, Age Eight. Join with 100% New Mexico initiative participants and innovators from across the state to share successes, solve local challenges and network with other change agents and problem-solvers.
New Mexico is showing the 49 other states how to create truly family-friendly and well-resourced communities across a city and county. Yes, our work is groundbreaking and local innovators like you are the key. Join us and the hundreds of 100% initiative folks across the state in this inspiring first-of-its-kind endeavor in the nation.
Dr. Katherine Ortega Courtney – Co-author 100% Community
Our Power Hour is designed to empower every participant, providing answers to all the questions related to strengthening a countryside system of care and safety. We are here to serve every county, city and community in New Mexico.
Dominic Cappello – Co-author 100% Community
In the Power Hour, we provide the insights to local change agents that turn barriers to vital services to opportunities for creating access. Whatever local stakeholders need to create a county where every child and parent thrives, we work to provide.
4 Power Hours
Supporting You and your Team
Four lunch hour presentations offered each week. Join the topics you’re interested in. Learn how change agents in New Mexico’s counties and pueblos are collaborating to ensure the ten vital services for surviving and thriving, strengthening systems of health care, education and safety.
POWER HOUR 1: ASSESSING
POWER HOUR 2: PLANNING
POWER HOUR 3: ACTING AS A CHANGE AGENT
POWER HOUR 4: EVALUATING
For any questions about registering for the Power Hours, please connect with us at annaageeight@nmsu.edu.
The County as Lab
To implement the 100% New Mexico initiative in a county, we have a framework detailed in the book 100% Community. A book club of county stakeholders read 100% Community to “get on the same page” with its philosophy, structure, mission and overall working components. County initiative team members devote time and energy to creating and maintaining ten actions teams, each one focused on one of ten “surviving and thriving” service sectors. Partnerships are created with city government, county government and higher education to support working in alignment to reach the goal of 100% of residents thriving.
STEP 1: SURVEY YOUR COUNTY RESIDENTS
Initiative teams implement a countywide survey that assesses resident’s access to 10 vital services for surviving and thriving (like health care, transport and job training) and why barriers exist. You’ll learn that different populations will have different challenges.
How are our families surviving?
Initiative teams are surveying families across their county, getting the answers about gaps in vital services. Review the Rio Arriba County Survey Report.
STEP 2: REVIEW SURVEY RESULTS
Initiative teams review the survey data to learn what percentage of county residents struggle to access vital services, and why challenges accessing services exist and where they exist in the county. You can review the data from the countywide survey, especially the barriers to accessing services. Each barrier (such as unfriendly hours, lack of transport to services) will require analysis and a plan to address it.
What are barriers to services?
Initiative teams are analyzing survey results to identify where barriers to vital services exist and why. Review the Doña Ana County Survey Report.
STEP 3: ASSESS THE TEN SURVIVING AND THRIVING SERVICES
Initiative teams, including ten action teams created (each one focused on one sector such as food or medical care) learn about the capacity of current services in all 10 surviving and thriving sectors. The goal is to understand challenges service organizations face when meeting the needs of county residents.
What’s the capacity of providers?
Initiative teams are assessing why service providers and organizations struggle to meet local needs and how to increase their capacity. Explore the San Miguel 100% initiative and other initiatives across New Mexico.
STEP 4: ENSURE THAT A COUNTY DIRECTORY TO TEN VITAL SERVICES EXISTS
Each of the county’s ten action teams update an existing online directory to services or create a new updated directory guiding residents to the ten vital services. (Note that directories will need local monitoring and updating based on changes in services due to COVID-19).
How do families find support?
Initiative teams are designing directories and constantly updating them to provide accurate information. Visit the new directory for San Miguel County.
STEP 5: IDENTIFY INNOVATIVE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO FIX BARRIERS TO ACCESSING TEN SERVICES
To address the barriers identified in the countywide survey, initiative teams learn about innovations in all ten sectors that can increase access, user-friendliness and quality of services. The book 100% Community and the @100% book series on each of the ten sectors offers many potential innovative strategies to reduce gaps in services and strengthen a countywide system of support. Action Teams can review and prioritize innovations.
How do we ensure access?
Initiative teams are exploring a menu of evidence-informed strategies to ensure all residents can access services. Visit the @100% book series.
STEP 6: GET BUY-IN FROM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND STAKEHOLDERS
To support innovation that ensures 100% of county residents have access to ten vital services is critical to success. Initiative teams identify, support and implement innovations including new technologies, local policies, programs and agency protocols. This is the action phase that requires project management and ongoing tracking of local innovation in ten sectors.
How do we engage local leaders?
Initiative teams are strengthening partnerships with local elected leaders and stakeholders, working in alignment. Read Leadership@100%.
STEP 7: EVALUATE EFFECTIVENESS OF EACH INNOVATION AND MEASURE THE INCREASE IN ACCESS TO TEN VITAL SERVICES
Initiative teams measure the impact of innovations on all ten surviving and thriving services with feedback from residents and providers. We work to ensure that our local work on each innovation is moving the needle on improving access to services so that 100% of residents thrive.
How do we track progress?
Initiative teams are using a variety of tools to ensure that they can measure meaningful progress. Download the logic model and organizational chart. Also read Assessment@100%.
For any questions about implementing the seven steps, please connect with us at annaageeight@nmsu.edu.
Explore Teamwork
Our entire 100% New Mexico initiative should work like a successful enterprise, where each of our 33 counties has the most user-friendly services for surviving and thriving in the country. Our initiative creates in each county ten action teams, each one focused on one of the ten services for surviving and thriving. Each team is tasked with turning data into action that’s measurable and meaningful as we work to ensure access to local vital services.
We use a process called continuous quality improvement (CQI), which is a four-step process to reduce barriers to services and improve the quality of each service. These efforts can create small or incremental improvement over time or, in some cases, lead to a huge “breakthrough” improvement all at once.
The key components of the CQI cycle that we use are assess, plan, act and evaluate.
Assess: Using data from the 100% New Mexico survey, the action team will identify the magnitude of a challenge accessing a particular service (like timely health care), the barriers resident’s report, and the capacity of local organizations to address fix barriers.
Plan: After analyzing data, an action team will identify an innovation project shown to reduce barriers to services. measurable plan. We will be using a planning tool called a logic model that identifies the goal, partners needed, activities and measurable outcomes.
Act: Implement plan, working with strategic partnerships, with measurable short-term, intermediate and long-term outcomes.
Evaluate: Monitor progress with all stakeholders.
Each of these four components, or phases, comes with a set of questions to ensure that the change agent or action team is using data to support the improvement process every step of the way.
To learn more about CQI, please read 100% Community; Ensuring 10 vital Services for surviving and thriving, Chapter 29: Continuous Quality Improvement Guides us with Data. You can download a digital copy of the book free-of-charge.
Any pressing questions about using CQI? Contact us at annaageeight@nmsu.edu.
CONNECT WITH US
SUPPORT WITH PROJECTS AND SEVEN STEPS
For any questions about starting work, please connect with us at annaageeight@nmsu.edu. You may also sign up for updates on our work and ways to connect with 100% New Mexico initiative participants across the state.
GET HELP
Please give our intrepid LAB staff a few days to respond, as we are (happily) getting requests from many action team members in many counties.
