From legacy waste sites to water pollution, many of New Mexico’s communities are experiencing the consequences of environmental degradation first hand. At the same time, the protection of our resources and wild space is an inherent value to our rural and culturally unique communities. Despite this, New Mexican’s values are often underrepresented from a local to a state scale – resulting in policy that negatively impacts those communities.

CVNM Education Fund works to increase voting, advocacy and activism in communities most affected by the impacts of environmental racism, climate change and pollution—particularly rural, Indigenous and Latino communities.

Our Programs

• Western New Mexico Organizing - The Grants Mining District in Western New Mexico is home to over 259 mining sites that produced uranium, 137 of those with no record of any reclamation activity. As a result, many families in the region are exposed to legacy pollution that is adversely impacting their quality of life, water supply and health. Our Western New Mexico Program is working to bring together diverse stakeholders in Cibola and McKinley counties to explore solutions to the problems families in these counties face every day, such as calling for the state to adopt a comprehensive health baseline and for county-level task forces to identify how local officials can better protect residents.
• Northern New Mexico Organizing - Our Northern New Mexico organizers are working in Rio Arriba County to encourage the local power co-op, Jemez Electric, to renegotiate their contract with Tri-State, which caps renewable energy investments at 5%. The county is heavily reliant on oil and gas development to feed its revenue base. Due to a drop in market values, the county received significantly less revenue, resulting in a budget shortfall and renewed conversation about the need to diversify the county’s economic drivers.
• Organizing in Albuquerque's Latino Communities - Juntos, which means “together” in Spanish, is a partnership between CVNM Education Fund and League of Conservation Voters Education Fund’s Chispaprogram. Based in Albuquerque, Juntos: Our Air, Our Water launched in July 2014 to amplify the voices of Latino families who are calling for protections for the air we breathe and the water we drink, not only for our own health, but also for our families and future generations. Organizers are fanning out across Albuquerque to talk with thousands of Latino families, to train new grassroots leaders, build a strong activist base and engage local officials to urge Governor Susana Martinez and the New Mexico Environment Department to use a portion of New Mexico’s $18 million Volkswagen scandal settlement funds to transition dirty diesel school buses to zero-emissions electric school buses.