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Community Action Agency of Southern New Mexico (CAASNM), Families and Youth Innovations Plus (FYI+), Jardin de los Niños and NMSU Crimson Research are partnering to bring a program called Family Prosperity to Las Cruces.
“This is an initiative where randomly selected, prequalified, single caregiver families will receive $500 a month for 18 months,” said FYI+ Chief Operations Officer Jolene Martinez.”
A Family Prosperity Community Celebration will be held 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, July 22, at Pioneer Women’s Park, 500 W. Las Cruces Ave.
The event will include free paletas from Paleteria La Reyna Michoacana, bouncy castles and water balloons, food trucks and storytellers, a news release about the program said.
Families can apply to participate in the program onsite at the event or at caasnm.org/cash-support. The application window closes Friday, Aug. 18. Selected participants must meet income requirements and reside in the City of Las Cruces, the news release said.
“Family Prosperity will focus on cash support for single caregivers who have at least one child aged 16 or under, with the intent of the program being to evaluate how cash support influences quality-of-life issues like education, employment, and physical and mental health,” Martinez said.
Families chosen to participate in the program will be notified in October and will receive their first payment in late 2023 or early 2024, the news release said. The money they receive does not have to be repaid.
“Research has shown that when people are given unrestricted cash payments, recipients are able to pull themselves out of poverty, plan for the future, and create stability for themselves and their families,” said CAASNM CEO Dawn Z. Hommer.
Similar programs across the country have been shown to benefit a family’s overall wellbeing and help them become more self-reliant and less dependent on the social safety net, the news release said. Studies show cash support increases employment because families can afford childcare and can get the education they need to secure living-wage employment.
The program will receive rigorous evaluation through NMSU Crimson Research, which receives funding from the Kellogg Foundation, the news release said. Chosen individuals and a control comparison group will complete regular surveys and questionnaires to aid in evaluation and will receive an additional $550 over the 18 months of the program for completing surveys and questionnaires.
Funding for the program comes from the City of Las Cruces through a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021.
For more information, call CAASNM at 575-527-8799, extension 114 and visit caasnm.org/cash-support.
