Lately, we’ve been reflecting on what it means to center care amidst escalating attacks on our communities, particularly immigrant communities. We know that healing and justice are not separate. We stand, rooted in care and unwavering solidarity, as people across the country rise to demand justice, dignity, and safety for everyone, regardless of citizenship status. In New Mexico, the violence of detention, ICE raids, and the threat of family separation are lived realities for women, children, and transgender and gender nonconforming people.

And yet, our communities are resisting, organizing, and caring for one another in profound and powerful ways.

We see this truth echoed nationally and here in New Mexico. When we choose to show up for each other, it is a step toward building the world we deserve. From rapid response networks, healing circles, mutual aid efforts, and public protests, our communities are creating systems of care, equity, and dignity for all. Witnessing communities rising together reminds us that in the face of injustice, we can choose how we show up.



In that spirit, this year’s Healing Awards—grants directed toward long-term wellness, safety, and healing of communities—take on deeper meaning and value. Each act of care, each moment of healing, becomes part of a generational commitment to justice.

We are honored to announce the recipients of our 2025 Healing Award—an initiative rooted in the belief that care is not a luxury but a necessity for long-term movement building.

In today’s climate, reproductive rights organizations across New Mexico are carrying immense weight. The demand for reproductive health services continues to exceed capacity, rural organizations are working across vast geographic regions with limited funding, and the persistent political attacks on bodily autonomy take a toll—not just on communities, but also on the advocates and staff who show up every day to ensure others have access to care, dignity, and choice.

The Healing Award program was created in response to this reality: to resource rest, repair, and the collective well-being of organizations and their staff in order to reduce exhaustion, burnout, and/or vicarious trauma. These awards are designed to support grantee partners with integrating healing and care into the fabric of their work.

From joy and grief circles, team retreats, wellness workshops, and more, grantee partners have used these funds to reconnect with themselves, each other, and their purpose. We’ve heard time and again that focused funding for the wellbeing and care of staff fills a deep gap, providing the kind of support that traditional grants simply cannot provide.

We are proud to invest in the health and wellbeing of those advancing reproductive rights and justice in New Mexico. When we care for our people, we strengthen our movements.

This month, members of our team participated in the Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP) joint annual conference, held in Albuquerque, NM. We began the week co-hosting local site visits with our colleagues at Grantmakers for Girls of Color, highlighting the vital work of two of our longtime community partners—Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico (TGRCNM). We extend our deep gratitude to these organizations for orienting conference participants to the realities of racial and gender justice work here in New Mexico.

The conference was filled with powerful insights, deepened connections across the sector, and opportunities to reflect on our shared commitments to equity and justice and the urgency of this moment.

We concluded our time at the conference with a powerful and participatory panel conversation featuring Renee Villarreal, NMW.O’s Senior Director of Grantmaking & Community Partnerships. The bilingual session explored feminist, antiracist, and community-rooted approaches to philanthropy across Latin America and the U.S. and brought together peer funders and leaders from HIP, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and NewMexicoWomen.Org. The panelists reflected on how philanthropy can evolve to meet this moment by centering care, shifting power, and responding boldly to the rise of authoritarianism in the fight against gender-based violence. Renee offered reflections on our work here in New Mexico, including how feminist centered leadership principles inform NMW.O’s grantmaking and how we aim to build community power while shifting philanthropic practices toward greater equity and accountability.



We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with partners, peers, and colleagues—both new and ongoing—and to share the transformative work happening in New Mexico with a broad audience from across the country and North America.

Pride Month provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of the LGBTQ2S+ movement, rooted in courage, resistance, and an ongoing struggle for equity and liberation. This year, Pride comes at a sobering time. The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti allowed Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth to remain in effect. This ruling underscores the persistent and intensifying efforts to restrict transgender people’s access to basic rights and medically necessary care, which harms trans youth and their families.

We affirm, unequivocally, that transgender youth matter. Transgender lives and futures are worthy of protection, investment, and care.



In New Mexico, lifesaving gender-affirming care remains legal and protected. We are proud to live and work in a state that recognizes the critical importance of ensuring access to care and support for LGBTQ+ individuals.

The fight for trans and queer liberation requires more than protection—it requires investment. LGBTQ+ organizations still receive just one-tenth of one percent of all U.S. philanthropic dollars. Underinvestment in queer and trans-led organizations, particularly those centering BIPOC communities, compounds the effects of harmful legislation and deepens inequities in access to resources, services, and care.

This Pride Month, we urge you to support local LGBTQ+ serving organizations, a few of which are included below. By investing in organizations led by and serving LGBTQ2S+ communities, we can strengthen the infrastructure of care, resilience, and justice these times demand.

Join us in the Santa Fe Pride on the Plaza parade this Saturday, June 28th. We’ll meet at 9 am for the parade, which starts at 10 am. Email gwen@newmexicowomen.org if you want to walk with our team, or find us under our ‘Dismantle the Patriarchy’ banner.