New Mexico’s middle and high school students voluntarily complete a Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey (NM-YRRS) every other year. This self-reported data is an extremely valuable indicator of youth mental health across the state. Findings from the 2023 survey called for attention: 37% of students felt persistently felt sad or hopeless 19% engaged in non-suicidal…
The purpose of the Expanding Opportunities Project (EOP) is to recruit and retain school-based mental health professionals to serve students across New Mexico, focusing on rural areas with high percentages of at-risk and vulnerable populations. Through a United States Department of Education grant awarded to the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) Safe and Healthy…
The Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI) was created by Bernalillo County commissioners through a tax increase that voters overwhelmingly approved. The funds helped to create a behavioral health system with 40 funded projects. Apex is supporting BHI to evaluate five of those projects. We are supporting an outcome evaluation of three suicide prevention providers and a…
The community school strategy has proven effective in improving academic outcomes for students. It’s well-accepted among community school practitioners that a crucial piece of this strategy is the Coordinator. ABC Community School Partnership contracted with Apex to conduct a study to examine the return on investment (ROI) of a Community School Coordinator. The ROI App…
The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) has a history of meaningful research on social screening in healthcare settings. Importantly for the work of Apex, the university has produced significant literature on the history and benefits of school-based health centers. When a team of researchers from UCSF…
The Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) project aims to decrease the rate of suicide attempts and completions among 10-24 year olds in New Mexico. Focus communities include Bernalillo, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, and San Juan. Apex’s role in the GLS project centers around data collection, analysis, and reporting project progress and outcomes to the funder and…
Apex served as the community evaluator for The Colorado Trust’s place-based work in Antonito, CO, where resident teams worked to improve social and economic conditions. The Trust used an empowerment approach to evaluation and Apex built capacity among resident team members to help with evaluation efforts.
CNM received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to implement Meaningful Math for Student Success (M2S2), and Apex was selected as the evaluation partner. The project aims to support teachers in using new methods to deliver algebra instruction through a cross-institutional professional learning community (PLC) comprised of high school and CNM faculty.…
The purpose of the Increasing Diverse Learner Engagement and Achievement (IDLEA) project is to increase engagement among Colorado’s diverse learners in order to address the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and help close the achievement gap between these learners and their peers. To accomplish this, 14 schools throughout Colorado have worked with the Colorado…
The Corinne Wolfe Center for Child and Family Justice will collaborate with UNM’s Health Sciences Center (HSC) and community partners to prepare and mobilize lawyers, in partnership with other professionals, to pursue justice and racial equity toward achieving health and well-being for New Mexico’s most vulnerable children and families. Strategies to meet this goal include:…
