The New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) Center for Excellence in Social Work (CESW) at the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work aims to address the state’s behavioral health workforce shortages and support its social workers. The Foundations for Growing Our Own initiative leverages a local population with empathy, lived experience, and deep cultural ties. Funded by the United States Department of Labor, the program equips participants to navigate and persist in diverse pathways into the behavioral health workforce.
The program developed a professional certificate specific to community organizing and social action and partnered with Apex to create a knowledge assessment tool. Apex and NMHU together produced Rooted in Community, Ready for the Future: New Mexico’s Strategic Blueprint for Strengthening Social Work and Behavioral Health Career Pathways.
Apex used systems thinking to understand the complex landscape of barriers and opportunities to workforce development, holding deep appreciation for how workforce development is its own field – distinct from its application to the behavioral health field. Supporting behavioral health workforce programs, policy, and sector-level strategies for comprehensive transformation is paramount. Students should be able to pursue career development while working, as an alternative to dominant pathways which require an advanced degree prior to placement. By building systems that recognize multiple forms of learning and contribution, the social work field can lead the way in shaping a more equitable and effective human services workforce for New Mexico.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY