Taos Community Foundation Health Impact Assessment

Taos, a rural frontier county in northern New Mexico, has no mechanism devoted to funding programs to improve livability and health in our community. The absence of formal policies that prioritize health has become an unwritten policy of neglecting health issues. A formal approach is needed to identify a sustained funding source(s) and formalize a way to disburse funding. We have identified the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program as a potential focus for such policy change. With the HIA we will look at three case studies, each highlighting an area of need in our community and especially youth, to focus on substance abuse, trails, and out-of-school networks and services. Through this multi-faceted lens we will examine how such a funding stream can affect health in Taos.