Community Matters: Santa Fe Dreamers Project
Santa Fe Dreamers Project, Miles Tokunow
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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This month, we're honored to welcome Miles Tokunow, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project. With a mission rooted in dignity, justice, and equity, Santa Fe Dreamers Project provides high quality, accessible legal services to immigrants and mixed status families. Their work goes far beyond legal paperwork. They partner with clients to pursue humanitarian protection, preserve family unity, build economic stability, and fight for freedom from detention.
Today, Santa Fe Dreamers Project currently has over 1,150 open cases. Hundreds of these clients are subject to years-long processing delays with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, limited visa numbers due to statutory caps, or have deportation proceedings that are stuck in court backlogs. This results in immigration cases that can take more than five years to resolve. Their model of legal services is based on the commitment that their staff partners with their clients until their cases are complete, regardless of political and bureaucratic conditions.
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About Community Matters
Our monthly radio show invites subject experts and community leaders to talk about the challenges and inequities our region faces and possible solutions that could contribute to its growth. Hosted by Santa Fe Community Foundation staff, Community Matters airs on the third Wednesday of every month at 6:00 PM on KSFR (101.1 FM). Listen to past episodes here.
Community Matters: Human Rights Alliance
On this episode of Community Matters, we celebrate the Human Rights Alliance, recipient of the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s 2026 Courageous Innovation Piñon Award. Host Sandra Session-Robertson speaks with Executive Director Kevin Bowen about HRA’s growing year-round work to support LGBTQ+ communities and how all of us can help foster a more inclusive and connected northern New Mexico.
Community Matters: Education, Youth & Lifelong Learning
Learning doesn't stop when we leave the classroom. On this episode of Community Matters, host Sandra Session-Robertson sits down with Dave Warren of the El Rito Public Library to explore how rural libraries support lifelong learning, preserve northern New Mexico's cultural heritage, and serve as vital community hubs. Together, they discuss the importance of investing in these trusted institutions and the role they play in expanding educational opportunities for people of all ages.
Community Matters: Arts, Culture & Our Creative Safety Net
What role do artists play in building a thriving community? On this episode of Community Matters, host Christopher Goett sits down with Raashan Ahmad of Vital Spaces to discuss the importance of supporting New Mexico's creative community. Together, they explore how affordable creative spaces, community partnerships, and programs like Unhoused Art are helping artists thrive, and why a vibrant arts and culture ecosystem is an essential part of our community's safety net.
