Donor Perspective: Growing Up New Mexico’s Positive Impact

Donor Perspective: Growing Up New Mexico’s Positive Impact

For Enterprise Bank & Trust and its Regional President, Dion Silva, the bank’s relationship with Growing Up New Mexico is fundamental to its mission of giving back to the community and reflects its dedication, heart, and a willingness to continuously “grow” the community together. “Our long relationship with Growing Up New Mexico is because of who they are and what they do,” he explained. “We partner with organizations that are both impactful and sustainable.”  

Dion is proud to work for Enterprise, an organization that is dedicated to helping the communities it serves thrive. “As an organization, we cannot be sustainable and successful if we don’t live in a community that also is,” Dion shared. “We are willing to lead the way, not only financially but also through volunteering time and expertise, and through education, like our Enterprise University program for business professionals.”

Enterprise has been a strong partner to Growing Up New Mexico, and its commitment to this nonprofit reflects the bank's goal of supporting the community and investing in the future of its youth. This commitment dates back to Los Alamos National Bank and, later, Enterprise. Both organizations were built on the belief that a bank’s role in the community should go far beyond banking transactions. Enterprise empowers privately held businesses to succeed, helps families to secure their financial futures, and invests to advance the quality of life inits communities.

Growing Up New Mexico’s Bridges to Opportunity program is the perfect representation of these values. Bridges to Opportunity was built on the principles of empowering, supporting, and reassuring families through one-on-one guidance provided by coaches. Parents and caregivers often struggle with day-to-day challenges, causing negative impacts and potentially destabilizing families. Growing Up New Mexico is there to help. (Read more about Growing Up New Mexico and its Bridges to Opportunity program here.)

Every family that has received help from Growing Up New Mexico is unique, dealing with a wide variety of circumstances. One Bridges to Opportunity coach recalled:

“As a coach, I am still learning that like everything else in life, coaching is a process that is constantly changing in terms of the approach we use with each family that we assist… I am there to support, assist and guide them.”

Through this program, Bridges to Opportunity helps to build stronger communities by building stronger families. “I am fortunate to work for an organization that emphasizes community development in this way, ’’Dion mentioned with a smile.  

Working with Growing Up New Mexico, Enterprise invests in childhood development and advocates for the importance of early support, with an understanding that everyone deserves an opportunity. Dion explains, “Early childhood development is crucial to a child’s health and success later in life. If we can help to create a springboard for children before the age of six, they’ll have a much better opportunity for success in their life.”

One coach shared that when she starts working with a family, she likes to first sit with them to develop a list of goals. First on a recent client’s list “was to find a place for her and her family to move.” This first goal they both felt was paramount to achieving the rest of the items on the list, starting with “gaining stability for her four kids and one on the way so they could feel safe.” Through this process the coach was already making a positive impact on her third goal, which was “to reduce anxiety about being displaced and living in a hotel over two months.” The coach in this case shared that the ongoing work of the Bridges toOpportunity program is something she feels only a local nonprofit can provide successfully as “it takes ongoing (one-on-one) work to ensure all goals are met.” She finished by saying, “I will continue to assist and coach her with the future plans and goals she has for her and her family.”

Local nonprofits, grassroots organizations, and companies fill a critical need in Santa Fe.

“Local nonprofits understand the unique needs of our community and partnering together allows us to make a real difference,” Dion said.

“We are very intentional about partnering with local organizations that, in many cases, also work together to multiply impact,” Dion continued. “We team up with organizations that have proven their impact and are dialed into our community.”

The positive community development work and support of New Mexico families through Growing Up New Mexico’s Bridges to Opportunity and other programs is made possible in part by the Santa Fe Community Foundation and generous donors like Enterprise.

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In honor of its 10th Anniversary, the Santa Fe Community Foundation's Santa Fe Baby Fund matched Enterprise's $10,000 gift to Growing Up New Mexico.