Vision & Purpose

Vision

New Mexico Civic Engagement imagines a state where all citizens, youth and elder alike, are informed and passionate about building common good through active and engaged youth adult–partnerships in local, national or international communities.

Purpose

New Mexico Civic Engagement believes that civic engagement in New Mexico must be grounded in the people, places, culture, and dynamics of our diverse state. NMCE assumes that youth and adults need to learn to partner with one another to create local and statewide civic engagement projects. To influence local and statewide policy-making, youth, in particular, need to learn how to move from issue articulation to action, and how to work effectively with adults to make change.

In this process, NMCE seeks to capitalize on New Mexico’s cultural and regional diversity. NMCE focuses on reservations, rural villages steeped in Indo-Hispano traditions, and border towns where dual citizenship is often the norm. In these places, we find New Mexico’s unique blend of ideas and customs about what it means to be a citizen in regional, tribal, and international terms. All these elements enrich civic engagement’s contribution to New Mexico’s public and community life.