Thriving to Succeed at La Vida Felicidad

LOS LUNAS — There is always the need for service in communities that may be underprivileged for various reasons, and La Vida Felicidad (The Happy Life) has been serving Valencia County and others for 42 years.

That is how Adria Jaramillo, executive director of La Vida Felicidad, started her letter to community partners. Jaramillo, who has been with the nonprofit for more than 20 years, said it’s their mission to build a stronger, healthier and more compassionate community.

La Vida Felicidad was established in 1983 by a group of parents who were advocating and needed support for their children who had developmental delays and disabilities. They wanted services locally; they didn’t want to have to or didn’t have the means to travel to Albuquerque for those services.

“Parents and community members worked together to develop a board and to bring those services to Valencia County,” Jaramillo said.

From that point on, La Vida Felicidad expanded it’s services to four other counties — Socorro, Bernalillo, Cibola and McKinley, with Valencia as the headquarters.

“It’s about bringing those native resources to the community itself. People don’t have to travel to access those more involved services, such has therapeutic-based support, home-based therapies,” Jaramillo said.

“We’re 42 years old and we’re still here,” she said. “We’re growing as the community continues to grow.”

Jaramillo said being part of a team is the only way to succeed, and said the organization’s board of directors are very active, and supports the decision making and overall strategic plan of the agency. The board includes Pete Smargon, president and treasurer; Sheri Ulibarri, vice president; Katrina Bilal, secretary; and members Shireen McDonald, Jeremias Silva, Victoria Archuleta and Gabriel Luna.

La Vida Felicidad offers a range of programs tailored to meet the entire family, if needed. They are able to provide a lifespan of care.

“Because were able to touch families from prenatal to our senior population, we’re seeing so many of our families access multiple services,” Jaramillo said. “We’re seeing grandparents that used to be parents in our program; children are now the parents now receiving services.”

Early Childhood Education: Developmental screenings and home-based therapeutic services ensure a strong start for children.

Much like Jaramillo, Stephanie Hurbina began working for La Vida Felicidad more than 20 years ago, first in the child care center and then with the early intervention program.

The program services children from prenatal to age 5. The home-visiting program is free and there is no pre-qualification.

When a woman becomes pregnant, there’s a lot that’s happening, a lot of appointments, a lot of advice, a lot of preparation.

“Maybe you need to find a pediatrician in Valencia County. Maybe you’re in an apartment, and you need to find a bigger house for your growing family,” Hurbina said. “Maybe you need to get on WIC or on food stamps. That’s where we can assist and help them find what they need. It’s a chance to be able to work with the whole family.”

Hurbina says the early intervention specialists use the home visits to asses the home and the family and hopefully begin a prevention piece to the program.

“We want to be able to capture something before it happens,” she said. “Maybe that baby was pre-term and born early. We can pull in our services, where we’re able to evaluate and assess to make sure this baby gets the most out of life from the second they are born.

“Once the baby is home, we have a team of developmental specialists and therapists talk to the mom and assess the baby. We want to make sure that baby starts on milestones right away.”

Hurbina explained families have to qualify for the early intervention program, which is based on standardized tests given to the baby. If a baby is 25 percent delayed on motor skills or speech or social emotional, then they would be qualified for the program.

“From there, the family will develop a plan with the team and talk about the services — how often will they go into the home, when services will get started with home visiting and early intervention,” Hurbina said.

La Vida Felicidad also houses a childcare center in its building on Sun Ranch Village Road. The center, which is open to the entire community, is also able to work with children who are in the program.

“When mom needs to go back to work, she can bring her baby from 6 weeks and older, and we can still provide services here at our center and work with our teachers,” Hurbina said. “We can give strategies to our teachers to help that baby thrive in their environment. They can continue to come here and move from the infant room to the 2-year-old class and then hopefully, with the team of home-visits and specialists, they can help transition into the pre-k program or additional services. We also help transition the children into the school system, so it’s a continuation of services.”

Jaramillo emphasizes the child care center is open to the community, knowing there is a need in Valencia County.

“We have quite a few kids that are part of other services as well,” Jaramillo said. “We have a lot of new families who have moved here and aren’t familiar with Valencia County at all. As they access our childcare, they learn about other resources.”

Jaramillo explained that La Vida Felicidad is able to collaborate with a lot of other organizations and agencies in the five-county area, especially in Valencia County.

“We’re part of a lot of community collaboration network. Maybe our services aren’t the right fit, and we’ll refer them to another program,” she said. “We really work to bring that support to them so they don’t have to go out to individually find each one. Our role is to be that extra advocate, to be the that extra support who can be that liaison to connect.”

When La Vida Felicidad first opened the child care center, it was with the idea to have the training to create an environment that is inclusive. Jaramillo said it was exciting to be able to welcome children who were getting turned away from other centers.

In hopes to help the entire community, La Vida Felicidad was able to form the Valencia County Early Childhood Coalition.

“We have several child care centers who attend monthly,” Jaramillo said. “They’re teaching their educators how to identify these things and how to support challenging behaviors so we’re not turning away children from our services.

“We’re fortunate that we get mental health training, we get circle of security training for the whole family, and we’re able to train other providers and they’re able to train us as well. We’re sharing that training so that we’re building our capacity as a community.”

Support for individuals with disabilities: Opportunities for full community engagement help individuals live, work and participate in activities with the necessary support

Most of La Vida Felicidad’s services benefit the community’s most vulnerable population, including adults with developmental disabilities.

“Our adult programs are designed to reduce isolation so people can be in the community versus being in an institution or facilities,” Hurbina said. “This way, they can continue to live in their homes with resources and support, and being able to engage with the community.”

At it’s Sun Ranch location, La Vida Felicidad has a community day program where clients gather, get their mornings started and sign in.

Based on their individual plans, their goals and interests, they’ll go out and explore the community with a provider. Hurbina explained some individuals will have one-on-one with a provider, while others are in one-on-three type of group.

“They’ll go to the library, they have interest in volunteering with the animal shelter, they’re taking classes,” Jaramillo said. “It’s really designed around what they’re interests are — going to events, going fishing.

“The big outing they love is going to an Isotopes games. We will raise funds for them, and we go all out — buy T-shirts and we rent the pavilion for them. They do lunch, and they have access to the bull pen, where the pitchers practice. It’s something we really look forward to.”

The general public can’t solicit the organization for services. Individuals have to be referred, and the family or guardian will choose a provider.

“We really do a lot of extra for that program,” Jaramillo said. “Because of these extra initiatives, they’re not funded. Services look much like a community-based one, getting out into the community, going to the park, go out to a restaurant. We want to do more, and we have to raise funds for that, so we can take them on outings to events, to wildlife refuges, to plays at Popejoy.”

Hurbina said they try to include everyone in the building to hold events together — both the adult and children’s programs.

“We have a trunk or treat at Halloween,” she said. “The adults will come thorough and then we’ll merge the two. We’re creating a community within our own center. We’re trying to eliminate certain fears or something we don’t understand. We’re building that inclusion. It’s been very successful.”

Senior Services: In-home care allows seniors to remain independent and safe in their own homes.

Senior services was one of the original services La Vida Felicidad offered right after the children services.

“We started to do a lot of senior home care in Socorro, and it had quickly branched out to Valencia County,” Jaramillo said. “We are doing senior care in all five counties; those are home-based services that are designed so that people can still live in their homes, independently and safely.

“We’ll have a home-care provider doing everything from meal prep, non-medical care, transportation to appointments, house cleaning,” she said. “Just helping that individual stay in their home.”

Individuals who are in need of these services must be referred by Adult Protective Services, but Jaramillo said anyone of any age can utilize it through the Su Casa Program, a fee-for-service program.

“We had a great opportunity to get a donor, June and Kathy Fawcett,” Jaramillo said. “They moved here from out of state and live in Jubilee. They were looking for organizations to donate to, and her husband recently passed last year. But we got a collaboration with them, and she has an interest in all our services, but she has a passion for seniors who might not have opportunities otherwise.”

Jaramillo said if a senior is in need of a meal, they can send someone to help. If they need someone to talk to, they can find a companion to sit with them for a few hours a week. If they need a piece of equipment to get around a little easier, they can find it.

Hurbina said they have also formed a Senior Coalition with different partners in the community to share resources and discuss common struggles and challenges.

“It’s been growing in the past year, and we hope it will continue, just like the early childhood coalition has,” she said. “It’s grown, and we’re shifting to work and hold meetings at the senior centers so they can participate.”

Hurbina said they have been able to facilitate informative presentations to help the older population, such as fraud prevention, how to protect yourself against scams, how to build a support system.

Expansion of services

As the community continues to grow, so does the need for services. Jaramillo says as more and more people move into Valencia County and learn about what La Vida Felicidad provides, it’s become clear they need to expand both in services and locations.

La Vida Felicidad is currently housed in three different locations — one on Courthouse Road for the home-based services specialists, on Sun Ranch Village Loop for its child care and day program and on Huning Ranch Loop for its administrative offices.

Jaramillo said the organizations has been planning on building onto the building on Huning Ranch Loop and bringing all the services — children and adult — into that building. The administration offices will then relocate to the Sun Ranch facility.

“If we use our current facilities to house more of the administrative building, and bring all our early childhood programs into one spot, in a one-stop center where you could even bring other providers in,” she said. “You can have an office space for WIC to come in to meet with families. Then they could meet with their therapist, and then the parents can leave their child in our child care center.”

Jaramillo hopes the expansion will be completed in the next two years.