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Taos Community Foundation: $686,000 in ARPA grants reported to have aided more than 3,000 county residents
Summary
Taos Community Foundation told commissioners Taos County’s $686,000 2022 ARPA grants supported programs across health, housing, food security and youth engagement; presenters cited specific outcomes including 4,516 shelter bed nights and more than $520,000 in rent/utility assistance.
CJ Grace, executive director of the Taos Community Foundation, and Tanner Martin, the foundation’s director of community impact, presented a summary of Taos County’s 2022 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) community grant investments on March 4.
"The ARPA grants that went through the foundation have done amazing things for our community," Grace said, thanking the commission for its partnership. Martin told commissioners the foundation and county distributed $686,000 across two priorities—community health and well-being, and economic resilience—and described how that money was allocated to local nonprofits.
Martin provided program-level examples: Las Cumbres Community Services expanded from a part-time contractor to two full-time clinicians and one part-time clinician for infant and early-childhood mental health care; North Central Food Pantry served about 440 families twice monthly and fed over 1,000 people; NEST (Navigating Emergency Support Together) reported 4,516 bed nights and $520,013 in rent and utility assistance, helping move at least 25 people into housing; Cuesta Farmers Market used funds to support five mentors and 20 interns.
Commissioners praised the partnership. One commissioner said the county’s early work to design distribution was informed by community input and called ARPA an unusually flexible funding source. Martin said grantee site visits and regular convenings led to collaborations—citing an example where a transportation issue discussed at a Penasco meeting prompted another nonprofit to offer help.
The presentation noted the grant expenditure period ran from Feb. 15, 2023, to Sept. 1, 2024, and that approximately 3,146 Taos County residences were directly affected with more than 5,000 indirectly affected. Presenters invited commissioners to follow-up questions and said the foundation will continue to share updates.
