Our mission is to provide quality services, public awareness, and integrated community supports for children, adults, and families facing social, emotional, and/or developmental challenges.
ABOUT US

History
Las Cumbres Community Services, Inc. began in 1970 with a structured program of day habilitation services for developmentally disabled adults residing in Los Alamos. The agency gained its non-profit 501(c)(3) status in 1971, and added a preschool for children in the Española Valley in 1979. Services for adults and for children and families have continued to expand since then in order to best meet the growing and changing needs of the northern New Mexico communities we serve. 

Today the agency is one of the largest social service providers in northern New Mexico.  With a staff of close to 200 individuals, it is also one of the largest employers in Rio Arriba County, where its central office is located.  Satellite offices are located in Santa Fe and Tierra Amarilla.

Direct services are offered in Rio Arriba, Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties, while education, outreach and referral activities impact the entire state. All told, agency activities benefit more than 8,000 individuals each year in four major areas of emphasis:

  • Adult Services, providing residential, employment, day habilitation and community integration support for individuals with developmental disabilities;
  • Respite and Personal Care, offering support for families of children and adults with disabilities;
  • Child and Family Services, offering early intervention for children to age 3 with developmental disabilities/delays, infant and early childhood mental health and a therapeutic preschool;
  • Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute, a two-year certificate program that provides multidisciplinary training to early childhood providers across the state.


Mission
The mission of Las Cumbres today is to provide quality services, public awareness, and integrated community supports for children, adults, and families facing social, emotional, and/or developmental challenges.


Values
All Las Cumbres programs are based on a set of beliefs that services should be:

  • consumer driven
  • relationship-based
  • culturally appropriate
  • easily accessible
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  • community-based
  • inclusive
  • collaborative
  • based on individual strengths and natural supports
    		•


    Agency Strengths
    Las Cumbres serves a very large, rugged and culturally diverse region covering 6,000 square miles, where most residents live in rural communities that lack access to specialized health resources.  Poverty, language barriers, geographical distance and poor roads present service delivery challenges.  Las Cumbres has built a strong capacity to provide services to consumers in need from various cultures throughout the area, devoting substantial resources and staff time and often driving many miles to locations where Las Cumbres is the only provider of specialized services for adults with disabilities or children with or at risk for developmental delays. In many areas we are also the only provider of infant and early childhood mental health services.

    Because of its long-term commitment to and involvement in the northern New Mexico community, Las Cumbres is known as the place to go for information regarding people with developmental disabilities or mental health difficulties.  The agency serves in an informal capacity as a regional information and referral resource, and on a more formal basis as a center for training and consultation.  It answers requests and calls for assistance from city and county government departments, churches, businesses, schools, provider networks and individual service providers, as well as from families and individuals seeking specialized services and support.

    Collaboration
    Las Cumbres’ many programs are thoroughly integrated into the communities we serve through a wide network of relationships with public and private organizations and individuals.  This extensive collaboration allows agency staff members to work closely on cases shared with other professionals, and to refer families to appropriate services.  Staff members are involved with county and state government and interagency alliances in state- and community-wide planning and coordination efforts for health and human services.

    A partial listing of collaborating agencies and organizations includes the Rio Arriba Family Care Network, Los Alamos Coalition of Service Providers, the Chama Valley Health Coalition, the Eight Northern Pueblos, Head Start (run by Presbyterian Medical Services in Santa Fe County and by Youth Development, Inc. in Rio Arriba), Children’s Medical Services, the state Children, Youth and Families Department, Department of Health, Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, seven school districts, and the Early Childhood Consortium of the Northeast Region.  Las Cumbres also maintains close working relationships with the Chama Valley Health Care Coalition and with health care clinics in Chama, El Rito, Abiqui and Ojo Caliente.  The agency also participates actively in the Maternal and Child Health Council and the Violence Prevention Task Force, and assisted in six regional Child Finds last year.

    Moreover, as part of our effort to ensure that consumers receive the best possible services across northern New Mexico and the state, staff members of Las Cumbres sit on a number of committees and boards, including the Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC), where Las Cumbres staff have chaired subcommittees on Environmental Risk, Social Emotional Development and Infant Mental Health.  Las Cumbres also plays/has played an important role with the New Mexico Association of Infant Mental Health (NMAIMH), Value Options Clinical Advisory Committee, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe Maternal and Child Health Councils, CAST, NMACTS, and the Santa Fe Home Visiting Network, among others. 

    Las Cumbres is a member agency of United Way of Northern New Mexico.