{"id":33831,"date":"2023-04-25T18:41:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T00:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-beginnings-offers-hope-and-a-home\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:13:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:13:52","slug":"new-beginnings-offers-hope-and-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-beginnings-offers-hope-and-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"New Beginnings offers hope and a home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"House
House of Hope on the New Beginnings campus provides a safe place for survivors to begin rebuilding. (DelSheree Gladden\/The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

New Beginnings provides transitional living for survivors and families of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking in Farmington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just really trying to build up San Juan County as an entirety (sic), while also helping our survivors,\u201d said Devin Long, community specialist.<\/p>\n

Long, who is a lifelong Farmington resident, graduated from San Juan College with a liberal arts degree. She is working toward a bachelor\u2019s in English from Western New Mexico University.<\/p>\n

New Beginnings, located on the Navajo Mission School grounds, offers families a safe, community-based living environment for up to a year rent-free. Their mission is to help survivors and their families learn to heal and thrive.<\/p>\n

Long said the criteria for acceptance is primarily based on helping the \u201csurvivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do try and help people that have experienced some form of violence within the last six months,\u201d Long said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

She said everything is handled case-by-case for entry into the program. She described one case in which the abuse had taken place almost one year before, but admission to the program was still granted.<\/p>\n

\"The
The counseling center at New Beginnings offer services to program members and to the community. (DelSheree Gladden\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Long emphasizes breaking the cycle of violence, being safe and becoming independent as priorities for the programs services. Support services offered by New beginnings include helping residents locate and secure permanent housing and employment while providing life skills and independent living assistance.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are three multifamily homes and two single-family homes. A studio space is under renovation, and the program plans to open another home in July through a grant awarded in 2023.<\/p>\n

All single-family homes are full, but some of the multifamily homes have available space, Long said. \u201cSo if we had a single person or maybe a mother with a small baby, we could fit them in. We are always accepting applications,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Residents may stay in the program for up to a year. Long said a handful of families have completed the program in six months.<\/p>\n

The program adapts to applicants\u2019 circumstances as much as possible. Long said some may be going through a legal process that lengthens the process and some complete the program at a faster pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne mother that comes to mind, she actually came into our program last year, and she had a small child and she had actually been born and raised to homeless shelters her whole entire life,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

According to Long, the woman had an abusive parent and an abusive partner, and dealt with her son\u2019s stepfather, who was also abusive. Her previous shelter doubted that she would succeed.<\/p>\n

Instead, she completed the New Beginnings program in six months. She secured a job with the state of New Mexico, enrolled in school and obtained her own transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just absolutely took off having that freedom. So, it\u2019s interesting to kind of see the different types of personalities and people and where they go,\u201d Long said. \u201cWe try and help people build strong life skills, confidence, and so they can have a thriving life out in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents are encouraged to go to school, obtain good jobs and be sustainable, according to Long.<\/p>\n

\"The
The child care center at New Beginnings provides services to program members and the public. (DelSheree Gladden\/The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cSome people are battling with addiction, so we try and keep them from going back to addictions or to another violent relationship,\u201d Long said. \u201cAnd unfortunately \u2026 some people come in and they\u2019re like, OK, that sounds good in theory, but then they don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to comply with funding standards, the program cannot mandate terms of treatment or counseling, according to Long. \u201cBut it\u2019s just what we strongly encourage and just kind of what our values are as an agency,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of only four programs in the entire state \u2026 so we serve all of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Texas \u2026 and we\u2019ve even had someone come from the East Coast,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we get people that kind of just trickle in through different connections, referrals, jobs and such,\u201d Long said. She said that as a \u201cdemographic goes, 85% of our clients are Native American.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Beginnings has recently created its own nonprofit status, separate from Navajo United Methodist Center located on the Navajo Prep campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s kind of still in the works \u2026 so we\u2019re still a DBA as New Beginnings\/Navajo United Methodist Center, as it\u2019s been since 1994,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

program goals are breaking cycles of violence and creating independence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82365,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33831\/revisions\/82365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33831"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}