Farmington mayor podcast highlights Childhaven, need for foster families

San Juan County’s child-welfare strain is showing up at Childhaven, where a 32-bed emergency shelter runs around the clock and the need for foster homes keeps growing. In a June 8 episode of The Mayor’s Table, Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett sat down with Childhaven representatives Andrea Peña and Jennifer Gray to focus on how the nonprofit is helping children find safety, stability and healing during family crises.

Childhaven’s roots go back to 1966, when its board was established after the San Juan Mission could no longer serve as a children’s shelter. The emergency shelter opened in 1968 in the former Skelly Oil Company building on East Main Street in Farmington, then temporarily closed in 1969 because of insufficient funding before reopening in 1970 with San Juan United Way support and $2,500 in reserve. Since then, Childhaven says it has grown from one program to seven programs serving children and families across the Four Corners region.

Today, the emergency shelter is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and serves children from birth through age 17. Childhaven says the shelter is the largest children’s shelter in New Mexico and provides more than 4,000 nights of care each year. That work includes keeping sibling groups together when other placements might split them apart, a detail that matters when children are already dealing with trauma and instability.

The podcast also points listeners toward Childhaven’s foster-care work, which includes therapeutic foster care, licensing guidance, training and respite options. Childhaven says the program is built for children who need extra support, and it gives adults a path to become full-time foster parents or part-time respite caregivers. In a county where the demand for homes continues to outpace the supply, those options are part of the safety net that can keep children from cycling through crisis placements.

Childhaven also operates two nationally accredited Children’s Advocacy Centers, one in Farmington and one in Gallup. The centers use trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate forensic interviews so children do not have to repeat painful experiences, and Childhaven says the centers served as the first point of contact for more than 400 child abuse cases in 2018.

The need is not abstract. New Mexico had 2,307 children in foster care on Sept. 30, 2024, along with a foster-care entry rate of 2.7 in 2024 and 6,293 child maltreatment victims statewide. A local directory says Childhaven has expanded its yearly client population from 225 children and parents to 1,028, a sign of how much pressure families and frontline services are carrying.