When a child goes homeless, even just for one night, that child’s community cannot succeed in supporting and nurturing its children. This is the belief of the nonprofit organization Cuidando los Niños (CLN). For more than twenty years, CLN has advocated on behalf of and provided support services to homeless children and their families in Albuquerque.
In partnership with the New Mexico Campaign to End Child Homelessness, CLN joined the Strong Starts for Children initiative to bring people together in dialogues in four Albuquerque neighborhoods to explore the causes and consequences of child and family homelessness, and its impact on early childhood development. As a result of the dialogues, CLN created a film festival in which middle- and high-school youth produced short films to educate and motivate the public to end child and family homelessness. A second film festival is now underway.