Our Vision:

A comprehensive child welfare system that protects children, creates permanency, and maximizes well-being, in which children receive the best possible services and live in loving, nurturing, permanent homes as quickly as possible.

The Citizen Review Board, a project of New Mexico Child Advocacy Network (NMCAN), has over 170 volunteers staffing 34 local review boards across the state of New Mexico. It is an independent project legislatively created by the State of New Mexico with a two part mandate:

• To review the cases of children in the custody of the state and make recommendations to the Judge who presides over the case.

• To make recommendations to the New Mexico Legislature, the Children, Youth and Families Department, and the courts regarding the statutes, policies, and procedures relating to substitute care.

New Mexico Citizen Review Board (CRB) and its volunteers have one goal:

To assist New Mexico's foster care system to become the best it can be. We believe that the children who are abused and neglected deserve the best possible services and should be in a permanent home that provides love, nurturing, and protection as quickly as possible.

Each local review board hearing provides an opportunity for the parties involved in a case to present information pertinent to the child's/children's progress toward a permanent, loving, and safe home. The information gathered at these hearings form the basis for a written report with recommendations that the local board sends to the presiding Judge. Additionally, the state-wide compilation of the statistical data collected from these hearings (the number of homes each child has had, social worker turnover, the impact of managed care, etc.) provides the basis for CRB's recommendations to the Legislature, the Children, Youth and Families Department, and the courts.

The New Mexico Child Abuse & Neglect Citizen Review Board is a project of New Mexico Child Advocacy Networks www.nmcan.org