We are so grateful for the overwhelming support we received from all of our Family Friendly NM community! This includes so many of you that we want to dedicate this week’s blog post to extending the celebration of our 5-year anniversary by featuring highlights from our virtual event. Our virtual awards event held on Thursday, June 11th recognized all of our awardees that purchased tickets to this year’s Family Friendly Business Awards Luncheon. We recognized our event sponsors and supporters, 5- and 6-year returning awardees, welcomed special guests and brought the family friendly business community together in a fun and innovative way.

The celebration kicked off with a warm welcome from Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has been the Emcee for our in-person event since 2017. The Secretary touched on the importance of having supportive policies especially during this time of “COVID craziness.” She also remarked:

“Family friendly policies are essential to the modern workforce. And, businesses see the benefit every day through increased employee satisfaction, improved productivity and much more.”

We also had special messages from Mayor Tim Keller and First Lady Elizabeth Kistin Keller:

“Congratulations to all of the businesses that have received the 2020 Family Friendly Business Award. We know the last several months have been trying for businesses and families alike and the effort you put in to care for New Mexico families makes a huge difference.”

New Mexico state Senator Sander Rue also shared a special message:

“I want to congratulate all of the businesses that received the 2020 Family Friendly Business Award. You all should be very proud and honored of that distinction.”

In addition to hosting a virtual celebration we created the Awards Virtual Event page where businesses can access virtual event offerings. This is a hub where you can access our “History, Work and Impact” video-short featuring the FFNM team and all the benefits available to ticket holders (like your customized video clip featuring your award recognition).

Every year we make a special announcement about the initiative. This year Giovanna Rossi, CEO of Family Friendly New Mexico, announced the launch of our new Family Friendly Business Directory. The business directory is free to all of our current awardees and we will be adding premium offerings soon (like being able to post job openings, special events and your logo). It has been such a humbling experience to provide trusted resources to the community and we can’t do any of this without all our awardees who diligently renew their Family Friendly Business Awards™ each year.

Thank you for making New Mexico a family friendly state! Join us Thursday, June 18th on our Facebook page for a special message from Secretary Bill McCamley, and in the following weeks for our sponsor videos.

If you missed the virtual event and purchased a ticket to our luncheon this year, you will still receive the updated benefits now through the end of 2020! Please visit the Awards Virtual Event page for more information or feel free to reach out to marketing@nmfamilyfriendlybusiness.org with any questions.

Lastly, if you attended our virtual event live, watched the replay or even if you did not attend, we would love your feedback.

Angelica Archuleta was born in Santa Fe, raised in Española and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a Lupus survivor since the age of ten, her passion for human rights is rooted in her lived experiences. She started her career early on making pizzas at the family restaurant, and now has experience collecting research data for UNMHSC Project ECHO, and experience with the UNM Refugee Well-Being Project and The Fund for The Public Interest. Constantly developing her critical consciousness through an antiracist intersectional lens, she advocates for and raises awareness about social justice issues. Angelica joined the Family Friendly New Mexico team in August of 2019, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in Human Services and Social Policy and a certificate in Peace & Justice Studies from the University of New Mexico. Angelica is a mother to an amazing seven year old son and enjoys bicycling and skiing with her family as often as possible.