Instituto del Puente

The Bridge to Future Focused Education Policy

Instituto del Puente is the policy development arm of Future Focused. Instituto learns from young people about their hopes and desires for school and builds a policy platform that responds to their needs. These educational innovations are designed to make our communities healthier and more prosperous. The name Instituto del Puente captures our mission to bridge our current reality filled with youth disengagement to a future where young people and communities thrive. By democratising the policy making process and including the voices of those most impacted by policy, we co-create a better New Mexico, together.

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How Instituto Works

Policy Priorities

Partners & Involvement

Impact

Instituto del Puente in Action

Youth and Community Co-Create Education Policy

After a series of 13 regional meetings, people from all across New Mexico met in Albuquerque for two policy workshops in fall 2024. These workshops, with over 150 participants, focused on uplifting the voices of young people, asking them to respond to what they’ve told us in our listening journey: paid internships, capstone projects in the community, and school-based mental health programs and behavioral health pathways are at the intersection of their hopes and desires. Data from the year of convenings shaped the policy recommendations we put forward in the 2025 legislative session.

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People attended convenings
in 2024 & 2025

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Data points collected from
participants that informed
2025 policy priorities

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To make school
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How It Works

A student wearing headphones looks at something off screen while taking notes.

Instituto del Puente, the policy arm of Future Focused Education, embodies a bottom-up approach, ensuring that those most affected by education policy have a voice in its creation. We gather people together to discuss specific challenges facing their communities so that we can incorporate those insights and experiences into policy recommendations. Instituto leads by listening to local wisdom in order to co-create a better New Mexico, together.

Instituto del Puente develops the conditions for Future Focused Education’s initiatives to scale, ensuring that we’re following through and implementing the things youth are asking for: learning with purpose, care for their wellbeing, and mentorship to become contributing adults. These have been validated by students, educators, employers, and community leaders across New Mexico.

Policy Priorities

The Instituto serves as a convener and catalyst dedicated to incubating, supporting, and co-creating policies that help our young people make their communities healthier and more prosperous. Together, we are responding to dilemmas, adapting solutions to specific communities, and sustaining our efforts over time through public policy.

We have collected more than 2,000 comments from students from communities across New Mexico who have shared what they need to succeed. They told us that they want schools where:

Their learning is relevant and meaningful,
their well-being is supported, and
they have caring adults who will mentor them as they grow into adulthood.

By starting with student voices and working alongside educators and communities, we've built a shared vision for change that challenges the idea that disengagement is inevitable.

With the help of our partners, Instituto del Puente achieved some big wins for New Mexican youth in the 2026 Legislative Session.

2026 Legislative Session Highlights

We took a significant step toward our goal of creating a sustainable funding source for paid internships by securing $270,000 in House Bill 2, for an internship pilot project within the Department of Workforce Solutions to match contributions from employers. Representative Cristina Parajón sponsored the appropriation.
Senate Bill 64 passed both the House and Senate and is on its way to the Governor’s desk. This bill will create an office of special education, helping young people with disabilities realize their full potential by increasing attention to their transition from school to work and community life.
Funding for the Graduation Reengagement Internship Program (GRIP) continues to be included within the three-year $18.6 million commitment by the Legislature and Governor for initiatives designed to improve student attendance ($6.2 million per year) which goes through the 2027-28 school year.

For more information, read our 2026 Policy Framework below:

Read 2026 Policy brief and framework

Partners & Involvement

Photo of a crowded conference room with smiling participants seated around tables talking to each other.

We partner with school districts, young people, teachers, community members, business leaders, non profit organizations, state and local government—anyone who is committed to creating the education that young people have been asking for. If you would like to get involved, reach out to Tony for more information.

“The intentionality behind placing youth at the center of decision-making has made a meaningful difference. It has brought authenticity and accountability to the table.”
–Rural District Superintendent

“We are ensuring that schools and communities work together to meet the needs of students - academically, socially, emotionally, and in preparation for their future career pathways.”
–Higher Education Advocate

“Instituto has been a welcome and dynamic space in which we have been able to imagine and develop some really impactful and innovative thinking.”
–Nonprofit Leader

Impact

Students and teacher working on a problem together.

Creating democratic policy starts with a conversation with those most impacted. Over the past year and a half, Instituto embarked on a profound listening journey–with convenings in communities across the state, involving over 580 participants.

Check out our 2024-2025 Impact Report to see how Instituto gathered New Mexicans all over the state, asked questions, led discussions, and most importantly, listened to the voices of our youth, the principle that guides Instituto del Puente’s policy work. Our approach resulted in five co-created policy recommendations and significant 2025 legislative wins including $1.0 million for Behavioral Health and $6.2 million for attendance or re-engagement programs and $12.5 for Innovation Zones.

Read The Report