Each and every day we are bombarded with bad news – both at the national and local levels. Whether it is the most contentious Presidential election during most of our lives, or the constant reminder of New Mexico’s negative rankings in key indicators of poverty, education, health and public safety.

At this very moment, however, we have an opportunity to turn from the doom and gloom to celebrate some of the ways New Mexico is a great place to live. Many in our community, including the Albuquerque Community Foundation, are committed to moving beyond the long-standing pattern of pointing out the ways we’re moving in the wrong direction. At his moment, I ask you to look at a few of the many pieces of good news for New Mexico.

First, Albuquerque has been waiting a long time to recover from the Great Recession that began in 2008 – longer than most major cities in the U.S. But we are closer to that point of recovery than ever before. If trends are any indication, we are finally moving quickly toward full recovery – currently at 92.8%.

Next, Innovation Central, Innovate ABQ, and the Innovation District are pieces in an evolution in economic development in Albuquerque created and perpetuated by entrepreneurs as its leaders, with a purpose to empower people to create opportunities for success.

Healthy Neighborhoods ABQ is another piece of good news. This most recent groundbreaking collaboration between UNM Health Sciences Center, Presbyterian Health Care, the City of Albuquerque, CNM, Albuquerque Public Schools, First Choice Community Health Care and the Albuquerque Community Foundation involves leveraging the collective buying power of these collaborative partners. Some initial projects include boosting local agriculture by buying produce from local farmers, creating expanded local organic farming opportunities and building a major produce processing and storage facility in Albuquerque’s South Valley. As well, the job training programs designed by partner institution CNM will prepare people from disadvantaged communities for good jobs. The health care anchor institutions collectively have thousands of entry-level jobs each year, with as many as half of those be filled by out-of-state applicants due to a shortage of local residents with the requisite skills and training.

More good news: Impact Investing in New Mexico will accomplish critical social impact goals such as increasing availability and access to accelerators and to affordable capital, thus stimulating entrepreneurial initiatives and economic development to ultimately improve the lives of low-income people by creating and retaining jobs that offer living wages and benefits. The success of these investments will be measured by how they attract other capital; increase the number of loans or investments to aspiring entrepreneurs; increase the number of new private sector jobs; increase the number of new, local companies and reduce the unemployment rate.

Still more good news? Living Cities, a collective of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, selected Albuquerque as one of its focus cities to laser in improving the economic well-being of low-income people! Our local Integration Team developed a multi-level initiative designed to accelerate job creation and economic mobility through innovation and entrepreneurship to help our city reach its full potential as a desirable place to live, work and prosper. By 2025, the Initiative is committed to creating 10,000 net-new jobs or 35,000 new and induced jobs and to closing the gap between the mean wage in New Mexico and the U.S., currently at $20.60 to the national average of $22.33.

One last piece of good news is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the country’s leading foundation for entrepreneurship, joined in partnership with the Albuquerque Community Foundation to invest nearly $500,000 to stimulate entrepreneurial growth through the Mayor’s Prize Program.

The Mayor’s Prize identifies, rewards and accelerates the best ideas from entrepreneurial support organizations committed to making Albuquerque a great place to create and grow a company. Last year’s winners – WESST, Technology Ventures Corporation and Global Ties are connecting entrepreneurs to resources, support networks and markets. Later this month, a committee of local and national judges will review applications for the 2016 winners of the Mayor’s Prize.

Are you feeling a bit more encouraged about the future of Albuquerque and the state at-large? If so, here’s a challenge: commit to changing the narrative of our Land of Enchantment. Go to GoodNewsNM.org, where you’ll find countless additional items of good news in New Mexico. Add your own good news to the site. Look for opportunities to change the narrative as you participate in your local community organizations, professional associations and service organizations. Commit to share your good news with the media in your local communities. If we all commit to changing the narrative, in a few short years, good news will prevail and the narrative will truly have changed.