Connecting Students & Specialists in New Mexico

In New Mexico, JAG New Mexico (JAG-NM) works with young people ages 16–24 who are piecing together school, work, and daily life from shelters, drop-in centers, and homes far from workforce offices. Their Specialists were running into the same wall over and over: shelter computers that didn’t work, guest Wi-Fi that dropped mid-session, and students losing phone service altogether. The result wasn’t just inconvenience. It meant missed meetings, stalled applications, and lost contact with youth who needed steady support.

That’s the starting point for Mobile Beacon’s new case study, which follows how JAG-NM began using mobile hotspots to keep those connections alive.

JAG-NM’s Executive Director, Kaity Parent, had been searching for “something, anything” to fix recurring internet issues at the places where specialists meet youth. She eventually found Mobile Beacon and realized it could be more than a quick tech patch. As she puts it, Mobile Beacon isn’t just “a company trying to make a profit,” but a partner that “actually consider[s] what it is we’re doing, how we can work together, and… wants to make a difference in our community.” That alignment set the stage for a different kind of connectivity investment.

Instead of relying on whatever Wi-Fi happened to be available, JAG-NM started equipping their out-of-office Specialists with hotspots they could carry to shelters, workforce centers, and rural meeting locations. The case study explores what changed next: how virtual meetings became more reliable, how contact with youth who had lost phone service could be rebuilt, and how portable connectivity began to open doors to online courses, applications, and programs that had previously been out of reach.

It also shares specific stories from the field – Specialists traveling hours to meet youth in remote counties, young people navigating housing instability while trying to finish school, and the role that a single hotspot can play in keeping those efforts moving. Together, these examples show how a simple shift in the delivery of connectivity can ripple through program outcomes.