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Foundation for P.R. launches talks between nonprofits, gov’t agencies

Foundation for Puerto Rico has begun heading the meetings of focus sectors with members of the Whole Community Resilience Program, to define the databases and indicators needed to assess vulnerability in the communities, the nonprofit announced.

These collaborative sessions will help examine the needs of all
communities in Puerto Rico, with a comprehensive perspective of resilience in
each of the six sectors: health, environment, education, infrastructure,
housing, and economic development.

The working groups will be made up of nonprofit organizations and
government agencies that have experience and knowledge in the six areas that
the program will cover. Due to the complexity and scope of the issues of
vulnerability and resilience, the meetings will be divided by focus areas ​​.

“The processes with the multi-sectorial working group are
open and transparent so that all the components are documented,” said Luis
Monterrubio, director of Community Planning of Foundation for Puerto Rico.

“This with the vision of democratizing the planning process,
putting the communities as protagonists of the process and creating alliances
between government agencies and nonprofit organizations, so that they provide
support to the communities in the preparation of these plans,” he said.

In the first session, the issue of community economic development
was addressed and the pieces of information necessary to identify the most marginalized
communities in economic issues were preliminarily defined.

The working group comprised the Puerto Rico Planning Board, the Youth
Development Institute, the Hunter College Center for Puerto Rican Studies, the
Puerto Rican Planning Society, the Department of Housing, and the Puerto Rico Science,
Technology and Research Trust.

“We will be replicating this exercise with each area’s work groups.
This could become our island’s most important information disclosure process,
creating a cultural change in the dissemination of data in government agencies,”
said Arnaldo Cruz, director of the Foundation’s research and analysis division.

“We recognize that there will be challenges, but the Foundation is
committed to the agencies to manage and interpret the information in a
responsible manner; in addition to attending any valid point of confidentiality,”
he said.

The Foundation will continue the process next week with the working
groups focusing on health, environment, education, housing and infrastructure
issues.

Once the process of determining the indicators is completed, the
Foundation will begin the data collection and dissemination phase so that the
communities have the necessary tools to manage their resilience plan, the
nonprofit confirmed.

Other organizations that have joined the
effort as members of the working group are: Community Foundation of Puerto
Rico, San Juan Bay Estuary, Save the Children, Puerto Rico Builders Association,
and the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Planning and Law School.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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