This NPQ series of articles looks at Puerto Rican nonprofits and how they’re operating and thinking in the wake of Hurricane Maria. It’s part of our effort to illuminate the processes of building anew and recreating from disaster in a region where inequity is already extreme. More generally, the stories provide a glimpse of the vision, reality, and experiences of those affected most by a devastating combination of growing global economic inequality, environmental change, and democratic failures. Because of that, we hope they will be useful far beyond the boundaries of Puerto Rico and its supporters.
We expect this series to be of interest to nonprofits, infrastructure organizations, and funders alike, so please help us distribute it. We expect to continue this conversation well into the future, so we welcome your comments and feedback. Many of you have already shared how the articles in this series to date have helped you better understand the complexities of the situation, the choices that need to be consciously made, and the prominent role nonprofits play. Coming up, NPQ will host a Funding Puerto Rico webinar as part of our Peek Behind the Curtain philanthropy series. We seek to continue following the rebuilding effort on the island and bridging the sector there to the US sector. Thank you for engaging.
Nine months after Maria hit, Puerto Rico once again faces hurricane season. Many challenges remain, including the threat of hundreds of school closures, intermittent power, rising asthma rates, and dozens of unclaimed bodies.
An issue on the island is self-built or “informal” housing, which is a global issue related to poverty and variably defined, but one simple definition is housing that’s built without pulling permits or following code.
Backed by three foundations, the new Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission is seeking to create a community-backed recovery plan that will compel Puerto Rico’s government to be more responsive to local needs.
When a community organizes itself and builds a commons together, there’s incredible richness available. As nonprofits, one of the most powerful things we can do is create self-reinforcing systems where people understand that their future is tied to the future of others.
Puerto Ricans are “other” to the US, and the constant assaults of that positioning are unrelenting. Puerto Ricans know it, see it, feel it, and recreate it internally, with Loiza as the center of the poor, black other.
PECES exemplifies how everything connects to everything else. The relationships are the enabling and linking mechanisms: the understanding of who is in the community, who needs extra support, and what matters most. That native understanding of the place you’re in is critical in relief. The dynamics matter—and it’ll matter in the rebuilding.
Art is omnipresent in Puerto Rico. It’s not defended or extolled as important; it just is. Art is also a significant site of social discourse—even more so for a nation struggling with colonialism. At Crearte, it’s described as a potent form of self-creation.
The ongoing challenges of recovery to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico compel philanthropy to respond. But not all responses are the same. One approach is to support grassroots, community groups. The other is to reinforce existing service-based nonprofits. These approaches have very different equity implications.
With all of the talk about the failure of the energy grid in Puerto Rico, there has been little discussion about what citizens on the island are doing to ensure that it is rebuilt in a way that respects the earth and the island’s sustainability. This article is one in a series of original reports on Puerto Rico’s recovery by NPQ’s senior editor, Cyndi Suarez. We chose to take this project on because the devastation brought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria puts Puerto Rico in a unique position from which all nonprofits in low income communities can learn.
With this article, NPQ begins more in-depth coverage of Puerto Rico’s nonprofit sector as it responds to a crisis opportunity. How can it seize the moment to build local power for real social change?
