In the spring of 2023, PR PASS Workshop invited collaborators from several communities that had served as a "comparable population" during the impact study of Habitat for Humanity's Puerto Rico Recovery Program to an Environmental Coffee Break. At this gathering, PR PASS reaffirmed its commitment to exploring ways to work collaboratively on a topic of shared interest among the communities to generate projects that would benefit their well-being. The participants in that event agreed to collaborate on a project that would provide learning and concrete solutions regarding access to and management of water systems. The product of our collaboration was the design of "Citizens Active in Research about the Environment, CARE" better known by its Spanish acronym "CUIDA, (Ciudadanos Unidos en Investigación y Defensa Ambienta)l" a diverse training program that seeks to promote collaborative governance on environmental issues.
CUIDA proposes a training cycle that uses citizen science and action-learning strategies to address issues of responsible social, economic, and environmental development in an integrated way.
- CUIDA proposes starting with a citizen science research exercise on the topic of water.
- After the research, a discussion is facilitated about possible actions that can be taken.
- Using action-learning strategies, each community will have a predetermined budget to enhance the development of solutions based on the collected evidence that provide immediate benefits to the community.
- In the process of designing and implementing the solutions, issues of governance and collaborative processes are planned to be addressed.
- The Communities have a space to share their experiences with other communities and invite them to begin the workshop cycle. The development of concrete solutions not only helps the community, but the process is also expected to generate interest in additional opportunities not initially addressed.
- CUIDA proposes to provide additional training opportunities to individuals from different communities on environmental issues and entrepreneurship to promote greater economic activity in the community and the region that supports sustainable environmental development and safe access to clean water sources.
Where are we at?
PR PASS Workshop dedicated over 180 hours to preparing a variety of grant proposals that were submitted to various programs between 2022-2025. Proposals were adapted to serve between 3 and up to 18 communities. Each of the 5 separate proposal represents the shared vision of working team comprised of PR PASS Workshop and community-based organizations. Some of the proposals were directed to EPA's Environmental Justice program, others were adapted for competition in privately managed opportunities community-based environmental. However, due to changes in the availability of public funds to these programs, proposal reviews in several cases were cancelled. In service to the communities with which we have worked over the past few years, we continue to seek and remain open to identifying new funding opportunities.