Jose Gonzalez 00:05
I think people have realized in Puerto Rico after the long recession and the challenges of natural disasters, that they cannot simply rely on government, state and federal to resolve all the issues that they're facing.
Rene Vargas 00:20
And every time there's a hurricane or a storm or now, the new chapter, we've band together and help each other. I think it's been imprinted into our DNA because of our experience.
JB 00:33
Welcome to Bank Notes, Recovery and Resilience in Puerto Rico. The views expressed in this podcast do not represent those of the New York Fed or the Federal Reserve System. I'm your host, Jeremy Brisiel. Here in the fall of 2020, we're all working to find our way through the Covid 19 pandemic, searching for ways to cope with a global health and economic crisis. What we know is that it will take ingenuity, innovation and community to build better solutions for tomorrow. There may be a model to finding those solutions. And it may be in Puerto Rico. This is that story.
Eduardo Carrera 01:12
My name is Eduardo Carrera, representing the Boys and Girls Club. The Vimenti project in Puerto Rico.
Giovanna Piovanetti 01:17
My name is Giovanna Piovanetti and I am the Executive` President of effect better known as Lendreams .
Roy Torbert 01:22
My name is Roy Torbert. I represent Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit focused on energy transition.
Aurelio Arroyo 01:26
My name is Aurelio Arroyo. I am CEO of Cooperativa Jesus Obrero, a local credit union with sixty years of experience working with communities.
Christina Miranda Palacios 01:34
I'm Christina Miranda Palacios, and I'm the President of the Trust for the Development of Río Piedras.
Rene Vargas 01:38
My name is Rena Vargas. I work for Inclusiv.
Ana Maria Lopez 01:42
My name is Anna Maria Lopez, and I'm the VP of Development and Communications for Foundation for Puerto Rico.
JB 01:49
Those are just a few of the people gathered in a hotel conference room in Puerto Rico in January 2020; to pitch the mission and needs of their organizations to a roomful of potential investors. The pitch event is the culmination of years of work for these community organizations, and the cap of a multi-year program developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York called Investment Connection. And why is the central bank best known for setting interest rates, setting up pitch meetings for community organizations in Puerto Rico? Well, that's actually part of the mandate of the bank. Here's Chelsea Cruz and Adrian Franco, the CoDeFi team that worked on that program.
Chelsea Amelia Cruz 02:27
So all 12 Reserve Banks have community development affairs departments. And they're interesting because they were developed originally following the enactment of the Community Reinvestment Act, which Community Development also has a mandate to work on. So we were originally envisioned and compliment to consumer compliance to help them ensure that banks were meeting the needs of low moderate income populations across their respective districts.
Adrian Franco 02:53
It was enacted in 1977 and it was legislation that responded to a practice called redlining. Redlining was when banks were essentially looking at communities and deciding where to offer credit based on the neighborhoods, and no mainly because of characteristics like demographics. But unfortunately, that was a really, really bad for communities of color. And for many, many decades this practice really brought disinvestment to many neighborhoods in the nation. So in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act, responded to that, and specifically asked banks to meet the credit needs of their communities where they received deposits.
JB 03:34
In response to the redlining practices of certain banks in the 1970s, the Community Development Affairs Departments were created. They still work in their respective districts today. After Hurricane Maria wreaked its havoc in Puerto Rico, which is part of the second district, the New York CoDeFi team sought the best way to support the island.
Chelsea Amelia Cruz 03:53
So following Hurricane Maria, obviously, the Federal Reserve isn't designed to be first responders. So it was important for us that we allow those agencies, FEMA and Red Cross to immediately respond to critical needs: water, food, medical needs, in Puerto Rico. But following that disaster, we really wanted to think about a way that we could begin to uplift the nonprofit community development ecosystem in Puerto Rico because those organizations are really going to be critical in determining the future of Puerto Rico and determining the future services and opportunities that exists for Puerto Ricans.
JB 04:32
The decision from one of the largest central banks in the world was to support the individuals and community organizations in Puerto Rico that could create deep and lasting change for the future of the island. Investment connection was designed to connect those community organizations in Puerto Rico with capital and financial organizations that they otherwise would not have been able to connect with.
Adrian Franco 04:52
Investment Connection itself as a program was launched in 2019, in September, when we called for proposals from organizations across the island, to submit their projects on community development. We've had a submission period of 15 days or two weeks from October 1 to October 15. We received those proposals and then our colleagues in consumer compliance reviewed those proposals to make sure they were eligible under the definition of community development of the Community Reinvestment Act. A key aspect of Investment Connection is to make sure that all these projects are under the CRA, and based on that we were able to communicate to the organizations that they will be pitching their proposals during the pitch event that happened on January 27, and 28th of 2020.
JB 05:44
So this is October of 2019, leading up to January of 2020. This is pre-pandemic. Proposals came in from all over the island from all types of organizations.
Chelsea Amelia Cruz 05:54
They're technically all nonprofits, and that includes the cooperativas, the financial cooperatives on the island, which are a key constituent. They provide key financial services and lending opportunities and they are dispersed widely across Puerto Rico. So for us, it was important to engage both the nonprofit community development community along with the cooperativas in this effort. And ultimately, we received about 40 proposals. Now, we only allowed for one proposal per organization, so that represents 40 different organizations. And it was very diverse. It was a CDFIs community development financial institutions. Again, it was financial cooperatives, it was foundations, it was incubators, it was kind of traditional nonprofit community development organizations and across many different themes.
JB 06:47
And this is the heart of the program, the model that might be essential to communities worldwide as we continue to deal with the pandemic and hopefully, in the not too distant future, rebuild with resilient, innovative solutions. The 30 organizations and investment connection were divided into six categories, affordable housing capacity building, education workforce, health, recovery resiliency, renewable energy, and small business entrepreneurship. Each organization approached each challenge in a unique way. Here's Aurelio Arroyo on the needs for energy resilience.
Aurelio Arroyo 07:20
Well, our project is Guaynabo's Rural Solar Energy Resilience Project is a problem that we are proposing. For neighborhoods in Guaynabo are all rural areas of our city. One of the neighborhoods is the neighborhood that is that our credit union is located, that has vulnerability, in terms of energy system. We all know that after 2017, and the recent earthquake, we had problems with our system. We have an outdated system, frail system, we have problems with the distribution, and we face in 2017, after Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma, we face the biggest blackout, the biggest blackout in the history of modern history of U.S. in any jurisdiction, and we have to look alternatives for this problem. Also our energy system, our remaining energy system are running with oil or with fossil fuels. So we have an impact in the environment. And we need to change that. We need to change that because we are living in an island is not a continent. We have a natural resource, beautiful natural resources, but we have limitations. So we need to move to an economically feasible energy system, especially for the people are living in the rural area. That's why we are looking to, we are proposing the Guaynabo Rural Solar, our program. We are proposing a pilot plan. We have to make it feasible, we will make it possible for communities to produce their own electricity. But how to create micro grids when you don't have that community organization, when do you have the realization of the community first? So when do you have the strength in terms of financing for the community as a whole, you have to put in to create and power the people first.
JB 09:26
The rural solar energy project that Aurelio represents is proposing a pilot program consisting of 40 families: ten each in four neighborhoods. The goal is to finance the construction of residential solar systems and build a network of self-sufficient micro grids. Solar power and energy resilience are one of the categories with many strategies. Here's Roy Torbert of the Rocky Mountain Institute on their approach.
Roy Torbert 09:50
So it's focused on the use of critical facility micro grids. Those are renewably powered grids that help provide or provide a resilient service to their community, but particularly financing solution to scale them. We've seen about 23,000 opportunities for critical facilities, only a small fraction of which currently have any support other than the Prepa grid. So we're here to help support that project. So they're about half small businesses. And in our both interviews and a lot of data collection, we find that small businesses, especially after Hurricane Maria, were critical. The remainder is a mix of things like fire stations, hospitals, or health clinics, water pumping, other telecommunication, key government facilities that help coordinate response to disasters between all of them, and they're very spread out across the island, we counted about 23,000. I think it means a fundamental change in how people approach these sorts of disasters to say that, you know, we don't have to reach outside, we don't have to wait on FEMA, we don't have to wait on the Army Corps, we've got solutions to provide basic power needs right away. Typically, these sorts of micro grid systems, including the data we have from the ones we've installed here in Puerto Rico, already, you know, right, as soon as the grid goes down, they've got batteries charged. You know, if you had a big storm, the solar panels will be shaded, but typically, you have enough in the batteries. So that community is going to say, okay, we're good we can we can provide the things we need. That lets us have sort of a home base, you can charge your phones, you can charge your walkie talkies to be communicate, communicative with everyone you need to. For us, that's a fundamental shift. I think it's also a first order difference, not the sort of dependence on you know, surgery by flashlight, that was one of the worst stories after Hurricane Maria. So this is starting with the ones that have the closest connection to life and human safety, and then moving to all the other ones that allow a community to more quickly return to normal operations. So for us, whether it's in Mocha or Ponce, or Torre Alto, the three projects that we specifically pitched, I think that for those communities is this sense of safety and investment in their own energy future. Rocky Mountain Institute now as a global organization has really been an amazing platform and an amazing intervener in all sorts of decisions that I think without, without reshaping, you see a grid like Puerto Rico's, right? One that is imported fossil fuels fragile, not at all involving community participation... Those are the sorts of things that scare us that we do our best to fight against. I mean, this touches on something that I think people here really connect with, which is this fact that Prepa as a utility has failed in a lot of its core services, and I admit has an incredibly difficult job, their leadership is always struggling with one of the most far flung power grids and hardest to maintain of any place I've ever seen. At the same time, I think these communities are saying 'why don't we start our own micro grids?' And this is going to have attention, including with the support from federal funds, when it does arrive into how, what the vision that that future grid looks like. And so I'd connect some of this work that communities are doing to a really powerful counterpoint to what Prepa in essence has been saying with its recent planning, which is more centralized, more natural gas imported. These community micro grids, especially if they're done cost effectively, are the easiest way to say 'that's not our future, we've got a better alternative and we're ready to seize it.'
JB 12:52
The blackout after Hurricane Maria was the largest in U.S. history, affecting 1.5 million residents. And it took 328 days, nearly 11 months to restore power to everyone. So, it's understandable that infrastructure resilience and alternative energy are things that are top of mind for organizations trying to build a stronger future. Safe, reliable and resilient housing is a profound need for the island as well.
Giovanna Piovanetti 13:21
My name is Giovanna Piovanetti, I am the executive President of COFECC, better known as Lendreams.
JB 13:27
That company name is Lendreams. The words lend and dream together. Describes their mission and their aspiration.
Giovanna Piovanetti 13:37
So we are looking to provide for pre-development loans to community development centers across all regions of Puerto Rico, so that they can obtain their initial capital until they're able to obtain additional funding from federal and local sources to develop affordable housing projects. Right now with the earthquakes, I have seen so much need about affordable housing, how so much people need to rebuild their homes, but is there are needed in Puerto Rico more essential players to develop these projects to develop more resilient homes, and how we can integrate the importance of the nonprofit sector as a player toward rebuilding all these houses and developing new resilient homes for people that have suffered the earthquakes and this in addition to the long standing need of Puerto Rico in terms of affordable housing. I think this is the best time to create these fund so that we can provide for loan capital for the needs of these nonprofit developers.
JB 14:48
What makes investment connection powerful and why it may be a roadmap for other communities is the diversity of ideas about how to build a better tomorrow. Micro grids are one way. Affordable, resilient housing another. And for some... one building, maybe the answer.
Christina Miranda 15:04
So I'm Christina Miranda Palacios and I'm the President of the Trust for the Development of Río Piedras. We're proposing to rehabilitate the Paradise Theater as one of the key magnet projects to spark or ignite the transformation of our community. Río Piedras is a community that's, it's an eight barrio community. It's very underserved right now. It has areas that are dilapidated, but it's really the face of Puerto Rico in a small geographic area. It's a building that has been empty and continue to deteriorate year after year. So it's an eyesore for the people that don't have the vision. But it's a jewel in the making for the people that actually have a vision. So getting the Paradise to the community has been a huge win for us. And it's actually it will mean having something that we can say we did this, we're on our way we're moving along. And it will also serve as a magnet initiative to increase foot traffic, people's interest to spark different conversations with the community. But it will also be a place where the community can actually go and have a cultural space that's their own, but that's also shared. So it's, it's a huge win for us. So the Paradise will be a magnet project that will hopefully spark the interest of private investors to come and invest in our community.
JB 16:16
Converting an eyesore into something with vision captures the spirit of so many of these organizations. And certainly there is incredible value in improving infrastructure community spaces and housing. For and Eduardo Carrera and so many others like him, building a successful future is achieved by building a better present for the children of Puerto Rico.
Eduardo Carrera 16:36
My name is Eduardo Carrerra, I'm representing the Boys and Girls Club, Vimenti project in Puerto Rico.
JB 16:41
The Vimenti Project is a one stop shop center based on a two generation approach - parents and children - with a mission to eradicate childhood poverty. The two generation approach is an anti-poverty initiative that provides support for both the children and their parents together. And there's evidence that this approach is one of the most effective to eradicate childhood poverty.
Eduardo Carrera 17:01
When we think about the level of poverty in Puerto Rico, almost six out of 10 children in Puerto Rico live under poverty. And now we know through research that a child that is living under poverty is highly likely to be exposed to high levels of toxic stress situations in their home that contribute to health components that are not good for their develop development. They usually go to low performing schools, thus creating an adult that really can't compete in the in the labor market that adult usually earn less money, they usually is plagued with more disease and, and sickness. And they're highly likely to be involved in criminal activity or being a victim themselves. So when we think about child poverty, we really think about the end result and the end result for Puerto Rico is loss of productivity for everybody. We estimate that discussing our island $4.4 billion in productivity and loss of revenue every year.
JB 18:02
That's 4.4 billion. With a B.
Eduardo Carrera 18:06
We are connecting 50 years of services into a more comprehensive model to address child poverty. For the last year, we began a project that address that issue in conjunction with families. Families come to a physical place where they can find services in the areas of education, economic development and health. And basically, we are presenting the expansion of that project to a permanent facility that can serve additional families.
JB 18:38
The Vimenti project is part charter school, part integral Services Center for the entire family. That comprehensive approach is key to their success. And part of what they're trying to expand on. The Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico has been operating since 1967. Eduardo, in fact, went through the program when he was a child.
Eduardo Carrera 18:57
I was the recipient of a lot of blessings and good mentors, I grew up in a housing project where I had the opportunity to participate in a Boys and Girls Club. And my mentor became a lifetime mentor. And at one point asked me to come back and help and get back and these became my cause.
JB 19:20
So many of the participants have incredibly personal connections to the work they're doing.
Eduardo Carrera 19:25
I can I go back to the communities that I grew up. And I see that most of friends family did not were not afforded the same, the same opportunities. And for them that cycle was never able to, to fully break. So to me more than the one story that that is a positive story is the many, many, many stories, the majority of the stories that never break. And for us, we have been able to galvanize people that have the same burden and believe that until that last person in the community have equal chance, our work is done. So we take satisfaction on being unsatisfied with the status quo and hopefully we'll will not get tired.
JB 20:08
Being of the community and working for the community is one of the most consistent themes across all of these organizations, whether it's infrastructure needs or human needs, the same desire for self-reliance, and a new way of operating permeates all the pitches. Rene Vargas,
Rene Vargas 20:24
My name is Rene Vargas. I work for Inclusiv, formerly known as the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, and I am a program officer there working with the Puerto Rico CDFI initiative. Throughout all my life, I feel that I've been working with the concept of access. And at some point in other point in my life when I was younger and more vibrant, I work for access for higher education and for students in low and underserved communities to be able to have a college education. And now I have the privilege to work with Inclusiv, to work on the other side of the spectrum to help people have access to credit so that they can build their own financial future and prosper. That's what everybody pretty much wants to do here. I mean, it's amazing I, I'd say it's a life's dream. And I think that one of the only and I want to be specific about this one of the only, and I've never, I don't want to say good, but one of the only... necessary things that have come out of all the natural disasters that we've seen in Puerto Rico is that people have understood that in this particular climate, the actual ineffective bureaucracy that the island has, the only way to be able to do impact and to help people is by doing it yourself. And so our project, or our particular proposal is about financial cooperatives. They pretty much represent the ethos of people helping people, everything they do is for the community to weave, they're part of the fabric of their communities, and are out there with them. And so being able, even from afar, to help financial cooperatives expand the work they're doing, helping their communities making sure that you know they can help themselves is an honor. I think that people have to start thinking that we have and I include myself in this reasoning, we need to start thinking of alternative ways of getting things done. And I think that sometimes we've relied a lot on traditional institutions mainstream, and in my field in mainstream financial institutions. And when you think of banking, you automatically think of x, y, z organization. But we have to start thinking of other ways of getting things done. Ways that are more democratic, that are open that are more transparent. And I think that that's part of the recipe for the situation that Puerto Rico is going through. Right. So I think that the future of Puerto Rico, its people, its communities, its nonprofit organizations. I think that the government is in a period of transition. And I think that eventually, you know, the people are going to understand that they need to, they need to take, because I think that people want to participate in the political process. But at some point, they're going to have to take control of the political process to be able to affect change. Now, change starts in every community. I think that Puerto Ricans are doing that everywhere, the 30 organizations that are here, and the proposals they have and the work that they've done before presenting these proposals. I think it's a pristine example of that. But how I see it is that eventually the people that are here that are working on the ground, there'll be in charge,
JB 23:36
Even with all of these challenges, natural disasters, political struggles, infrastructure weakness, economic recession... One of the bigger challenges is far less tangible in nature, but no less difficult. Here's Nancy Santiago, Vice President of Hispanics in Philanthropy.
Nancy Santiago 23:51
I think it's so easy for folks when they're talking about a group they don't know or understand, to attach these narratives to them. It happens to us all the time, we talk about the differences about how Northerners talk about people from the south, and how people from the east coast talk about people from the west coast. We do that because there isn't a proximity, there isn't knowledge, there isn't information readily available for us to compare and contrast. So then we take this kind of one brushstroke and say everybody's this way. And so some of the difficult narratives that have been happening in Puerto Rico over the years are that we're not educated. And I have to hold up stats that say, but 22% of the bachelor's degrees here are in STEM related fields, we are quite honestly over educated, which is why sometimes we see folks having to leave the island because they can't find the types of jobs that will use their skills and the way they want to use them. So we have to challenge the narrative about things like corruption, and I jokingly tell people 'I'm from New Jersey, we kind of know something about corruption in the state of New Jersey.' There is no difference for me. Yes. Is there corruption? Absolutely. Does it exist in every major city of the US and could I point to examples in just about every major city? Absolutely. For folks to say that that's the only way of life here is just so wrong on so many levels. I'd be like saying the entire city of Chicago is corrupt because they tried to sell a senate seat. That's like saying all of New York City's corrupt because they had a corrupt Attorney General, right? And so we start to think about some of those narratives. And I ask people to challenge that. There's also this false narrative of Puerto Rico gets all of these things. No, we don't, quite honestly, we have the highest tax rate in terms of when you go out there and pay for something at a store higher than any other state in the Union, that we're not being charged federal taxes, maybe. But those taxes are coming in many other ways. So people here share the burden of higher tax bracket than many other cities in the US. And even the kind of narrative of we get all this government support. Even around the aid after Maria, we all know that, yeah, these big numbers are being thrown around. But the amount that actually made it to the island was minuscule compared to what it was supposed to get. So every day, we have to challenge those narratives about the people, the culture, the flow of capital. And I think it's really important that each of us do a better job of not just talking about what Puerto Rico has to offer, but to really push back against the narratives that people have created that are false narratives around the island.
JB 26:26
False narratives are one of those challenges that need constant work: constant work being pushed back on constant work to overcome constant work to rewrite them. Here's Frankie Miranda, President of the Hispanic Federation,
Frankie Miranda 26:38
There has been an issue with the narrative that has been spread out or told about what happened in Puerto Rico and what continues to happen in Puerto Rico. What we have seen with our work with more than 116 programs, community organizations, initiatives here in Puerto Rico, is that there is a bountiful number of innovation, hardworking people, and people that actually took care of their own communities, even when the federal government and the Puerto Rico government had issues reaching out those communities. Philanthropy, the nonprofit sector came together. And there was some also private partnerships that came together, when government couldn't respond. Nobody can be who truly prepared for a natural disaster like it was hurricane Maria, and most recently, the earthquakes that have been affecting Puerto Rico for over a month at this point. But what we keep hearing is that Puerto Rico lacks certain things, when in reality, what Puerto Rico is doing so much to take care of his own. And what we need to do is to provide additional support. That is why this convening is so important, because you're helping us change that narrative, demonstrate that there are very good, very healthy nonprofit sector here in Puerto Rico doing amazing work. They're just understaffed and under resourced.
JB 28:13
So in addition to economic challenges, natural disasters and political disarray, the Puerto Rican community has to confront false negative narratives and rewrite them. There is one narrative that kept popping up in every pitch. While the island currently lacks resilient energy systems, resilient economic systems and resilient Cities and towns. It has a surplus of resilient citizens.
Lucas Arzola 28:35
My name is Lucas Arzola, and I'm representing Parallel 18. It's a global startup accelerator based in Puerto Rico, and I lead operations and the investment initiatives for the program. One of the main goals of Parallel 18 is changing the global mindset around entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico. As islanders we tend to think local: my market is my town or my market is Puerto Rico. So really, one of our goals is to help Puerto Ricans think bigger, you know, think about how their products or services can address problems and achieve clients all over the world, we see that Puerto Ricans are extremely resilient, and the data speaks for itself, and how that pertains to entrepreneurship and what we do is that from crisis comes opportunity. So we actually saw after the hurricane, many entrepreneurs that decided to launch companies based on problems that, you know, came from the hurricane itself, or people that just became unemployed and decided now's the time do their own companies. So we see that definitely there's new opportunities, a new mindset around Puerto Ricans and recovery. We actually launched a campaign called 'El Boricua se las inventa,' 'Puerto Ricans are inventive,' to find those entrepreneurs all over Puerto Rico, that have interesting ideas that we could support. Certainly the future is bright, you know, definitely we are here to support entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, interns, freelancers think every group can benefit by connecting with startups or being around innovation in some way. The best part is now you don't have to go to Silicon Valley or New York to have a tech innovation experience you can do so from right here, Santa Rosa, Puerto Rico. We just invite everybody that feel that they can support a company, maybe they have their own idea for a company to come to us to apply, because we want to hear from all of them.
Ana Maria Lopez 30:19
My name is Anna Maria Lopez, and I'm the VP of Development and Communications for Foundation for Puerto Rico. I think Puerto Ricans as a whole and particularly Puerto Rican entrepreneurs are some of the most resilient people in the world. If you think about all the particularities of Puerto Rico, you know, we just had earthquakes or hurricanes, there's recessions, there's, there's always dynamics at play that force Puerto Ricans to constantly be reinventing themselves and innovating to ride those waves. So resiliency is inherent to our culture. And entrepreneurship is also part of our DNA.
Michael Carroll 31:02
It's self-evident, you go anywhere on the island, and people are upbeat, people are friendly. And there's there is a spirit of entrepreneurship. And despite the lack the disinvestment, in on the island, it hasn't stopped people's enthusiasm. And we'd like to tap into that. Like I said, the missing piece is capital. A little bit of capital go a long way here. My name is Michael Carroll. And I'm the lending director for the local initiative support Corporation, our rural program.
Giovanna Piovanetti 31:36
After Hurricane Maria, our people stand up again. And now after the earthquakes, I know they will, I just think that Puerto Rican people have the will, have the power, have the resiliency. And all these experiences have made us be more strong, more powerful, and has helped us also develop a new nonprofit sector. And new nonprofits will come as player after all these initiatives. And we are now again, at the eye of the national level foundations that want to come and help. I think this is a huge opportunity. And any, I always think that after each disaster, each tragedy, each problem. It also means that a new door is opening for support for more funding, and for new opportunities for people.
JB 31:46
That spirit repeats over and over again, that within these crises is opportunity. That is the definition of resilience. And it may be a roadmap for the way forward.
Roy Torbert 32:46
There's a there's a little story that I like I was here Not long after Maria in the town of Barranquitas and a guy there said, Look, our town is in shambles. You know, we're struggling, but nobody's leaving. We're staying here, we're gonna dig ourselves out from this, we're gonna put the town back together. We talked to the mayor later that day, and he was saying the same stuff. So this sort of like desire as a community to come together support, you know, I'll drive, I'll drive diesel fuel and a generator to someone's abuela if they need it. This is like the community that we really observed. It's one that is incredibly powerful. It's one that for us exactly fits into the same work of saying we can't rely on the centralized power grid anymore. Instead, the solutions are coming from within the community.
Eduardo Carrera 33:26
My, my take on these is that these century, the social issues are not known for the nonprofit sector to own. These are the most pressing issues for the world to solve. So these forces us to get out of our traditional bubble, and to enter into partnerships and agreement, not only with our friends, but also with people that we thought in the past that might not have anything to contribute to the social area.
Nancy Santiago 33:53
In the case of Puerto Rico specifically, there has never been a better time and opportunity to bring people together to work together. That number one makes deals happen, right people willing to come to the table for both good and profit, right? You have that moment here. And quite honestly, if you want to be able to show that you've made an impact, do it in a place like Puerto Rico, that impact will show immediately. I think
Frankie Miranda 34:19
I think that there the Puerto Rico is a fertile ground for innovative investments. Independently, what is your focus area, you're going to find something here. There is so much and there is a unique opportunity that this disaster has opened up. I have my parents talking about renewable energy. I have young people talking about reforestation, and protecting the environment, or how to make community center more resilient. There are so many different opportunities here. And I welcome everybody to look into it to reach out to the Federal Reserve and to reach out to all the participants here because if you're interested in something? I'm sure that we have it.
JB 35:04
The New York Fed remains committed to helping foster an ongoing dialogue between community groups and potential investors looking to make a real impact and opportunities for investment still exist and are as relevant as ever. If you're interested in joining the discussion, please visit nyfed.org/InvestConnectPR. You can also connect by sending an email to NYinvestmentconnection@ny.frb.org
