by Lorena Gonzalez
More than 45 community, faith, and higher education leaders came together March 25-26 for a training session sponsored by NAHF and conducted by Urban Strategies in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. The group met to explore how they could work together to create effective programs to strengthen families in the southern part of the Island.
The discussion was sometimes passionate and always respectful and purposeful with each voice honored. “This is an historic day!” exclaimed one participant. “It is the beginning of people doing for people. We can’t wait any longer for someone else to do this for us. We need to do it for ourselves.”
One 13-year-old participant observed that “the family and parents are important. When ‘nenes’ don’t have parents who can listen or guide them, they find other people to listen and that’s not good because others may not know or give the best guidance. Parents love us and we have to talk.”
Following exercises to determine needs and next steps, participants organized themselves into a new group called the Puerto Rico Family Service Alliance (PRFSA). The two-day training session wrapped up with enthusiastic support for an action plan to be implemented over the next nine months.
NAHF is privileged to witness and support this extraordinary process. We fully agree with one participant who echoed a statement made at our first gathering in 2008: “Today is the future.”
Es un privilegio para NAHF testiguar y apoyar este extraordinrio proceso. Estamos llenamente de acuerdo con un participante que exclamo una frase que fue hecha en nuestra primer reunion in 2008: “Hoy es el futuro.”