Legislative Workshops 

Supporting Student Success and Advancement As Schools Ease Into Full-Time In-Person Learning

During the past two years, educators, students, and parents across the island have navigated a set of unprecedented challenges. The 2020 earthquakes and ongoing pandemic have resulted in life-altering events for families, including economic instability and food and housing insecurity, affecting a child’s cognitive development, academic outcomes, and mental health. School closures have led to learning gaps and the emergence of new variants have made the return to full-time in-person learning uncomfortable for many parents. Now more than ever, it is crucial to provide ongoing support and programming to aid the advancement and healing of our most impacted children. This panel will explore the most pressing needs of Puerto Rican students and how parents, school districts and policies can support student success and advancement as we approach a post COVID-19 world.

Starving the Vultures: How New York State Can Solve the World’s Sovereign Debt Crisis and protect the future of Puerto Rico

For decades, “vulture” hedge funds have exploited New York law to extort indebted countries around the world. Their strategy? Buying debt for pennies on the dollar from a country that is in or near the verge of default and suing them in New York courts for full repayment. While this strategy has made a few billionaire investors extremely wealthy, it has resulted in chaotic and prolonged debt restructuring processes that have led to economic depressions and instability. As the law that governs half of the world’s sovereign bond contracts, New York State is uniquely positioned to alter the functioning of the world’s sovereign lending markets. This workshop will focus on policy solutions being introduced in the New York State legislature designed to curb predatory vulture fund practices and provide an international framework for struggling nations to more easily restructure their debt.  

Destigmatizing and Prioritizing Access to Mental Health and Wellness Services in the Recovery 

Puerto Rico is in the midst of recovering from multiple major disasters - a decade long economic crisis, the devastating hurricane Maria. a series of disatourous earthquakes, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Non-profits surveyed reported that one of the top undermet needs for communities is mental health care and yet it continues to be under funded, difficult to access, and highly stigmatized.  The collective trauma created by these events has resulted in spikes in suicide, depression, anxiety, drug abuse, violence, and PTSD over the last few years at a scale beyond what the mental health sector has been able to respond to. Panelists will discuss how the sector is building capacity, transforming traditional mental health service models, and breaking stigma to improve mental wellness and resiliency for ongoing and future disasters.

Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico - Disaster, Vulnerability & Resiliency 

With its 155 mile-per-hour sustained windspeeds, the near-Category 5 Hurricane Maria brought catastrophic devastation and destruction as it diagonally crossed the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from the southeast to the northwest on September 20, 2017. The official death toll estimate of 2,975 lost lives means this record storm became one of the most devasting hurricanes not only for Puerto Rico but for the U.S. Many of these deaths, as well as the prolonged human suffering, were attributed to what was described as inadequate disaster response and slow restoration of basic services (including running water, electricity, and the provision and distribution of food and medicine), and not to the direct impact of the hurricane itself. At the same time, Hurricane Maria made landfall when Puerto Rico had been confronting a severe economic crisis surging for over a decade. This crisis, referred to as La Crisis Boricua, was characterized by a significant loss of industry and jobs, a deteriorating infrastructure, record net outmigration, a shrinking and rapidly aging population, rising healthcare under-coverage, a bankrupt government, and federal legislation restricting fiscal policy decisions made by elected officials on the island. Thus, Hurricane Maria exacerbated the effects of La Crisis Boricua on the socioeconomic, health, and demographic outcomes affecting Puerto Ricans on the island and U.S. mainland.                                                                                                                                                                                          This Workshop represents one of the first interdisciplinary sets of studies dedicated to analyzing the effects of Hurricane Maria on island and stateside Puerto Ricans. Specific topics may cover Hurricane Maria’s impact on labor market outcomes, including wages and employment by industry; health implications, including mental health; changes in artistic expression; civic engagement; and disaster response and recovery and the destruction of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid and the prolonged restoration of electricity and other essential services that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. 

Addressing Puerto Rico’s Gender Violence Emergency

In January 2021, after increasing public demand, Governor Pierluisi declared a state of emergency over gender violence in Puerto Rico and formed the Comité de Prevención, Apoyo, Rescate y Educación de la Violencia de Género (Comité PARE) to develop program and policy solutions. Yet, more than 81 women have fallen victim to femicide on the island since last year. After this year’s deadliest month for women in May, when seven women were killed due to gender violence, Puerto Rico's Supreme Court established a task force to analyze decisions made regarding cases of gender-based violence. But there is much more to be done. Funding and policy changes are essential to ensure proper implementation of the state of emergency protocols; shelters, non-profits, and government agencies need additional resources to adequately serve the affected population; and solutions are needed to ensure that this crisis is prioritized and addressed. Join us for this timely conversation on how to protect Puerto Rico’s survivors of gender-based violence.  

LGBTQ+ community in Puerto Rico

The LGBTTQI+ population is one of the most marginalized segments of our community. The LGBTTQI+ population in Puerto Rico is facing serious issues such as suicide, hate crimes, harassment, mental health problems, poverty, high homeless rates, among others. This panel will discuss rising violence, mental health concerns, economic inequalities and propose ways to address them that also consider intersectionalities with other marginalized communities.  

Latino's and the Legal System 

The panel discussion will explain changes and the impact on the community based on reforms to the Criminal Justice System.  Leaders in the legal fields will talk about their experiences and how collectively we can improve access to Justice and ensure that all people are in fact treated equally.