Clasified as a 501c3 Non-Profit “Juntes Somos Mas Fuertes (JSMF, Inc)  

“JSMF empowers communities and individuals with Human Centered Design solutions. Enabling sustainable initiatives based on people’s actual needs to promote equity and improve quality of life.

Inspired by The Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR) community capitals model. JSMF collaborates with the partners it serves designing human centered initiatives, focused on the promotion and strengthening of the community capitals. These are; Physical, Financial, Human, Social, Cultural, Environmental.

Sector El Hoyo,  Rio Chiquito Ponce:

“El ejemplo comienza por la casa.“

“Sector el Hoyo in Rio Chiquito is a small rural subsection of one of the first ever settlements recorded as “Barrios” in Ponce, PR. In 1878 Manuel Ubeda y Delgado reported that in Barrio Portugues there were 155 families residing in 33 houses and 100 bohios. It is also where our lead collaborator Dr. Alvarez Torres grew up, and home to her parents and other relatives. There are documented records of the Alvarez Family settled in Barrio Tibes as early as 1860. 

Other than the reason of starting from home, notable characteristics that make Sector El Hoyo a suitable Community Partner for JSMF’s mission are:
The community has a long-standing tradition of hard work ethic, community pride, and resiliency. They have traditionally actively engaged in activities to improve the wellbeing of the community. Some of the efforts worth noting; ongoing road cleanup, community health, wellness and leisure activities organized by volunteer youth, among others. 
The community also has a water well and aqueduct system that supplies clean water to 85 families. After Hurricane Maria, due to the lack of electric power, Bo. El Hoyo was able to secure funds through The Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR) to build a solar panel and battery facility, to power the water pump.
Community leaders recently met with JSMF to share concerns and the possibility of implementing HCD initiatives was met with great enthusiasm.

“Embracing human-centered design means believing that all problems, even the seemingly intractable ones like poverty, gender equality, and clean water, are solvable. Moreover, it means believing that the people who face those problems every day are the ones who hold the key to their answer. Human-centered design offers problem solvers of any stripe a chance to design with communities, to deeply understand the people they’re looking to serve, to dream up scores of ideas, and to create innovative new solutions rooted in people’s actual needs.”  – IDEO.org, 2015.

 “When you understand the people you’re trying to reach—and then design from their perspective—not only will you arrive at unexpected answers, but you’ll come up with ideas that they’ll embrace.” – IDEO.org, 2015