The Institute for Building Racial Equity in the Americas (REBIA) is a program of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR), which seeks to strengthen initiatives and projects that seek grassroots solutions for systemic change through the impact on public policies and the creation of a new narrative of inclusion and equity.
MISSION
Strengthen a leadership network focused on addressing the construction of racial equity, taking into consideration shared experiences from a decolonial perspective.
VISION
REBIA is an institute without walls or borders that seeks the transformation of public systems, facilitating equity and inclusion, for the strengthening of Afro-Latinx communities in the Americas.
To achieve this, we developed four strategic axes:
KNOWLEDGE
Generate data to make Afro-descendant communities visible.
CHANGE OF NARRATIVE
Empowering communicators to tell a new narrative and heal.
PUBLIC POLICY
Strengthen Afro-descendant leaders to influence public policy.
EQUITY FUND
To develop a fund that allows for the sustainability of organizations that build equity.
Origin of REBIA
Based on an understanding of the systemic and institutional racism that permeates our society, REBIA was born out of the need to create a network of equity builders to join the anti-racist efforts that are taking shape in the Americas. Our project seeks to facilitate equitable access to resources and opportunities that will allow the eradication of the racism that threatens Afro-Latinx communities.
REBIA Team
Hiram Williams Figueroa
Director
Sue-Ling Vázquez González
Program Officer
Mónica Rivera Rosado
Administrative Affairs and Donations Management Coordinator
REBIA Advisory Board
The REBIA Advisory Council is comprised of a diverse group of individuals with experience or knowledge of the project pillars in order to share experiences, knowledge and data to strengthen REBIA's work; offer recommendations to advance the work plan; recommend new members; and identify expert resources in the academic, community and public management sectors.
Palmira M. Rios Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Academic Researcher
Academic researcher and former director of the Graduate School of Public Administration at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPRRP). D. in Sociology from Yale University. In 1992 she obtained a fellowship Fulbright to teach in the Dominican Republic. He has published extensively on public policy and human rights. He was also a member of the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission, a body he chaired for four years.
Aarón Gamaliel Ramos, Ph.D.
Professor of Caribbean History
He teaches Caribbean history at the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in San Juan and is past director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico. He is the author of numerous publications related to the culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Carlos E. Severino Váldez
Professor of Political Geography, UPR
He has been a professor for more than 15 years. He is a professor of Geography in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, where he was dean. He was also rector of the Río Piedras Campus of the UPR. He has also served as special commissioner for the sustainable development of Vieques and Culebra.
En route REBIA...
We are building, together with the Technical Studies, Inc, a Socioeconomic Atlas with the objective of making visible black communities in Puerto Rico visible and generating data to support public policies aimed at improving the quality of life of these communities.
The Academic Diversification Program in Afrodescendant and Racialization Studies at the University of Puerto Rico (PRAFRO) y REBIA work together to create a new repository digital to serve as a space for the gathering of knowledge on racial equity.
As part of our collaborations to continue to strengthen the narrative change, we will participate in the Afro 2024 Summit. We reaffirm this event as a transcendental one for sharing knowledge and gathering leaders.
In addition, we count on the support of Pastor Murillo Martínez, member of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent at the United Nations, The company's strategic axis of public policy strengthening is being developed.
REBIA is subsidized by:
Managed by:
The Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR) is a philanthropic organization with a 38-year history of collaboration with donors and communities, with the purpose of developing the capacities of the latter through the increase of community capital. It is the first community foundation in the Caribbean and Latin America and the only one of its kind in Puerto Rico. Its programmatic focuses have included access to water, energy, housing and education, and activating economic development, among others. Recently, gender and racial equity were added to the programmatic proposals.