Immersive learning in Puerto Rico

With a $224,000 Knowledge Challenge grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Sustainability and Social Justice professor Ramón Borges-Méndez co-leads a study about how local ecosystems drive entrepreneurial outcomes in Puerto Rico.

Collaborating with island and mainland community development corporations, private and nonprofit financial intermediaries, investors, and housing professionals, researchers will guide the design and creation of the Puerto Rico Community Predevelopment Fund (PRPDF), which will support affordable housing and other local economic development projects.

PRPDF will provide high-risk predevelopment loans, grants, and equity investments to CDCs promoting housing reconstruction, rehabilitation, and construction, as well as commercial development in downtown districts. The fund will also cover predevelopment costs such as architectural fees, environmental mitigation, acquisition, legal, and other consulting fees.

Borges-Méndez will bring this project into the classroom by integrating lessons into his Community Development and Planning graduate courses and the courses he teaches in Puerto Rico.

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