La Maraña is a Puerto Rico–based, woman-led nonprofit advancing sustainable, community development through participatory design, planning, research, and environmental innovation. Since 2014, we have worked to ensure that the people who know and care for a place have more access to knowledge, tools, and opportunities to help shape their future. We collaborate with communities, grassroots organizations, municipalities, universities, and public agencies across the Puerto Rican archipelago to address challenges affecting the places where people live—from climate vulnerability and environmental degradation to food insecurity, infrastructure needs, and unequal access to information and decision-m... read more La Maraña is a Puerto Rico–based, woman-led nonprofit advancing sustainable, community development through participatory design, planning, research, and environmental innovation. Since 2014, we have worked to ensure that the people who know and care for a place have more access to knowledge, tools, and opportunities to help shape their future. We collaborate with communities, grassroots organizations, municipalities, universities, and public agencies across the Puerto Rican archipelago to address challenges affecting the places where people live—from climate vulnerability and environmental degradation to food insecurity, infrastructure needs, and unequal access to information and decision-making. Our roots are in Puerto Rico's citizen-led placemaking movement. In response to the devastation left by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, La Maraña developed Imaginación Post-María, a participatory recovery model that combined community planning and design, capacity building, and micro-finance to give communities a direct role in imagining, planning, and implementing their own recovery. This experience deepened our long-term commitment to community-led development and demonstrated the power of investing in local knowledge, leadership, and collective action. Today, La Maraña builds on that experience through initiatives focused on community infrastructure, environmental stewardship, food sovereignty, public space, sustainable mobility, urban forestry, and territorial intelligence. We develop methodologies and tools that communities can use to understand their environments, organize around shared priorities, and participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their land, water, food, infrastructure, and quality of life. Our work is grounded in a simple premise: communities should not simply be consulted about the future of their territories—they should have the capacity and resources to help shape it.
Each of GlobalGiving’s nonprofit partners is required to send quarterly donor reports detailing the impact of their work. Here are some of their recent updates:
By Jennifer N. Arriaga Rivera | Development Coordinator
For five consecutive years, La Maraña has opened its Participatory Design Lab to communities across the Puerto Rican archipelago, creating a space where residents and community leaders can... Read the full report ›By Jennifer N. Arriaga Rivera | Development Coordinator
Growing and accessing healthy food requires spaces that can withstand increasing heat, support biodiversity, retain water, and provide shade. Reforestation and urban greening are essential to creating... Read the full report ›By Jennifer N. Arriaga Rivera | Development Coordinator
More than a decade of La Maraña’s participatory projects, citizen movements, and collective efforts toward justice in Puerto Rico have given shape to our participatory design, planning,... Read the full report ›
