ECHAR PA'LANTE

Germinated by Popular in 2012, the ECHAR PA'LANTE (Move Forward Together) initiative began as a motivational instrument for socio-economic progress in Puerto Rico. It quickly evolved into a multisector alliance convening the principal five sectors -Academia, Government, Private, Non-Profit, and Grassroots- to transform Puerto Rico into the Enterprising Island. ECHAR PA'LANTE's (EPL) mission is to 'integrate multisector thrusts to accelerate citizens' skills and mindsets for globally competitive entrepreneurship, innovation, resilience, inclusivity, and sustainability to propel socio-economic prosperity in Puerto Rico.' During the past ten years EPL has built a multisector movement, enterprising capacity, and systems to deliberately stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation. Popular powers the EPL initiative with dedicated staffing and underwriting of EPL programs. Hundreds of EPL allied organizations and individuals volunteer their expertise and efforts to advance the EPL agenda.

For example, one of EPL's main thrusts aims to enable Puerto Rico's human capital with the tools and mentality for enterprising and innovation. Towards this, dozens of university professors have been trained via a certification program designed, coordinated, and paid for by EPL in partnership with leading U.S. universities- who in turn train other college professors, grade-school teachers, and entrepreneur support practitioners. Allies participate on a volunteer basis. In a nutshell, EPL is a 'think-do tank' that convenes, pollinates Puerto Rico though-leaders and change-agents with knowledge transfer from world-leading sources-of-expertise, and unleashes the implementation of a collectively engineered roadmap for socio-economic progress via cohesive multisector action.