WRWC Becomes New Backbone Organization for Central Providence Unidos

The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC) is proud to serve as the new backbone organization for Central Providence Unidos (CPU), supporting a shared vision to advance economic mobility, health equity, and community power throughout Central Providence.

Central Providence Unidos is a collaboration of residents, community organizations, and government partners working together to improve the social determinants of health across nine neighborhoods in the 02908 and 02909 ZIP codes. With more than 60 partner organizations and stakeholders, CPU brings together people and resources around a common goal: creating healthier, more equitable communities where residents have a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that affect their lives.

As a member of the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) Health Equity Zone network, Central Providence Unidos serves as an important connector between residents, community organizations, and state and local governments, helping align resources and collective action around priorities identified by the community.

A Longstanding Partnership

WRWC has played an important role in the work of Central Providence Unidos since the creation of the Olneyville Collaborative, a place-based effort that eventually evolved into CPU.

Over the years, CPU has demonstrated the power of resident-led change. Through a collaborative governance structure that includes residents of 02908 and 02909, community members are given resources, opportunities, and decision-making power to identify priorities, guide investments, and help shape the future of their neighborhoods.

That approach closely reflects WRWC’s own commitment to community leadership.

Through programs like the Olneyville Resilience Hub, WRWC works alongside residents to connect neighbors with resources and services while creating opportunities for community members to help determine the Hub’s priorities and programming. Through Nuevas Voces, residents build advocacy and leadership skills to make their voices heard on the issues affecting their neighborhoods. Other community-led initiatives have connected hundreds of residents with resources ranging from lead-free drinking water filters to climate resilience education and opportunities to participate directly in local planning and decision-making.

Across these efforts, the goal is not simply to bring resources into a neighborhood, but to ensure residents have a meaningful role in deciding how those resources are used.

Building on the Central Providence Roadmap

When Central Providence residents and community organizations created the Central Providence Roadmap, a 10-year community plan designed to achieve more equitable outcomes across the nine neighborhoods of Central Providence, WRWC participated as a core stakeholder.

The Roadmap reflects a belief shared by both CPU and WRWC: lasting change happens when the people who know their communities best have the power and resources to shape their future.

For WRWC, that means structuring decision-making processes to center the voices of people who live, work, and play throughout the Woonasquatucket River watershed. It also means recognizing that environmental conditions, economic opportunity, housing, transportation, community health, climate resilience, and access to safe and welcoming public spaces are deeply connected.

Moving Forward Together

Becoming CPU’s backbone organization is a natural extension of years of shared work and shared values.

In this new role, WRWC will help strengthen the partnerships, coordination, and organizational capacity that allow Central Providence Unidos and its members to move their collective vision forward. Most importantly, we will continue working to ensure that residents remain at the center of that work.

WRWC and Central Providence Unidos have been aligned since the beginning. Through this new partnership, we look forward to building on that foundation and strengthening our shared work to eliminate health disparities through community action, resident leadership, and a mutual vision for a thriving Central Providence.