Meet Yulyana

My name is Yulyana Torres. I am a lawyer, advocate, and lifelong Rhode Islander. I was born and raised in Providence by immigrant parents who were both educators in Providence Public Schools. I completed my entire education in Rhode Island, starting elementary school at Henry Barnard and graduating law school from Roger Williams University School of Law. Throughout my life, my parents always emphasized the importance of community, education, and caring for others to my little sister, little brother and me. As members of the large Dominican community in Providence, my parents had a wide network of neighbors and friends that helped and cared for each other. Growing up in Providence, I had the opportunity to meet people from a range of backgrounds and learn about some of the challenges those people faced. I have seen many of those challenges grow harder to face and compound with new threats to resident stability. I work at Sojourner House, Rhode Island’s largest organization committed to ending domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and stalking. In my role as the organization’s first staff attorney, I have had the privilege of building the organization’s first family law program and represent survivors of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. In this role, I have seen the ways that housing instability, food insecurity, and lack of community trap people in abusive dynamics. In this frightening time of economic uncertainty and threats to our rights from the federal level, I know it is time for neighbors like me to stand up for the communities we love. I am running for Providence City Council to protect the rights of residents of our city and advocate for the needs of my neighbors in Ward 3.