In 1988, Father Joseph founded the Asosyasyon Peyizan Fondwa (Association of the Peasants of Fondwa/APF Haiti) which now boasts enablement of commercial businesses, a primary and secondary school serving some 700 students, an orphanage, a community radio station, programs in renewable energy, water purification, reforestation and agriculture and more.

APF supports local grassroots empowerment combined with a focus of increasing fundamental rural skills through higher education -- with local college graduates returning to their home communities -- and the creation of economic opportunity through the small business incubators .

 Caritas Italiana provided APF with a substantial grant to undertake a pilot project: researching the current state of organization within forty communities spanning four states (South-East, West, The Artibonite Valley and the Central Plateau). 

From this was  born a structure that APF now refers to as Local Development Committees (LDC). These consultative bodies provide a collaborative approach designed to bring together a local communities’ often fragmented resources to drive economic development.    This approach also affects "bottom-up" innovation and infrastructure creation

Importantly, LDCs have become a central part of Raising Haiti/APF's 3-Legs Program, and both the LDCs and the 3-Legs program overall provide the basis for fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Eradicating Poverty, Eliminating Hunger, Enabling Wellbeing, Providing Clean Water and Energy, Fostering Innovation and Industry, Assuring Inclusion, Forging Partnerships and more.