Environmental Justice

notes by Barbara Graves

In Attendance:  Barbara, Fred Keeley, Brianna Murtha and Tassia Cardona of Environment California
Other folks interested in the subcommittee:  Cely Navarro, Jacqueline Alikhaani, Bizhan Alikhaani

Action Requested:  Approval from the CDP Environmental Caucus Executive Board to pursue an Environmental Justice Partnership Program.

Rationale:
Organizers from outside communities of color often fail.  There must be a "safe place" for a community conversation about environmental justice so the community can identify their own issues.  We must approach communities with a humble attitude of being of service rather than coming in with a set agenda.

Program Outline:
We will begin to organize an Environmental Justice Summit in pollution hot-spots of the state, using a two-directional strategy:

Bottom-up involving grassroots

Top-down involving legislators

Steps:
1.  Begin to catalog existing organizations concerned with environmental justice.
2.  Identify a region to use first, as a demonstration.
3.  Fred will contact that region's legislators and ask for assistance creating a venue for the conversation to take place.
4.  Our group will be available to help put the details of the event together.

Other misc. ideas:

Create issue-oriented leaders, such as "Water Coordinator".

Contact the field organizers of various organizations such as Environment California to see if they know of groups for us to contact.

Search the internet and groups such as the Ella Baker Center and the Ntl. Hispanic environmental Council to see if they can share any of their database or contacts in California.