Current CRPE Campaigns:
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Climate Justice
Civil Rights
Valley Air
Don't Waste the Valley
Pesticides
Power to the People
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CRPE Green Paper Launch
CRPE releases its first major publication this month: The Green Paper: A Community Vision for Environmentally and Economically Sustainable Development. CRPE's Power to the People staff worked with over 160 residents from 17 different San Joaquin Valley communities to create a paper defining what green jobs, and healthy sustainable communities look like on the ground. The publication also identifies policy recommendations at local, regional and state levels for improving environmental injustice communities in the San Joaquin Valley. We are excited to share our findings and have Spanish and English versions of the paper available on our website. Contact Valerie to recieve your hard copy with a donation of $10. We want to especially thank Daniela Simunovic for her work on the Green Paper and wish her all the best in her transition from community organizer to graduate student. |
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Victory for Clean Air and
Environmental Justice
CRPE won a critical decision that will force EPA to honor a promise to cut pesticide air pollution by 20 percent from 1990 levels. Since 2004, CRPE has persistently fought to enforce that promise and on February 2, 2011 - almost seven years later - our clients El Comite para el Bienestar de Earlimart prevailed. EPA must now confront the enforcability of the promise to reduce pesticide pollution and compel California to fix the problem or take over regulation of pesticide air pollution.
"We are victorious now because EPA cannot ignore the impact pesticides are having on our communities any longer," Teresa DeAnda, President of El Comité para el Bienestar de Earlimart. More.
Read the decision. Media Coverage.
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Building Healthy Communities
CRPE is excited to partner with our friends and allies at California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. , the Community Water Center, and Californians for Pesticide Reform to create an environmental justice curriculum for the South Kern Communities of Arvin, Lamont, Weedpatch, and Greenfield as part of the California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative. The purpose of the initative is to build the capacity of south Kern communities to advocate for systems change that will improve community health and governmental accountability. We will hold trainings in South Kern over the next two years. We will post materials on our website and will be scaling-up the curriculum to cover environmental justice communities throughout California and beyond. |
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EJ Toxic Tours, Join Us April 9th
CRPE is happy to announce the 2011 dates for our Spring and Fall Valley Toxic Tours: Saturday, April 9th and Saturday, September 17th. The April tour will introduce participants to the growing season in America's produce basket, where we will meet with Valley farmworkers and learn about present day environmental health & justice issues. Our September tour will return to the Valley after the harvest, where we will visit rural unincorporated communities at the heart of California's industrial agricultural machine, and learn about their efforts to establish local organic gardens. Contact Lauren to reserve your spot. |
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Meet Denise Kadara, CRPE's newest Advisory Board member
Denise worked in city government for over 25 years in various positions including senior planner, senior management analyst, and consultant. Her areas of expertise include: housing and community economic development in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Mateo Counties of California. Denise received her education from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and the University of La Verne in urban regional planning and public administration respectively. She is happily married to her wonderful husband of 31 years and has three children: Tekoah, 29, Lateef, 27, and Angela, 25. Denise retired in 2004 and moved to Allensworth in May 2010 where she now devotes her time to making Allensworth a better place for residents and visitors. |
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Final Thoughts:
We seem to be at a pivotal moment in history as people from Egypt to Wisconsin protest to hold their governments accountable. CRPE is proud to contribute to the fight for justice. Representing Valley residents, we held the Department of Pesticide Reform accountable for promises it made to rural communities to reduce air pollution from pesticides. We published a grassroots vision for environmentally and economically healthy, rural communities, which we will use as a tool for measuring decision-maker responsiveness to community needs. Our Building Healthy Communities trainings in South Kern County - which suffers from some of the nation's most polluted air - will build community capacity to advocate for positive change, and provide a launching pad for developing new leaders. CRPE anticipates 2011 will be an exciting one for our work in the courtroom, in the halls of power, and on the streets. We thank you for your support.
Caroline Farrell
Executive Director
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment |
The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
is a national environmental justice legal organization with offices in
San Francisco and Delano, California. We provide legal and technical
assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and
communities of color fighting environmental hazards. In our work, we
have three ambitions:
First,
that individuals taking part in a particular campaign leave the
campaign with more personal capacity than they had coming into it.
Second, that the community involved has more power vis a vis decisionmakers at the end of the campaign than at the beginning.
Finally, to concretely address the environmental hazard at hand.
www.crpe-ej.org |
Closing Quote:
"Two types of power exist: the power of money and the power of people." -Luke Cole
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