Hello,
It is our pleasure to announce that WE ACT, in partnership with the EPA, will be hosting The Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change, Public Health and Vulnerable Communities. The two-day, invitation only event will take place in Crystal City, Virginia, on November 17 and 18, 2011. The aim of the forum is to have a dialog between the nation's foremost environmental justice organizations and federal policy makers in regards to climate adaptation plans for the nation's most vulnerable communities. The first day of the event will focus on capacity building for the EJ organizations that are active on climate issues. With the 45 members of the EJ Leadership Forum representing perspectives from seventeen different states, as well as the District of Columbia, we expect to conduct several comprehensive workshops on climate change communication, project management, fundraising, and capacity needs assessment. As an EJ community, we will strategize the next steps needed to effectively prepare the nation's low-income communities and communities of color for the challenges posed by climate change. On the second day, the EJ Leadership Forum will welcome federal agencies to a roundtable discussion on the progress towards the compliance of the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898. The anticipated attendance of CDC, NIEHS, HHA, NOAA, as well as other agencies in the federal family, offers the opportunity for the EJ movement to provide feedback and guidance to policy makers as they move their climate adaptation planning forward. WE ACT is confident that the EJ Leadership Forum will achieve the overall goal of reviving the national policy conversation on climate change, and ensuring that an environmental justice perspective is present in the planning. |
