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TOMORROW: Come Learn About Our Latest Research & Discuss the Upcoming Election
Join us for our October Membership Meeting tomorrow, Saturday, October 12th, from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM at 454 West 155th Street, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge. We will be sharing our latest research on the toxic ingredients found in the personal care products you use. And, of course, we will also talk about the upcoming election, including how to make sure you are registered and when early voting starts (see our Voter Information page if you want to find out now). RSVP Today!
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How Can You Support Our Work? Come to Our Gala on Oct. 18th
We’re just a week away from our annual Gala. Join supporters of the environmental justice movement for WE ACT’s Annual Gala, a night of celebration and togetherness, on Friday, October 18th from 6:00-9:00 PM at 583 Park Avenue (at the corner of East 63rd Street). Let’s come together to honor leaders, celebrate victories, and look ahead to our shared goals for the coming months. This year, we are thrilled to be honoring the following leaders in the movement:
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Climate Justice Working Group: Become an Energy Change Agent
Concerned about energy affordability? Come join us for this special Climate Justice Working Group meeting with the Public Utility Law Project to learn how to help your family, friends, and neighbors access programs that can help lower household energy bills and address energy debt. We’ll be meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, October 15th at 6:00 PM. Learn how you can help people reduce their energy burden and become the change you’d like to see in your community! RSVP
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Cumulative Impacts Implementation Webinar: Help Shape New York State’s Landmark Environmental Justice Law
Communities of color and low-income have been burdened by disproportionate levels of pollution for decades. This is due to the racist siting of polluting facilities in these communities, including bus depots, factories, power plants, oil refineries, sewage treatment plants, and landfills. And the cumulative impacts of these multiple sources of pollution are harming the health and well-being of these communities.
This is why we fought to pass New York State’s Cumulative Impacts Law (S.1317/A.1286), landmark environmental justice legislation signed into law in 2022 that will address the environmental racism that has plagued our communities for generations. And now that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has begun the rulemaking process for implementing this law, which will go into effect in 2025, we need to get involved to ensure it works.
To learn how you can help, join WE ACT for Environmental Justice, South Bronx Unite, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and Earthjustice on Wednesday, October 16th at 1:00 PM for a webinar that will discuss the law, how it will benefit our communities, what we need to do to ensure it is effectively implemented, and how you can get involved. Click here to register for this webinar. And contact Briana Carbajal at [email protected] with any questions. RSVP
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Community Land Act Town Hall: Keep Our Communities Affordable
Join our fight for more democratic control over land use and development in New York City. As a member of the New York City Community Land Initiative, we are working to pass the Community Land Act, which is a set of four bills designed to address the city’s housing affordability crisis by placing land in the control of Community Land Trusts and other nonprofit groups committed to community-driven development. Come to our town hall to talk and learn about exciting projects Bronx and Manhattan Community Land Trusts are pursuing, and hear from legislators about their work to pass the Community Land Act. Join us on Tuesday, October 29th at 6:00 PM at the Julia De Burgos Latino Cultural Center, located at 1680 Lexington Avenue (at 105th Street). Spanish interpretation, food, and child care will be provided. RSVP
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We Can't Afford False Solutions Webinar: Centering Environmental Justice in the Fight Against Dirty Hydrogen & Carbon Capture
The unprecedented investments in the clean energy transition from the Biden administration are promising, but some of those vital funds are being funneled into what are known as “false solution” technologies. In this webinar on Tuesday, October 29th at 5:30 PM, we'll explore two of these technologies, hydrogen and carbon capture & sequestration, examining the harms they cause and how communities like ours can advocate against their adoption and siting. Yosef Robele will moderate. RSVP
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Leslie Fields to Speak at Alpha Kappa Alpha's Environmental Justice Forum
Leslie Fields will speak at the Psi Epsilon Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Elevating Environmental Justice Forum on Thursday, October 24th at 7:00 PM on Zoom. Fellow speakers include Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome, Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (and former WE ACT staffer); LaTricea Adams, Founder, CEO, & President of Young, Gifted and Green; and others. The annual forum is designed to educate, empower, and engage with the local community about the significance of environmental justice. This year the focus will be on the Biden-Harris administration’s environmental justice record. Join the Zoom
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Educating the Community About Environmental Justice
As an extension of our Environmental Health & Justice Leadership Training program, Dr. Micaela Martinez and Cameron Clarke are teaching an immersive course on environmental justice at the CUNY School of Public Health. We insisted that half the class be available to community members, free of charge, and we are happy to report that we do indeed have half the class auditing the course for free. In this week's class, the students learned about the role of legislation in advancing environmental justice and how policies become laws at the city, state, and federal levels - with help from guest speaker Briana Carbajal.
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Hands-On Air Quality Training for Students
For the second year in a row, we have been working with the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (MELS), giving middle school students a solid grounding in environmental health and justice. “A School for a Sustainable City,” MELS is located in Queens and uses the expeditionary learning model - much like WHEELS, in Washington Heights, which we have worked with over the years - to increase student engagement by cultivating a more meaningful and adventurous learning environment.
We provided more than 100 students with portable air monitors and trained them how to use them. As part of this collaboration, Cameron Clarke, Danielle Mangabat, and Valentina Rojas provided an interactive presentation on environmental justice to help ground the students in this work. These middle schoolers then monitored the air throughout their community, documenting their observations (see below). We will continue to work with the students in hopes of helping them shape and present recommendations to elected officials as part of a Youth Community Forum on Environmental Justice.
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Make Sure You Are Registered to Vote!
You only have two weeks left to register to VOTE in this critical election! Click here to find out if you are registered, or call 866-868-3692. The deadline to register is October 26th, which is the first day of early voting. If you are not registered, click here to learn about all the ways you can register: online, in-person, or by mail. And you can see a list of the candidates and ballot measures along with other important voting information by clicking here.
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