Dear friends and supporters,

As 2025 comes to a close we want to wish you a wonderful December and a happy new year as we usher in 2026. 

We know this year has been full of many extremes: from rising costs, cuts and attacks on the rights of hard-working families and frontline communities to shining examples of inspiration and resolve for a better world, full of care and collective action.

Join us in celebrating some of this year’s highlights as we ring in the new year with a sweet sprinkling of inspiration!

Community power took on new meaning in 2025 as Sunset Park Solar — New York City’s first community-led solar project — was officially installed atop the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The milestone marks a bold step toward energy democracy, putting clean energy production directly into the hands of local residents and small businesses. Watch the video to learn more. And share on instagram.

This fall, on two separate occasions we joined community leaders and organizations such as Media Justice, Memphis Communities Against Pollution (MCAP), Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) and the NAACP in Memphis, Tennessee to train and strategize around data center expansion and AI. We worked with the NAACP to create the Frontline Framework Community Data Center Guiding Principles and we now have an ad-hoc committee to support communities on the ground who are organizing to halt new data center projects or to regulate existing ones! We know that the environmental justice impacts include increased energy consumption, ratepayer hikes, land and water acquisition and compromise, especially in Black communities and on Indigenous lands, public health consequences, and hold serious implications for tech security.

Toward the end of the year, environmental justice leaders gathered in Brazil to push for impactful international climate agreements at COP30 (the United Nations annual climate conference) and joined together with global community leaders for a Cúpula dos Povos (People's Summit) to get down to the real work. Over the years, the official COP space has become increasingly overrun by big business lobbyists, fossil fuel apologists, and climate scams masquerading as real solutions. Watch the video here and get inspired by the power of community and solidarity.

This is just a hint of the flavor of the work that CJA and our member organizations carry out each and every day to benefit the public good, safeguard the bottom line of working families, and protect our public health, environment, and well-being. Thank you for your continued support!

With gratitude,

Itana Benites, Managing Director