CBNRM
Community-Based Natural Resource Management - A global COP
Aims to be a virtual meeting place for individuals, networks, and organizations that work on CBNRM, either as practitioners, managers, researchers or funders.
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Feb 12, 2008
Updated: Mar 14, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
Community Coalition for Environmental Justice CCEJ
(a.k.a.: CCEJ)
( Network/ Coalition/ Collective )
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About [Edit]
Brief History, Mission & Values
In 1993, a diverse group of forward thinking organizations and concerned citizens came together to form the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice [CCEJ], the first environmental justice group in the Seattle area. Our mission is to achieve environmental and economic justice in low income communities and communities of color. We are a multi-issue, grassroots, multiethnic, nonprofit, 501 [c] 3 organizing on a local and regional level. We are a coalition of concerned citizens and residents impacted by economic and environmental injustice. Our campaigns are interlinked because our overall goal is to level unequal distributions of power through intense grassroots mobilization and political activism.
Because poor communities are often politically and economically marginalized, CCEJ focuses on the need to leverage community power, not just achieve environmental or social justice victories. To maintain a diverse constituency, we link all the struggles poor people face. We are multi-issue organization because we do not separate social problems from environmental problems.
We adhere to the definition of environmental racism described in the words of Benjamin Chavis a former director of the NAACP. He described environmental racism as being racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the enforcement of regulations and laws; it is the deliberate targeting of people of color communities for toxic and hazardous waste facilities; the official sanctioning of the life threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color; and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the environmental movement.
The system change we are trying to achieve is the equal representation of low income people and people of color in environmental, land-use, regulation and community development planning. We work to create a space for people affected by environmental, economic and social injustice. While eliminating racial injustice is our primary goal, we also seek to enable communities to best advocate for themselves with CCEJ staff and volunteers serving as supportive agents of change.
Leadership development is a major component of our work. Leadership in terms of community organizing means community leaders with the ability to do public speaking, lead campaigns, facilitate meetings, coordinate volunteers, fundraise and take overall responsibility for ensuring that work plans are followed.
Communities benefit from our work because we help increase knowledge which leads to power. By raising the level of understanding of how racism, classism, homophobia, sexism, globalization, unequal distributions of wealth and exploitation create environmental degradation and other social problems, we help create a more informed public, empowered to join us in the struggle. We work to overcome oppression by adhering to the principals of grassroots organizing, which involves building community power and leadership so that those affected by environmental injustice are at the forefront of the struggle.
In 1993, a diverse group of forward thinking organizations and concerned citizens came together to form the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice [CCEJ], the first environmental justice group in the Seattle area. Our mission is to achieve environmental and economic justice in low income communities and communities of color. We are a multi-issue, grassroots, multiethnic, nonprofit, 501 [c] 3 organizing on a local and regional level. We are a coalition of concerned citizens and residents impacted by economic and environmental injustice. Our campaigns are interlinked because our overall goal is to level unequal distributions of power through intense grassroots mobilization and political activism.
Because poor communities are often politically and economically marginalized, CCEJ focuses on the need to leverage community power, not just achieve environmental or social justice victories. To maintain a diverse constituency, we link all the struggles poor people face. We are multi-issue organization because we do not separate social problems from environmental problems.
We adhere to the definition of environmental racism described in the words of Benjamin Chavis a former director of the NAACP. He described environmental racism as being racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the enforcement of regulations and laws; it is the deliberate targeting of people of color communities for toxic and hazardous waste facilities; the official sanctioning of the life threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color; and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the environmental movement.
The system change we are trying to achieve is the equal representation of low income people and people of color in environmental, land-use, regulation and community development planning. We work to create a space for people affected by environmental, economic and social injustice. While eliminating racial injustice is our primary goal, we also seek to enable communities to best advocate for themselves with CCEJ staff and volunteers serving as supportive agents of change.
Leadership development is a major component of our work. Leadership in terms of community organizing means community leaders with the ability to do public speaking, lead campaigns, facilitate meetings, coordinate volunteers, fundraise and take overall responsibility for ensuring that work plans are followed.
Communities benefit from our work because we help increase knowledge which leads to power. By raising the level of understanding of how racism, classism, homophobia, sexism, globalization, unequal distributions of wealth and exploitation create environmental degradation and other social problems, we help create a more informed public, empowered to join us in the struggle. We work to overcome oppression by adhering to the principals of grassroots organizing, which involves building community power and leadership so that those affected by environmental injustice are at the forefront of the struggle.
