OUR
PRINCIPLES
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to advance solutions that support Black communities’ ability to combat environmental threats to quality of life, food, environment/place, and climate change.
OUR VISION
We’re filling void environmental justice and sustainability spaces with uplifted voices and lived experiences of Black people. We do this by activating green spaces in Black communities, re-centering historically excluded intersections of Black populations and using integrated knowledge from Black Indigenous communities to inform regional outcomes and decisions
OUR STORY
Since 2018, the Black Environmental Collective has evolved out of a need to fill spaces void of Black voices and lived experiences. Voices that should not only be present to drive conversations but to inform plans and policies; to have ownership of decisions involving Black people and our communities especially at the intersection of climate change, health and equity.
The region is ripe for comprehensive efforts to challenge and dismantle racist and white supremacist structures that maintain disparities that worsen pre-existing conditions; making Black populations more vulnerable and contribute to the outrage felt by so many. The disproportionate cumulative impact of COVID-19, ongoing environmental disruptions, and other prominent impacts of racism has rendered Black people far less resilient and responsive.
With programming or missions rooted in socioenvironmental values, we seek to assist and support neighborhoods that have been identified as front line communities and systemically suffer from socially unjust policies and practices. The Black Environmental Collective is deliberate about creating momentum to enter regional and statewide learning exchanges to share information and ideas around organizing, educating, and best practices for engagement and action within environmental justice.