“It’s both an exciting and daunting time to step into this role,” Colleen said. “Bold action on the climate crisis is urgently needed. I’m humbled to have this opportunity to expand the center’s collaborations with frontline communities, policymakers and others to help advance solutions.”
“This really has to do with discriminatory planning processes in which communities of color and low-income communities are often located near ports, major roadways and distribution centers, and so therefore are disproportionately exposed to diesel exhaust,” Regan says.
This past summer, homes in Detroit were flooded with up to five feet of sewage backup after heavy rains dumped six inches of water overnight. It took weeks and more than $10,000 (not reimbursed by insurance) for my home in East English Village to be restored to a livable condition.
Grant's new role will help implement a new environmental justice law passed in Washington, the HEAL Act, and join an interagency environmental justice council.
Check out the books authored, edited or co-authored by Switzer Fellows in 2021 and dive into topics such as Indigenous teachings, the biology of climate change and sustainable urban planning.
Last year, the foundation committed to transitioning our checking account and credit cards to a new bank as part of an ongoing effort to align all of our practices, from programmatic to administrative, with our values to improve...
“Throughout the country, urban freeways were routed through Black neighborhoods, resulting in the malicious division and forced displacement of Black neighborhoods, as well as local Black economies,” said Regan Patterson.
This three-year project, dubbed Toxic Tides, is the first systematic look at the environmental justice ramifications of sea level rise and hazardous sites along the entire coast of California.
The Switzer Network Race and Equity Discussion Group hosted a viewing and discussion of COOKED: Survival By Zip Code, a short documentary film that takes audiences from the deadly 1995 Chicago heat disaster deep into a rapidly growing...
