The Mission of CV YEA is "Our mission is to fight environmental injustices in the Central Valley through connecting like-minded individuals".
CV YEA is based in Fresno, CA and led by Executive Director Kamryn Kubose (interview), who we met during our visit to Golden Charter Academy. CV YEA takes part in Clean Vehicle Empowerment Collaborative. The board consists of master's students and environmental activists based in California.
It would be great to interview current and former staff members of CBE to gain insight into what it is like to work on major campaigns and among a team who is victorious in practical issues. I would ask what are the most impactful strategies in community organizing that have proven effective in various campaigns facilitated by the CBE.
CBE’s mission focuses on the belief that everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment, free from the harmful effects of pollution and other environmental hazards. They also believe mobilizing community engagement leads to their empowerment and includes them in critical policy and decision-making conversations. Finally, by holding polluters accountable and promoting environmental regulatory laws, the CBE can ensure that polluters abide by necessary restrictions.
The CBE is regarded as one of California's most important and influential environmental justice organizations and the nation. Given the victories in critical cases throughout the years, it has a solid reputation for its advocacy work and is well respected by policymakers, environmental advocates, and community members.
Within the media, CBE has been covered extensively in credible local and national media outlets. The organization is often quoted and featured as a credible and effective EiJ org. Its work has been recognized and celebrated.
Communities for a Better Environment functions within the nonprofit sector, specifically within social justice and advocacy subsectors.
Among the CBE’s board of directors sits Caroline Farrell, the Executive Director of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE)
The CBE collaborates with other local, state, and national grassroots organizations.
Additionally, the CBE has a history of working with labor unions representing workers closely tied to environmental issues, such as employees from refineries and power plants.
Climate Justice – CBE efforts are focused on the intersection of environmental issues, emphasizing the significance of the disproportionate impacts on low-income communities of color.
Racial Justice – The CBE is committed to amplifying the voices of Black and Brown communities in their work. Their work can be considered an effort to dismantle systems of oppression and inequality.
Corporate Power – CBE can be seen as a counterbalance to corporate interests and is proactive in holding polluters accountable by promoting policies that prioritize public health and environmental protection over corporate profits.
Community-led initiatives emphasize the importance of community members providing input central to their needs.
Intersectionality is also key to describing the interconnectedness of environmental and social injustices.
At times they focus on narrow and specific issues such as air pollution or toxic waste disposal.
Given the difficulty in addressing environmental pollution and the health implications from exposure is often invisible and difficult to measure, it is challenging to identify the sources of pollution and, thus, hold polluters accountable. Working closely with predominantly low-income communities of color located near industrial facilities and other sources of pollution, they often lack the necessary political power and resources to advocate effectively against government and regulatory institutions.
As mentioned previously, applying an intersectional approach is also critical to the conversations concerning environmental justice. Often, these communities face a multitude of inequities that add complexity to the social, economic, and political factors contributing to environmental pollution and injustice.
The CBE works closely with impacted communities to identify their needs and priorities. They support them further by developing strategies tailored to meet the specific concerns of the local stakeholders first. This is different because they do not approach solely from a top-down perspective that emphasizes the needs of policymakers and outside organizations over the voices of the impacted communities themselves.
In the research CBE conducts, they emphasize the significance of intersectionality in their discourse around environmental justice. This means recognizing and addressing the ways that environmental and social injustices intersect. Many present issues include things that cannot be discussed in isolation. The work CBE does highlights the links between poverty, racism, and other underlying social determinants of health-related to environmental justice.