During the early 2000s, an influx of Latino families moved to the Bay Area. With this growing influx of people, Nuesra Casa was founded to stand with the community and support them in navigating the institutions, build people power, and support the voices of local stakeholders to create a more equitable society. Nuestra Casa is engaged in the local economy, school district, and civic life.
The OCEJ is committed to developing grassroots leadership to advance a larger environmental justice agenda within the ancestral homelands of Acjachemen and Tongva Nations, now known as Orange County, California.
The Imperial County, where CCV was founded and continues to operate, has had a long history of environmental degradation, mainly due to the heavy presence of agricultural and military operations and the Salton Sea. The local community of Imperial County is predominantly Latinx and low-income and suffers from a range of environmental health problems, including respiratory illness, cancer, and congenital disabilities, which through research conducted by the CCV and other community partners, was linked to exposure to pollutants and toxins in the environment.
CCAEJ was founded on the growing concern about the impacts of pollution in low-income and working-class communities of color in Southern California. During the 1960s and 1970s, the region experienced a boom in industrial development and urbanization, bringing increased pollution and environmental hazards. As ecological justice gained traction in the 1980s and 1990s, the organization's founders were part of a more significant movement of social justice and activism that worked to address the unequal distribution of environmental hazards and awareness of protecting the health and well-being of all communities.
Riding the wave of Environmental legislation and activism movements taking off in the 1970s, there was a growing awareness of low-income communities of color being disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards such as toxic waste sites, air pollution, and pesticide drift. The EHC organizes a predominantly Latino community with the necessary resource and training to fight for environmental justice. The organization has mobilized to prevent new polluters from taking hold in their community and hold current polluters accountable for their industrial waste that harms the residents.
PODER was founded in San Francisco’s Mission District, a predominantly Latinx and Chicano neighborhood historically marginalized and disenfranchised by systemic racism and economic disinvestment. The community also became a point of high concentration for industrial and commercial businesses. These shifts also contributed to the community's environmental pollution and health hazards, leading PODER’s founders to unite and organize for their community’s right to clean air, water, healthy food, and sustainable jobs.
The 1980s and 1990s were a period of momentum for the Environmental Justice movement in the U.S. There was a wave of awareness that communities of color began to realize the disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards such as toxic waste sites, air pollution, and contaminated water in their neighborhoods. APENs founders recognized that AAPI communities were often overlooked or ignored within the discussions around environmental justice. APEN saw this as an opportunity to build power and bring attention to these issues by organizing within the AAPI community.
In the 1970s, California was experiencing a surge of industrial development and urbanization; building such infrastructure resulted in a significant increase in air and water pollution. Following political protests and victories such as the Civil Rights Movement, Feminist Movements, and other social justice initiatives, the awareness of systemic discrimination and inequality affecting people’s lives became more evident. CBE shaped its political content to reflect the broader conversation on more than conservation or preservation efforts and include more socially-oriented approaches to its campaigns.
Since its inception, the CEJA has worked to mobilize thousands of people to California’s Capitol to advocate for and against policy.
They have drastically increased the engagement of Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American, and immigrant stakeholders to fight for EJ policies. Collectively, they educate one another, strategize and build social power to better their communities.
CRPE believes in a “Theory of Change” where they operate with a mindset that “legal advocacy needs to be community based to be successful” CRPE represents the needs of the communities [they serve] and works directly with them to achieve their goals.