PODER is funded through grants, foundations, and generous donations from philanthropic donors. Some foundations that have financed PODER include Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice Fund, YO! California–Youth Organize California, City, and County of San Francisco, Department of Children Youth & Their Families – Youth Empowerment Fund, Libra Foundation, among others.
PODER is a community-based organization that a Board of Directors governs made up of community members, staff, and volunteers. Among the team, there is a suite of Coordinators and Organizers who work on specific campaigns and distinct areas to further the mission of PODER.
“PODER’s mission is to organize with Latino immigrant families and youth to put into practice people-powered solutions that are locally based, community-led, and environmentally just. We nurture everyday people’s leadership, regenerate culture, and build community power.”
There are a few events that shaped the evolution of PODER over the years. Notably, PG&E proposed the development of a power plant in the Mission District. Through community organizing, direct action, and legal advocacy, PODER successfully blocked the construction of the power plant.
PODER began to focus on promoting clean energy and climate justice in the Mission District. PODER was successful in getting solar panels installed on low-income housing developments.
PODER has also established partnerships with academic institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, where research is conducted to collect data regarding the social determinants of health within the local low-income Latinx and Chicano communities
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.
PODER was founded in 1991 in San Francisco’s mission district. It is a grassroots organization that works to create a space where people-powered solutions are instrumental to the profound environmental and economic inequalities facing low-income Latino immigrants and other communities of color in San Francisco. In its early years, PODER relied on organizing and community education as direct actions to achieve its goals. The early structure of this organization consisted primarily of volunteer work with a small core of staff organizers and their support.
With this organization's work, how does it center the voices and experiences of marginalized communities in its work, and what steps does it take to ensure accountability and transparency?
How does the organization evaluate its impact and measure its success within the community?
APEN is centralized around addressing the issues faced within the Asian American Pacific Islander working class, immigrant, and refugee communities within California. The organization seeks to empower these communities to participate in critical conversations that dictate their neighborhoods’ future, health, wellness, and prosperity. In the broader sense, APEN’s work contributes to the whole movement that seeks to amplify a message that all people should have the human right to an environmentally just world.
APEN is seen as a grassroots environmental justice group that has proven effective in advocating for the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Other environmental organizations and community organizers often praise the organization for its work.
APEN releases its own Press Releases on its website and within its network, speaking on the critical issues relating to the efforts they support.
The Asian Pacific Environmental Network functions within the environmental justice movement, following the response and emergent growth of disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards and pollution among low-income communities of color across the United States. APEN has stood its ground in local, statewide, and national environmental justice campaigns. It has been recognized as a leading organization in the movement for EiJ for its innovative approaches to community organizing and policy advocacy.