The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) is primarily funded through foundation grants, government contracts, individual donations, and earned income. The EHC also receives funding from the local state and federal government agencies to support the organization's specific programs and projects.
The EHC is a non-profit environmental justice organization and includes a team of board members as well as directors, advisors, managers, and organizers of course dedicated volunteers are essential to the success of this work. There is a diverse arrangement of varying expertise from community organizing, policy advocacy, transportation justice, climate justice, and more that make up the body of staff that operate the EHC.
There are no terms for membership other than the network of community based-groups and partners that work together to advance environmental justice and promote healthy communities. The EHC has a broad base of individual supporters who contribute to the organization's work through donations and volunteer work.
The mission is as follows, the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) is dedicated to achieving environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is accomplished by empowered communities acting together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports broad efforts to create a just society and foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life.
The EHC’s missions are often explained in terms of its core strategies, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, creating a clean and affordable public mass transportation system, improving children’s health, maintaining and creating healthy communities, growing and sustaining community power and overall, build and support the environmental, social, economic and racial justice movement.
Since the EHC’s inception, they have been involved in numerous health studies documenting environmental pollution’s impacts on public health. These studies have provided essential data supporting the organization's advocacy efforts and bringing awareness to ecological justice's needs.
Environmental disasters have occurred in the San Dego region, including toxic spills, wildfires, and natural gas leaks. These events highlighted the urgency of addressing ecological hazards near residential communities and spurred the EHC to develop new campaigns and strategies to advocate for environmental justice.
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.
The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) was founded in 1980 and served low-income communities in the San Diego/Tijuana region. Their founding purpose was centralized around all people, and all communities should have the right to live, work and play in a clean and safe environment regardless of their ZIP code. In the early 1980s, their early structure included organizing around cancer and calling to action against San Diego being a toxic waste dump. Early on, their work revolved around community education of critical policy, permits, and other political events around San Diego.
What are PODER’s primary goals and objectives regarding environmental justice and social sustainability?
Could you describe the organization’s stance on current political and social issues?
By working closely with the communities it seeks to support, PODER advances justice and good governance by emphasizing the voices of stakeholders in the affected neighborhoods. Doing so is challenging the systemic inequalities and promoting environmental and social sustainability; these practices are significant because they would benefit all communities regardless of race, ethnicity, or income level.
In the media, PODER is generally recognized as one of the leading environmental justice organizations advocating for social and environmental justice in the Bay Area. It has been praised for its work in promoting environmental justice and initiatives that support affordable housing. Still, it has also faced criticism from some groups who disagree with its political positions and tactics.
PODER functions within the environmental justice sector, advocating for equitable and sustainable solutions to ecological problems in low-income communities of color in the San Francisco Mission District.