Thinking out loud
The end game for this curriculum: Folks have the power and resources to invent their own ways to create healthy neighborhood communities. I started thinking about this curriculum as involving two types of folks: Those who live in the neighborhoods impacted by historical injustice and environmental inequities. And those who
Thinking out loud
At the upcoming April 2026 meeting of Environmental Justice Evanston I am due to propose a curriculum for leadership development. The desired outcome is to increase the number of people who can lead environmental equity efforts in Evanston. This need comes together for a couple of reasons. The Evanston environmental
Environmental equity
A lot has happened in the past several weeks on the environmental justice front and I want to document the moment as we move deeper into 2026. But I also do not want to ignore the current state of life as the US devolves into an autocracy. Minneapolis is under
Community listening
I'm going to take a break from this writing routine until early January. During 2025 I posted almost every week - 49 posts, amounting to 52K words - and it's been a great positive experiment. I plan to continue writing in 2026. But I want to
Community listening
I'm sitting here today contributing work on several things with the environmental justice folks in Evanston: A grant application, comments on a draft report from the Evanston Environmental Equity Investigation, and communications plans with a subcommittee team of a new coalition. It's a long way from
Environmental equity
This is my updated effort to craft an overview of environmental justice - what it is, what it means in Evanston, and potential paths for the future. What do we mean by environmental justice? Environmental justice recognizes that our history of racial discrimination leads to current and on-going environmental, health
Environmental equity
I recently attended two half-day working sessions of the Evanston Environmental Justice (EJ) Coalition. The sessions were designed to inform a strategy for this new organization as it moves into 2026. I was geeked for a number of reasons. This was front-row observation of community coalition building with folks who
Environmental equity
Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Evanston Environmental Justice Conversation Series, co-sponsored by a coalition of civic and religious organizations (including Environmental Justice Evanston, a group which I am now supporting). Keynote speakers and panelists were folks with deep personal and professional experience in the impacts of racial
Thinking out loud
A few notes and quotes from recent readings and research. The thread here is the power - and necessity - of connectedness. Environmental justice pioneer Hazel Johnson The arc of the story of environmental justice pioneer Hazel Johnson is instructive. As is the maturity of the organization she founded in
Environmental equity
I took a step back during the past month to reflect on what I am learning about environmental equity and community listening, and what each means to me. All of this is a learning work-in-progress. I am starting to frame environmental equity as a challenge consisting of two types of
Environmental equity
This post contains a few notes and resources about the status of environmental equity in Evanston. Understanding the map The 2022 Evanston Process for Local Assessment of Needs (EPLAN) helps set the baseline for understanding the legacy impact of discriminatory housing policies and practices on community well-being. The map below
Environmental equity
A opportunity may open up, to work on how how a collection of environmental groups consider environmental equity as integral to their practice. This post is some early thinking about how to address this opportunity. The context. The groups are part of a not-for-profit collective organized to advance climate-change initiatives