Environmental equity
On July 14, I officially opened a project for the Evanston Environmental Justice Coalition: Producing the first edition of a new biannual publication on the state of environmental justice in Evanston. The start-up edition project will take 3 months beginning in September. The publication I envision should have voice
Community listening
When I started this journey I defined community listening as three elements; * How a group facilitates listening to the community members it serves. * How a group helps community members make sense of what it is learning. * How a group facilitates co-creating solutions with the community members it serves. One
Environmental equity
Build community connections and power. Grow more trees, plants and food. Nurture parks and open spaces. Make transit options green, safe and accessible. Invest in affordable, sustainable housing. Eliminate man-made environmental hazards. Reduce waste, increase reuse and sharing. Design severe weather safeguards. These draft statements are designed to define
Design
This is thinking-out-loud about work-in-progress. The context is my effort to help design a local environmental justice curriculum. "Curriculum" in a very loose sense. What I am working on is a set of learning activities that are connected, but not scripted. Sort of a
Community listening
When we think about how we listen to folks who live in our communities, we likely think about meetings. Special community meetings. Or projects that include community engagement meetings as one step in a larger project plan. But projects and stand-alone meetings have flaws. They are designed and facilitated
Thinking out loud
I've been reflecting a bit on moments that move, that create a shift. It's challenging to identify those moments in real time. Only looking back do you recognize the shift. Which means: If you wish to make change, you probably need to create a lot of
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
I recently started reading Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (science fiction is now my favorite holiday from current news and events). A moment in the story stood out. Genly Ai is a human envoy sent out to convince another human world to join an
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
Design
Last week I had coffee with two friends from my days teaching and helping lead the learning and organizational change graduate program at Northwestern University. One - Beth - is Head of School at a private Montessori school in the Boston area. Beth is an amazing leader; she gets results and creates
Thinking out loud
I am building off of the first part of my last post: Update on Evanston environmental justice. And folks who give a f*ck. Since that post was published, a second person - Alex Pretti - was murdered by federal agents. The feds lied about what actually happened, refused cooperation with local
Thinking out loud
I don't remember exactly when I first read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. But it must have been in high school (1972 or '73), probably during my days as a budding young journalist and editor of my high school newspaper. That was when I first started