It has been an exciting time for us as we continue our transition from the leadership of Jim Abernathy, our founding Executive Director.  Since arriving at ESC in January I have traveled around the country meeting with allies and constituents, and representing ESC at PolicyLink’s “Regional Equity ’08 Summit,” the annual River Rally of the River Network, and the U.S. EPA’s “Roadmap to Revitalization - Brownfields ’08” conference, where the innovative Community Revitalization Alliance (CRA) was launched. 

In all these gatherings the energy was palpable about the change that everyone senses is in the air.  A change in the national priorities that we as a nation seem to feel is long overdue is gripping our collective conscience.  The question remains, though; how will organizations that serve the marginalized and forgotten places be heard amongst the din of competing interests? 

Most recently I moderated a discussion on the “Philanthropic Response to Hurricane Katrina” at the Deep South Center for Environment Justice’s “Race, Place and the Environment After Katrina: Reclaiming, Rebuilding, Revitalizing” symposium. LaTosha Brown, of the Gulf Coast Fund of Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors, gave a stirring presentation about how communities conceptualize their work, and how we then describe that work to others.  LaTosha said that too often communities talk about themselves as victims, and the environmental conditions that they are working to address as victimization. 

“Funders are more interested in supporting a moving train rather than a sinking ship,” she said.  She urged activists to talk about the proactive things they are doing to right the environmental wrongs that they have endured. The point is to talk and write about your work from a perspective of empowerment, local vision, and community transformation. 

Things like the Deep South Center’s partnership with the United Steelworkers Union and the Sustainable Urban Ecosystem Initiative of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association are two great efforts that folks in New Orleans are undertaking to help rebuild their own communities. 

Communities are not waiting for others to come and help them solve their problems, but they do need assistance in trying to address the complex environmental challenges they face. That’s where ESC comes in --  to help communities get the assistance and outside expertise that they need to help them move their organizations forward.  These are trying times, but together we can build stronger grassroots environmental organizations, groups that can then prevail on behalf of the people and places they serve.    

Vernice Miller-Travis

The Environmental Support Center

"Building Power at the Grassroots"