OUR MISSION
WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT envisions a community that has:
- informed and engaged residents who participate fully in decision-making on key issues that impact their health and community.
- strong and equal environmental protections.
- increased environmental health through community-based participatory research and evidence-based campaigns.
THE HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
Poet and author Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” View our Black History & the Environmental Justice Movement storymap to learn about the history of the environmental justice movement.
To better understand the movement and its history, we encourage you to click here to read the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice drafted and adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in October 1991 in Washington, DC. Click here (PDF) to read the Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing, also drafted and adopted at that summit. And click here (PDF) to read the Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the US.