{"id":5189,"date":"2025-03-31T15:23:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/?post_type=program&p=5189"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:54:35","slug":"ej-center","status":"publish","type":"program","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/programs\/ej-center\/","title":{"rendered":"WE ACT Environmental Justice Center"},"template":"","class_list":["post-5189","program","type-program","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","program_tax-ej-center"],"acf":{"details":{"featured_image":5192,"program_type":false,"abstract":"WE ACT is building a home for the environmental justice movement."},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_links","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_links":{"title":"","abstract":"","links":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

LET\u2019S BUILD A HOME FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE,<\/strong>\r\nAND BUILD LEADERSHIP FOR CLIMATE ACTION<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

Download Our Environmental Justice Center Brochure<\/a> (PDF)<\/p>\r\nBuilding Leadership for Climate Action<\/strong>\r\nThe WE ACT Environmental Justice Center in Harlem is now under construction! The center is an outcome of 35 years of WE ACT\u2019s experience and leadership in taking community-based action in partnership with the most affected people. We work with our members and community stakeholders to address frontline communities\u2019 concerns and priorities through successful environmental justice advocacy campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels.\r\n\r\n\"\"WE ACT has its origins on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 15, 1988, when 100 Harlem activists came together to protest the threat to their community\u2019s air quality posed by the North River Sewage Treatment Plant. Those activists included the Sewage Seven, led by WE ACT\u2019s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Peggy Shepard. They were arrested that day for civil disobedience but won their fight to reduce Harlem\u2019s exposure to toxins and hazards. Since then, WE ACT has evolved from a volunteer organization into a national environmental justice leader with its base in Harlem and a federal policy office in Washington, DC.\r\n\r\nClimate policy must reflect distributive, procedural, and retributive justice if all communities are to benefit. WE ACT continues to expand its staff, policy agenda, educational tools, and technical assistance to meet the urgent need for environmental justice perspectives, engagement, and leadership to infuse public policy.\r\n\r\nIn 2022, WE ACT\u2019s efforts and resources helped to win landmark environmental justice legislation in New York, including a cumulative impacts law and a major state investment toward environmental stewardship and equitable green jobs. We launched a nationwide initiative targeting 10 cities to ensure that the unprecedented federal commitments to climate investment reach the communities where they are needed most. And WE ACT partnered with two other national environmental justice leaders to host the first-ever Climate Justice Pavilion at COP27 in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt \u2013 an important milestone in elevating the concerns of frontline communities around the world in the United Nations\u2019 climate negotiations, as we all act to sustain a safe and healthy earth for our families and future generations.\r\n\r\nOur Movement Urgently Needs a Place to Call Home<\/strong>\r\n\"\"In the new WE ACT Environmental Justice Center, we will strengthen our ability to serve as a movement-builder, sharing our knowledge, experience, and best practices, along with capacity-building resources, including funding, with allies across the country. The Center will be a convening space and technical assistance hub for environmental justice organizations and other grassroots advocates. With a permanent space to call our own, equipped with the technology for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) education and citizen science, we\u2019ll also scale up our community-based education, workforce development, and civic engagement efforts that directly empower Northern Manhattan residents.\r\n\r\nThe WE ACT Environmental Justice Center Is in Our Sight<\/strong>\r\nWE ACT owns a five-story, brick and limestone townhouse in Harlem, our home community. It is located in the Hamilton Heights Historic District in West Harlem, across the street from City College of New York. We are launching a $7.3 million campaign to completely renovate and transform the building into a state-of-the-art, community-based Environmental Justice Center, and grow our education, workforce development, and advocacy programs. The gut renovation will allow the building to be energy efficient and designed as a \u201cpassive house.\u201d\r\n\r\nWE ACT Environmental Justice Center Features:\r\n