$25K in 25 Days!!!
This is it! Today we launch our $25K in 25 Days Campaign!
This past year, Clean Air members consistently came together across lines of difference to organize our communities and make sure that we are building a world we all want to live in. Our campaigns have had to face shifting policies, the threat of dismantlement of the EPA and other agencies we rely on to enforce laws, and much more. And yet, we continue to win major environmental justice and public health victories for our neighborhoods.
Given this political moment, here are a few things we can all be proud of this year:
- Our member team in the Delavan Grider community met relentlessly with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, captured the attention of the media, and won a commitment to start cleanup of the former American Axle site on East Delavan, a site that has been leaking toxic PCBs and hazardous waste for over 20 years. Cleanup is set to begin in January.
- In Tonawanda, 1,000 residents and workers came together to create Tonawanda Tomorrow, a comprehensive economic development plan to rebuild Tonawanda’s economy in the wake of the Huntley Coal Plant closure. The plan lays out a vision and action steps to rebuild and shore up the revenue gap left by the plant’s retirement. Our work on a just energy transition was featured nationally by Grist, Mother Jones and Bill Moyers – lifting up the stories of our members and partners in organized labor.
- Despite the fact that Participatory Budgeting was not included in the City of Buffalo’s 2017 budget, our PB steering committee adapted and facilitated a second round of Participatory Budgeting in the city’s Niagara District. This effort funded projects like technology upgrades and snow plows for community centers. More than 250 residents participated in this process. By developing projects, meeting with decision makers, designing outreach materials, speaking with the press, running polling sites, and voting, they directly decided on where a portion of their tax dollars are being spent in their neighborhoods.
2017 was a landmark year for our community and for our country. It will certainly go on record as one of the most challenging years in recent history – the changing of federal administrations has affected every neighborhood in different ways. We are at a critical point. The current political climate leaves us fighting many battles and facing continued threats that directly impact our ability to take care of ourselves, our families, and our communities. Clean Air believes that we need to continue to invest in community controlled, democratic institutions that build our people’s capacity for self-governance. We are dedicated to doing this by knocking on the doors of people we don’t know, meeting one on one with strangers, and bringing working class people together to share problems, find solutions, and take action to demand change!
Help us make that 25K goal, and give as generously as you can today!
And if you believe that we need institutions and community that is built to last and ready to respond through changes and political shifts – make a sustaining monthly commitment!
Thank you for your vision, your hopefulness and your generosity!
Love,
The Clean Air Team
Rebecca, Natasha & Brian