On Thursday, November 10th, National Public Radio launched a special news investigation Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities.

All this week, NPR will be exposing how the EPA and DEC’s air pollution regulations still leave many communities exposed to dangerous toxics. Tonawanda is one of the communities NPR will feature. We’ve been working hard with reporters Elizabeth Shogrun and Sandra Bartlett to tell the story of our Tonawanda Coke campaign.

All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive time, news radio program in the country. We are very excited.

The investigation documents how company self-reporting, poor communication between regulators, corporate greed, and sometimes the laws themselves result in communities who are overburdened with pollution. And as we’ve seen, how that leads to high levels of cancer, asthma and other illnesses.

Our piece will air this Thursday at either 4:00 or 5:00 sharp. We hope you can tune in!

November 3rd at 6pm the Common Council will hold a hearing on chemical fire emergency response. We need you to move forward the vision for a better response plan that protects all residents living next to industry.

We have the right to know and the right to be protected.

Common Council Chambers
13th Floor, City Hall
65 Niagara Square
Need a ride? Call us at 852-3813

Megan Mills-Hoffman spoke on Senate Mark Grisanti’s Legislative Report about the importance of local land trusts and preserving  the environmental protection fund. Megan is staff  at the WNY Land Conservatory Western New York Land Conservancy, a land-conservation organization formed to work with families, communities and farmers to safeguard Western New York’s natural and cultural heritage. The Land Conservancy works in cooperation with public and private landowners in eight Western New York counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming.

Click HERE to see the report.

Land trusts are local, regional or statewide nonprofit organizations directly involved in protecting important land resources for the public benefit. Land trusts accept donations of property, buy land or help landowners establish legal restrictions that limit harmful use and development of their property.

The Lois Gibbs Fellowship is a selective, 10-month program that provides a diverse set of emerging citizen leaders with the tools and training to build sustained political will to improve the environment and health in Western New York neighborhoods. For more on the Lois Gibb’s Fellowship click HERE.

“From the right to know and the duty to inquire flows the obligation to act,” stated keynote speaker Sandras Steingraber. Our second annual dinner gave us the opportunity to thank members who have been doing just that, acting to improve the health and well being of their community and environment.

Last Thursday, 130 people attended our second annual dinner at the Buffalo Yacht Club to celebrate a year of Coalition achievements.

The evening provided the opportunity to thanks our Golden Gas Mask honorees, Steven Halpern and Joe Gardella for their dedication and leadership in the fight for environmental health and justice in Western New York.

The Coalition also honored Bob Albini, Rosa Caraballo and Linda White with the Unsung Hero award, for their work knocking on doors, talking to their neighbours, educating community leaders, and working tirelessly to hold polluters accountable.

The event was possible with the support of the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Buffalo.

Its not too late to reserve your tickets for the 2011 Annual Dinner!

This years dinner will be featuring  author, ecologist, and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber. Steingraber is acclaimed for her                                               exploration of the links between human rights and the environment.

Called “a poet with a knife” by Sojourner magazine, Steingraber has received many honors for her work as a science writer. She was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year and received the Jenifer Altman Foundation’s first annual Altman Award for “the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer.”

Steinbraber to Speak at 2011 Dinner

Click HERE to reserve your tickets now!

On Monday, April 4th we’re hosting two incredible activists who fought for and won strong air pollution regulations in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) Program of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District is a regulatory program to reduce harmful contaminants in the air we breathe, to better protect citizens’ health and enhance quality of life.

We’re hosting two women who were in the forefront of establishing and implementing this program: Wilma Subra and Eboni Cochrane.

Wilma Subra is an environmental scientist with degrees in microbiology, chemistry and computer sciences. She has worked with dozens of communities to help them understand technical information to be full participants in decisions that impact their lives. She has worked for the Gulf South Research Institute, served as vice-chair of the EPA National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, serves as President of the Subra Company and was recently in the documentary Gasland about hydrofracking.

Eboni Cochrane is a member of Rubbertown Emergency Action (REACT). REACT is a grassroots organization of residents living near or at the fence lines of a cluster of 11 chemical plants commonly referred to as Rubbertown. REACT fights for:

• Strong laws to stop toxic air pollution from chemical plants
• The protection of residents in the event of a leak, fire or explosion in a chemical plant or railcar.
• Full disclosure and easy access to information concerning the impact of Rubbertown on residents living nearby

Eboni and Wilma will speak about how they organized the community to push for the program, how the STAR program reduced harmful emissions and they lessons they’ve learned.

Join us at the Sheridan Parkside Community Center at 7:00 pm

This past weekend the Lois Gibbs Fellows participated in a two day training by Wellstone Action! Trainers, Karen Lopez and John Gilbert taught vital organizing skills like how to volunteer recruitment, power mapping, and messaging.

Karen and Robert identify needs for successful one on ones

Wellstone Action! is a national center for training and leadership development for movements.

The organization was created in  to honor the legacy of Paul and Sheila Wellstone by continuing their work through training, educating, mobilizing and organizing a vast network of progressive individuals and organizations.

Katy and Christian draft power map

Throughout the training fellows worked together to role play the design and implementation of a fictional campaign. This exercise gave everyone the experience  of how to navigate  effective meetings with community leaders,  how to organize successful town hall meetings, and advocate for resident in their own community.

Bob, Tom and Marika planning a campaign

Thank you to Bagel Jays and Five Points Bakery for provided delicious treats for the fellows!

Lois Gibbs visited Buffalo Tuesday, January11th  to kick off CAC’s fellowship named in her honor. The Lois Gibbs Fellowship is an innovative program that will empower 15 Western New York residents to advocate for a healthy and just environment. The fifteen fellows;  Ronata Pokrasky, Joy Africano, Marika Woods-Frankenstein, Bonnie Lawrence, Megan MillsHoffman, Jordan Dalton, Robert Albini, Christopher Romano, Robert Moses, Anthony Orta, Toni Hajdaj, Katy Brown, Debbie Scott, Thomas Lowe and Judith Anderson, all spoke to Gibbs about her experience organizing her home town. Throughout the evening, Gibbs stressed the importance  of building relationships and positive messages.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” said fellow Thomas Lowe. “I have grown up learning about Love Canal and the wonderful work that Lois Gibbs has done and I am truly honored to be a part of a fellowship named after such an effective environmental activist.  Growing up in the Niagara Falls area, where Ms. Gibbs started her journey, makes this fellowship even more special.”

The fellowship, sponsored by the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo, consists of a ten month program where fellows will learn and practice skills necessary to organize around environmental justice issues.

Fellow Renata Pokrasky agrees, “I hope to acquire the skills needed to help bring about change in my community. People need to work together in their neighborhood to gain the support of their elected officials in a joint effort to improve the quality of life in their community. We all need to work to make those goals happen.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York today announced the launch of the Lois Gibbs Fellowship, an innovative program that will empower 15 Western New York residents to advocate for a healthy and just environment.

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York believes that leadership development of a grassroots base is critical to building an effective environmental health movement in the region. The Lois Gibbs Fellowship will train activist skills and foster relationships between grassroots actors and decision makers.

The Lois Gibbs Fellowship is a selective, 10-month program that provides a diverse set of emerging citizen leaders with the tools and training to build sustained political will to improve the environment and health in Western New York neighborhoods.

“Western New York is full of environmental health hazards,” said Erin Heaney, the Coalition’s Executive Director. “Our Tonawanda Coke Campaign put us in touch with residents from throughout the region who have questions about environmental hazards in their community. The Fellowship will allow these folks to connect, learn how to organize their neighbors, and make change.”

Over the course of one year, the Lois Gibbs Fellowship will provide rich training opportunities in the following areas:

* Developing effective messages and media outreach
* Strategic campaign planning and power mapping
* Holding elected officials accountable
* Grassroots lobbying
* New media
* Corporate and Government research
* Engaging faith-based communities

The Fellowship is open to anyone in Western New York. Applications may be found online at www.cacwny.org or by calling the Coalition to request a paper application. Individuals interested or working in environmental health and justice issues are strongly encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to residents working on land-use and food access issues. The application is open to people new to organizing as well as experienced folks looking to hone their skills. The Fellowship is designed as a part-time program that can accommodate people who are working full-time. Applications are due November 4th.

The program is named in honor of Lois Gibbs, a grassroots environmental justice advocate from Western New York. She is best known for her successful campaign to relocate families living on top of a toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls. Lois Gibbs is emblematic of the program’s philosophy: ordinary individuals can make an extraordinary difference when they organize.

The Fellowship is generously supported by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

We hope you’ll join us on July 13th for our screening of Maquilapolis: City of Factories.

The film shares the stories of women who work in multinationally-owned factories in Mexico. For example, after making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. She earns six dollars a day.

As Carmen and a million other maquiladora workers produce televisions, electrical cables, toys, clothes, batteries and IV tubes, they weave the very fabric of life for consumer nations. They also confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos — life on the frontier of the global economy. In MAQUILAPOLIS, Carmen and her colleague Lourdes reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change: Carmen takes a major television manufacturer to task for violating her labor rights. Lourdes pressures the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory.

The event is at 7 pm at the Kenmore Library on Delaware Road.