The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $10 million to Portland State University, Willamette Partnership and several other organizations to establish an assistance center. The Environmental and Energy Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center is a part of the Justice40 Initiative and has a goal of increasing environmental justice and economic opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities. Lynny Brown is the health and environment partner at Willamette Partnership. Cheyenne Holiday is the energy, climate and transportation manager at Verde PDX. And Direlle Calica is the Director of PSU’s Institute for Tribal Government. They all join us now to share the vision of the center.
Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.
Geoff Norcross: The US Environmental Protection Agency has pledged millions to organizations here in the Northwest to help historically disadvantaged communities that have borne the brunt of climate change. Portland State University will work with nonprofits and other organizations to build what is called an Environmental and Energy Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call it the TCTAC. This is quite the collaborative effort, a lot of organizations involved, and we’re going to talk with three of the partner organizations helping to get the TCTAC off the ground. Direlle Calica is the Director of Portland State’s Institute for Tribal Governments. Lynny Brown is the healthy environments partner at Willamette Partnership, and Cheyenne Holiday is the energy, climate and transportation manager with the nonprofit Verde. Welcome all of you to Think Out Loud, good to have you.
Lynny Brown: Thanks for having us, Geoff. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Direlle Calica: Thank you.
Cheyenne Holiday: Happy to be here.
Norcross: Direlle, let’s start with you. Can you first help us by giving us an idea of the scope of the problem? How do Black and Indigenous and other Communities of Color feel climate and environmental issues harder than other communities?
Calica: So first, taking a look at the environment as a nation, and in terms of even nation building, has had a tremendous impact on Communities of Color, especially feeling those first initial waves with Indigenous people, Native Americans here in the United States, later Alaska and the US state of Hawaii and territories. But taking the principles of environmental stewardship that we as Indigenous people have had has been to take care of those resources, take care of those resources that can’t speak for themselves, such as our flora, fauna, fish, wildlife, those things, and being able to steward those resources. We have, from time immemorial, been taking care of those resources with the principle that if we take care of them, they will take care of us.
Where that’s run into conflict in terms of the way in which we manage and steward those resources has been in the face of nation building here in the US, westward expansion, and changing paradigms of the way in which we as a society relate to those natural resources. And within that climate, the fabric of the Black experience, in terms of nation building as well, [is] that we’ve all sort of paid the price of that as Indigenous communities and Black Americans [and] other groups in the country. The way we’ve seen that over time is we continue to bore the brunt of some of that, in terms of being frontline communities, specifically looking at water issues, where water issues tend to be impacted in Communities of Color. We’re starting to see that kind of percolate out beyond Communities of Color. But also in terms of climate impacts. The relocation of tribal villages on the Pacific coast here from where they’ve been located for thousands of years, now having to move to higher and higher ground because of the sea level rise.
Those are just some examples of where we’re starting to see that. But I think in terms of thinking back to that, in the Indigenous sort of worldview and mindset with relationship to resources, our stewardship obligations, not just to us as a people as Indigenous people, is also to take care of our neighbors. So with that, I think sort of a driving force in terms of the way we think about this center is that we have all of us in mind in terms of thinking about the environment, energy and climate.
Norcross: There’s a lot to think about there, and we’ll get into some of that. I just wonder what it means to you that the federal government, under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency, agrees with you enough that they would give you $10 million to address some of these issues.
Calica: I think it’s in recognition that there’s diversity in the way in which we relate and look at resources, whether that’s from a scientific standpoint and a Western scientific view, or it’s an Indigenous way of knowing the way in which we’re interconnected with a lot of these resources from different scientific backgrounds. I think that this resource and this investment is an acknowledgement that we are at a point where we need to be exploring a diversity of options and solutions out there to the complex interrelated problems around energy and the environment. So I think it’s long overdue that this validation of especially our Indigenous ways of knowing how to steward and manage these resources here in this part of the world, have finally come to the place where they are now.
Norcross: I know that this center, the TCTAC, is just getting started and we are in early days here. But what is your overarching vision for it?
Calica: I think for a long time that we, as frontline communities, have not had a seat at the table. And sometimes I think in the development of comprehensive policies and management schemes and regimes that some of those communities that have the most acute and clear level of knowledge and insight into the problem and potential solutions, sometimes don’t make it to the table.
I think with this center, it affords the opportunity to have those diverse perspectives there, as well as being able to create these synergies amongst these communities to share information, to share what’s worked, what isn’t working, and how can we sharpen some of the opportunities to address some of the challenges that we’re facing and will be facing.
Norcross: Cheyenne Holiday, I want to turn to you because you do this work, you are working with front line communities all the time. I think back to the heat wave of 2020 where afterwards you mobilized an effort to get cooling centers to communities in need. I’m wondering how this new center, once it’s up and running, will help Verde’s efforts?
Holiday: So Verde has worked to build community and advocacy with our community members and policy and projects. One thing that we have focused on is leader trainings. This includes environmental justice leadership trainings, energy justice and water justice, in English and in Spanish. And so we’re helping to expand our leadership trainings to include water, transportation, air quality, and energy, and provide sessions and share our expertise to help these communities access all of these reasons that are going to be coming through the center.
Norcross: Lynny, I was wondering if you, through your work at Willamette Partnership, could point to a specific community with a specific climate change or environmental issue that you think could be helped by this new center, by the TCTAC?
Brown: Thanks for that question, Geoff. I’ve been working with both Direlle and Cheyenne on doing water justice policy work and training for the state of Oregon. And we just finished up a trip a couple weeks ago to Hermiston, Oregon where some of you may have heard that there is nitrate contamination in Morrow and Umatilla counties. We’ve worked with some of the community groups there to do some community science, well water testing, education on groundwater, what it is, how it moves through the land and into our tap water, and ways to help care for the land. I’m hoping that this TCTAC can help some of those community organizations access more funding to support the work that they’re already doing to mobilize community, to share information, and to advocate for clean water that we all have the right to drink, to wash dishes, to water our gardens, and to play and pray with as well. So that’s one example of how I think the TCTAC could support local communities experiencing water injustices or health issues related to the environment.
And I wanna say also, these communities are already doing the work, they know what their communities need, they know where their strengths are. And so it’s just a matter of resourcing the work that they’re already doing and providing them with the tools or trainings or other supports that they need to keep doing the good work that they’re doing.
Norcross: I think that’s a big lesson here. Your organizations are already doing the work, but now you have this extra support in the form of the TCTAC?
Brown: That’s exactly right. For us, we’ll be working in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. But across all four states and across the many tribes across the states, we already have the community leadership, we have the knowledge, we have the people to do this work, to build safe and healthy environments. And this investment is a crucial step towards resourcing communities to tackle ongoing injustices. We’re ready to work alongside other frontline communities for social mobility, environmental, and energy justice and climate resilience. And I think we all believe at least, Direlle, Cheyenne, and I, that this is an opportunity to drive meaningful change and build a more just future for all who live, work, play and pray in our region.
Norcross: Direlle, how will it actually work? Once the center is up and running, how will you identify these communities in need, and how will you find them, and how will they find you?
Calica: I think that is part of our effort collectively to start building out that infrastructure. Part of that will entail, as was already mentioned by Lynny, workshops and opportunities to bolster some of that information that may be more helpful, some of the more current and relevant information.
But I think the other piece is also along the technical assistance side. One of the key roles that we’ll be playing, especially at Portland State at the Institute for Tribal Government, is in relation to being that resource and sort of intake center for tribes looking to get technical assistance, along with the many partners that we’ve engaged in this process in working with the folks over at Verde, and as well as working with our partners at Willamette Partnership.
An example that was just mentioned with regard to a community that may be impacted, say it’s a tribe in this instance, one of those things that we’ll be looking at is so what type of assistance is needed? Is that helping train maybe their environmental services department and engaging them there, will they need technical assistance? I think the other piece that we’ll be able to do is in addition to identifying some of the capacity and information needs, is part of the challenge getting access to resources? Is it getting access to additional information from other resource providers?
Part of the whole center is kind of helping to bolster and connect the dots. And just again, as we mentioned, a lot of the work that is already being done is out there. So how do we help elevate and lift that work so it can get a little further down the line, if not a lot farther down the line?
Norcross: Cheyenne Holiday, do you think your work through Verde is going to change in any kind of fundamental way because you’re now affiliated with this big overarching collaborative effort, you’re not just out there on your own anymore?
Holiday: I don’t think our work is going to change, I think it’s going to expand. We have a lot of experience doing leadership trainings that are related to environmental justice that have been going on in Oregon throughout the last couple of years. So we will be expanding that to be able to provide trainings for these other states and tribes in the region. And I also think it would be a great opportunity for us to be able to connect communities to each other who may be going through similar situations but are in different states.
Norcross: And how can individuals get involved?
Brown: We are spending the next few months here launching a website. We’ll have state organizers in each state doing outreach. For the meantime, we have a landing page at Willamette Partnership Environmental Justice TCTAC, if you search that online. And there are ways to get connected with us, either contacting me, or putting your email down and we’ll add you to a newsletter.
We’ll be hiring, staffing up both at PSU and Willamette Partnership, and we’re hoping to connect with as many communities and interested parties as possible over the next year.
Norcross: And Direlle Calica , I guess the last question is for you, how are you going to measure success? Environmental justice is a very big goal.
Calica: I think increasing the number of participants in these processes, seeing communities celebrate their successes as well. I look around and see some of the work that we’ve been doing has really been at a grassroots level. But I think seeing an increased number of participation, more people working with us. When you start to see some of the things in terms of resources change, accessibility to clean energy options, water security, our communities struggling less in these places, I think that’s where you start to measure that success, as well as involvement in these processes where we haven’t been able to be as involved as we like to be.
Norcross: Thank you all very much. And best of luck to you.
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