Environmental justice workshop offers advice for activists

Participants urged to build trust with communities

by Darla Carter | Presbyterian News Service

Dr. Monica Unseld, left, of Until Justice Data Partners and Coming Clean spoke during a panel discussion that also included Tyler Offerman, center, of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center and Bonifacio Aleman of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. (Photo by Rich Copley)

LOUISVILLE — A workshop with a focus on environmental justice offered strategies for people who are interested in doing the work of organizing and movement building.

The Sept. 13 workshop, “Organizing for Change,” was part of the People’s Summit on Food Systems and Urban Agriculture. That’s an event hosted by Food in Neighborhoods, a coalition that works to improve food and farm systems in Louisville, Kentucky. The Presbyterian Hunger Program was one of the summit’s sponsors.

The workshop’s three main panelists were Dr. Monica Unseld, a scientist who’s the founder of Until Justice Data Partners, which seeks to demystify and normalize the use of research and data in social justice work and daily life; Bonifacio Aleman, a lead organizer with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; and Tyler Offerman, who works on food, feeding and farm justice policy with the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm and public interest advocacy organization. The panel was moderated by Nia Rivers of Community Farm Alliance and Emily Smith of the Greater Louisville Food Council.

The panel was directed at those interested in environmental justice, which relates to the right to live, work and play in healthy environments and the need to push back against environmental racism, which leads to people of color and low-income people being disproportionately exposed to health hazards, such as contaminated drinking water and polluted air.

It’s a topic that’s highlighted in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) document “Investing in a Green Future: A Vision for a Renewed Creation” (2022). It states that “we believe that God is calling the church to the trifold work of environmental justice, racial justice and economic justice” and describes a vision that includes “an environment renewed, better health outcomes, living wage jobs, clean air and water, wilderness preserved for its own sake, access to healthy food and the reparation of broken relationships.”

Tyler Offerman listens as Bonifacio Aleman answers a question during Friday’s workshop. (Photo by Rich Copley)

For those who are interested in doing work in the environmental justice arena or movements that intersect with it, the panelists suggested these and other tips:

• Listen to people on the margins and lift up their stories: People on the margins are often overlooked and forgotten about, said Aleman, who spoke of the need to challenge the assumption that “communities most impacted by issues are not equipped enough to save themselves.”
• Adhere to environmental justice principles: “When you abide by these principles, you completely abandon any of your own authority and you give these disproportionately impacted communities full right to self-determination and full right to self-representation,” said Unseld, who also does environmental justice work through Coming Clean, a nonprofit environmental health collaborative. “So, when I go in, my first thing is to build a relationship with trust. I don’t go in and start interviewing them or start presenting them with plans. I go and hang out and hear about their grandpa, just to form these relationships, ‘cause it has to be long-term. You can’t bring in college students for a semester and then bounce. You have to share data.”
• Be ready to take action: “I often think about movement moments,” Offerman said. “It’s like there’s a thing that happens, and if we were positioned as a movement, we could capitalize on it. But if we are not positioned, then the moment passes us.”
• Don’t be afraid to make waves: Be willing to go into spaces, such as community meetings, and push back, Unseld said. “Sometimes our job is to go in and to just be the first one to get angry, to let everyone know that it’s safe to piss somebody off.”
• Be crafty: “Find ways to jujitsu the system,” Offerman said. For example, “find ways to get money and use it against capitalism. Find ways to get lawyers and use it against the legal system. … We just have to build trust with communities, so that way, we can use the tools at our disposal to broaden the movement.”
• Be authentic: “Don’t compromise your character because of who you’re meeting with,” said Offerman, who also stressed the need to “be responsive and humble and accountable.”
• Find coping skills that work for you: “Organizers do a very bad job of taking care of ourselves,” Offerman said. They’re well advised to take steps to avoid burnout and other pitfalls, Offerman said.

Instead of quitting when you have a setback, focus on what you can do, Unseld suggested. Ask yourself, “where do I fit in? What can I do that only I can do? And then, who can I do it with, in solidarity with?”

The Presbyterian Hunger Program is one of the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.