June 2012, Exact date TBD
For more information or to RSVP contact Valerie
--Free and open to the public--
According to California law, residents have a right to safe drinking water, but “the gap between rights on the books and rights on the ground is particularly stark in the Valley" according to CRPE's Camille Pannu. In parts of the Central Valley the water is undrinkable and some residents spend up to 10% of their income trying to get safe water.
CRPE worked in coordination with community groups and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc (CRLA) to draft a proposal to address the severe water issues that plague Tulare County. One May 10th the propsal recieved 1 million dollars in state funding.
After seeing the movie The Lorax, 8 year old Emily became inspired to celebrate Earth Day by planting trees in her San Joaquin Valley community so she could help make the air better. Emily has a respiratory illness known as Valley Fever and is effected by poor air quality more than most children. With sympotoms similar to mono, Emily has had to scale back on her activites and on poor air quality days, which are numerous in the county with the worst air in the Nation, she must stay indoors.
We launched a fundraiser for Emily on Causes.com and raised over $550.00 in just two weeks in on and offline line donations; that's enough for 5 drought resistant trees. A very BIG thank you to all those who donated!
Friday March 9th CRPE, Ralph Nader and chief of Cal/OSHA Ellen Widess hosted a luncheon to promote the launch of the Luke Cole Memorial Fellowship. Allies, friends and family came together to celebrate the life and work of CRPE's late co-founder. Mr. Nader was Luke's first employer at The Center for Study of Responsive Law and spoke about his passion and joy.
Earlier this year, the Delano City Council proposed collecting residential utility fees in lump sum payments, instead of collecting monthly fees, in order to recover lost costs from unpaid bills. This could result in rate increases and puts residents who miss a payment at risk of losing their homes. Outraged at the effect this would have on low-income residents, CRPE joined with the community to fight back. Together, we flooded the City Council with emails, phone calls, faxes and Facebook messages.
For more information, check out an English language interview with our Program Assistant Valerie Gorospe or our Assistant Director Lupe Martinez 's Spanish language interview by Univision.
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The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment Providing Legal and Technical Assistance to the Grassroots Movement for Environmental JusticeThe Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment is a national environmental justice organization with offices in San Francisco and Delano, California. We provide legal, organizing, and technical assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and communities of color fighting environmental hazards. In our work, we strive to achieve these goals:
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Individuals taking part in a particular campaign leave the campaign with more personal capacity than they had coming into it.
Community involved has more power vis a vis decision makers at the end of the campaign than at the beginning.
Working with affected communities, we concretely address the environmental hazard at hand.Our Major Campaign Areas Include:
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