The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

UPCOMING EVENTS

Root Beer Party

June 27th, 5:30pm-7:30pm

@CRPE's San Fransisco office, 47 Kearny Street, Suite 804

Join us for the summer tradition that our late founder Luke Cole loved. This year we raise a frosty mug to the first Luke Cole Memorial Fellow, Madeline Stano and to all of you who have made the fellowship a reality. Please RSVP with Lauren Richter.

Environmental Justice Tour of the South San Joaquin Valley

September 2013

Contact Marissa Alexander for more information on how to join. Learn more about our EJ tours here.

Go to the main events page.

CRPE Joins Civil Rights Battle in Alabama CRPE has teamed up with Citizens for Better Schools & Sustainable Communities (CFBS) in the Birmingham, Alabama—the historic heart of the civil rights movement—to challenge a new environmental injustice. Luke Cole Memorial Fellow Madeline Stano has been assisting Founder and Executive Director of CFBS Ronald Jackson (pictured) in challenging the development of a CSX rail line that would carry uncovered toxic waste through majority low-income African American neighborhoods in Southwest Birmingham. Read the Full Story

Root Beer Party Join us on June 27th from 5:30 to 7:30 for a Root Beer Party, the summer tradition that our late founder Luke Cole loved. This year we raise a frosty mug to the first Luke Cole Memorial Fellow, Madeline Stano and to all of you who have made the fellowship a reality. Please RSVP with This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Read the Full Story

VIDEO: Community's Vision for Green Future Comes To Life On April 6th, we celebrated the groundbreaking of Shafter's four-acre community garden. Local officials, including Shafter Mayor Jon Johnston, attended the ceremony and praised the Committee for a Better Shafter and CRPE for their two years of work to establish the garden. The garden is part of our work to put the green economy in the hands of the communities that need it most. Read on to watch the video of the celebration. Read the Full Story

Residents Organize to Halt Unfair Utility Hike Last month, along with a group of dedicated volunteers we began organizing in Delano, CA against a proposed $65/month utility rate increase that would roll out over the next five years. Residents feel like their rates are always increasing, something most can't afford in a town where 32% of residents live below the poverty line. Many people also buy bottled water because they don't trust the safety of their tap water. On April 16th we presented over 5,000 signatures protesting the increase to the Delano City Council, halting the vote on the proposed rate increase. Read the Full Story

The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

Providing Legal and Technical Assistance to the Grassroots Movement for Environmental Justice

The 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 California's Central Valley and beyond.

We are driven by the belief that all people have the right to live, work, play and pray in a healthy environment, regardless of their race, place or income.

In our work, we strive to achieve these goals:

Individuals taking part in a particular campaign leave the campaign with more personal capacity than they had coming into it.
Communities involved have more power with decision makers at the end of the campaign than at the beginning.
We concretely address the environmental hazard at hand when working with affected communities.