Welcome to the Environmental Justice Working Group

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PRACTITIONERS’ WORKING GROUP (EJPWG)
The working mission of the Environmental Justice Practitioners Working Group is to bring attention to inequities among the CSA community and address systemic issues holding back progress in research. The EJPWG aims to support and connect community-based organizations and EJ-focused practitioners to the CSA community and foster equitable collaborations in
community science.

The EJPWG has outlined three (3) major objectives:

1. Maintain and foster a strong network of community-based, Environmental Justice practitioners;
2. Create learning spaces and dialogue with EJ communities/leaders and research-focused counterparts aiming to discuss equitable partnerships and opportunities for collaboration;
3. Work to improve upon environmental justice participation and representation in the CSA, working groups, conference planning, and more.
   Included among those objectives are EJPWG issues to follow-up on per numerous discussions
   during and since the CitSci2019 Conference in Raleigh-NC:
   1) Scientific exploitation of people of color and indigenous areas by major academic
   universities without equitable use of research results;
   2) Representative membership for EJ/Indigenous categories for CSA members and
   conference registration;
   3) Operating guidelines that protect the interests of grassroots EJ leaders and organizations
   when working with the CSA and other colleges/universities – addressing fair inclusion
   and representation of Indigenous focused academic institutions, HBCUs, and
   Hispanic/Latino centered universities that number in the 100s;
   4) Research models that support corrective solutions for adversely impacted EJ/Indigenous
   areas: such as WERA's COMR Model (community owned and managed research) that
   leverage legal compliance and enforcement;
   5) Operational and proactive support of existing and new/proposed federal law written
   specifically to protect the rights and improve quality of life of EJ/Indigenous
   communities: such as the proposed U.S. Senate Environmental Justice Bill S.2236; and
   6) Funding EJ input, training of CSA members, and on-site participation in various state,
   regional, national, and international venues.

In 2020, the EJPWG Leadership Team have been meeting bi-weekly with members of CSA
Leadership to address areas of concern for the organization (listed below). Together we have
been discussing:
• attending to equity in our membership and conference options

• developing a code of conduct for CSA’s actions in regard to racial equity
• exploring options for offering racial equity training across this community
• creating best practices materials that guide equitable research partnerships in and
with communities.