CCL-CEJ team survey - What barriers to EJ engagement do you have, if any?
D C
622 Posts

Hi Climate & Environmental Justice action team members,

Let's do a quick temperature check of our group.

In our team's EJ toolkit and trainings, as well as when looking at Democratic Organizing and EJ Principles, there is a strong undercurrent of commitment to self-transformation, of offering service to communities, of self-determination of EJ communities. There is consistent encouragement of engaging with environmental justice at a local level.

So a question for all of you is: Are you satisfied with where you are in your EJ journey and engagement?

If yes, how are you engaging? If not, what are the barriers standing in your way?

Is it time? is it knowledge? or something else entirely? Please join the conversation below.

We talk a lot in our action team about engaging, but of course everyone has limited time. We're wondering if we give you back half an hour of time, starting with our monthly action team meeting this month, to work on outreach, making calls, doing research, building relationships; if that would make it more likely for you to move forward on your own EJ journey? or is there another barrier that wouldn't be helped with some extra time?

What do you think?

Thanks for thinking about this!

with gratitude,

Debbie & CEJ Steering Committee

2 Replies

@D C
My personal barrier is not time, it is groups to connect with. This is a broad justice issue, not specific to climate justice.

The politcal party I'm in says expanding to new people is not worth our limited resources, and stonewalls or ignores any ideas or questions from me. But I think I have an answer for that, for now (do things in their name without asking).

My biggest problem is with more progressive groups. The largest Indivisble group around me, which has made impacts statewide, told me just last night that people who said America isn't in a civil war because there's not mass physical violence or death are stuck in white supremacy, and then the co leader of this group agreed and said I was acting too white (she's also white) and misogynistic. And just about every active member hearted that. I confirmed with my friend in DC and my friend who is a diplomat for Canada, that this is whack. Which is just one example, but more broadly, I find any group that lends itself to more justice minded issues around me, does not feel they want me there. I've donated my time and money for this Indivisible group, and get insulted every time I speak. Which probably is just this one group being an issue, but there are no other local groups involved in advocacy or work like this, except maybe churches or the animal shelter. I'm pretty sure I'm the most progressive person within a 20 mile radius (most people in the local Indivisible group live beyond that) and there's no local groups that want me.

Even more to the point, my time and energy for EJ, I think, is better spent in larger groups like national. Given 30 minutes, there is nothing I am not already doing or trying locally I could do. I may be unique, especially being rural, but these national groups are my best place to feel connected to recharge from tiring doing.

Also also, my CCL chapter “exists” but apparently voted to not do chapter meetings and only meet for lobbying, so I forgot about them

@Jaiden Shahan
More addendum

I am bad at doing things that aren't in my email so I did miss the last meeting 😭. I'll add the future ones right now to my calendar.

And more general general, the monthly meetings here are the only chance I currently have to discuss climate with a group, but I understand in most other areas thats not the case, and the 30 minutes can be very helpful.

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories