Meet the Nominees for Environmental Justice Action Grants

 

Meet the nominees for Climate Ride’s Environmental Justice Action Grants.

We received nearly 50 nominations for grants. We want to share these nominations to inform the Climate Ride community and raise the visibility of organizations and people working to fight systemic racism, making progress on environmental and social justice, and providing better accessibility to the outdoors for those who experience barriers on a daily basis. We hope that you will find organizations that you can connect with, donate to, or amplify. Very soon, Climate Ride will issue $5,000 grants to four organizations for a total of $20,000.

 

Pueblo Action Alliance

 

“Pueblo Action Alliance is a community-driven organization that promotes cultural sustainability and community defense by addressing environmental and social impacts in Indigenous communities.”

Learn more > https://www.puebloactionalliance.org/

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Outdoor Afro

 

“Outdoor Afro has become the nation’s leading, cutting edge network that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. We are a national not for profit organization with leadership networks around the country. With more than 80 leaders in 42 cities around the country, we connect thousands of people to nature experiences, who are changing the face of conservation. So come out in nature with us, or be a partner to help us grow our work so that we can help lead the way for inclusion in outdoor recreation, nature, and conservation for all!”

Learn more > https://outdoorafro.com/

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Uplift

 

“Uplift connects, trains, and mobilizes young people for climate justice.”

“Across the Colorado Plateau and greater Southwest, we see the beginnings of climate catastrophe such as megadrought and deadly wildfires. The air in our cities has become unbreathable, our forests are burning, and our river beds are drying. We do not know if the places we call home will remain livable and healthy. Indigenous, Black, brown, rural, queer, disabled, and low income communities are on the front lines of climate disaster.”

Learn more > https://upliftclimate.org/

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Cycles of Change

 

“Cycles of Change improves the health and sustainability of East Oakland neighborhoods by increasing the use of bicycles as transportation. We broaden access to biking in low-income communities of color through education programs and low cost or free resources, connecting youth with the extraordinary living ecosystems of our local area and building a diverse community of visionary young leaders.”

Learn more > https://cyclesofchange.org/

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Louisiana Bucket Brigade

 

“Louisiana Bucket Brigade on a mission to end the petrochemical industry’s destruction of Louisiana. ”

“In Louisiana, pollution makes us sick. Greenhouse gas emissions are intensifying and accelerating climate change, storms and coastal land loss. The oil and gas infrastructure damages our precious wetlands. And constant petrochemical industry expansion continues to wipe historic African American communities off the map. Our work supports grassroots action to create informed, sustainable communities free from industrial pollution. For more than 20 years, we’ve helped residents and community leaders amplify their voices and protect their health, their homes and their way of life. By hastening the transition away from fossil fuels, we’re working to create a more livable state for everyone in Louisiana.”

Learn more > https://labucketbrigade.org/

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Native Sun

“Native Sun a native-led non-profit that promotes renewable energy, energy efficiency and a just energy transition through education, workforce training and demonstration.”

Learn more > https://www.nativesun.org/

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WE ACT for Environmental Justice

“WE ACT achieves its mission by accomplishing a clear set of goals linked to major issues impacting health and environmental justice. WE ACT lifts the voices of low-income, communities of color through their work on: climate justice, clean air, good jobs, healthy homes, and sustainable and equitable land use.”

Learn more > https://www.weact.org/

 

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Syatt (See You at the Top)

 

“Syatt recognizes the adverse legacy people of color have faced in America. It is their vision that youth and adults experience a world where they know they belong and feel empowered. Syatt’s Mission is to support its community through culturally relevant programming in the natural and built environment, where youth and adults experience relief leading to life-changing transformation.”

Learn more > https://syattcle.org/ 

 

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Amy D. Foundation

“The Amy D. Foundation is a nonprofit organization created in honor of Amy Alison Dombroski, whose love for cycling and life touched many people around the world. The Amy D. Foundation encourages and supports young women through cycling, inspiring the celebration of healthy challenge and empowering the confident pursuit of lofty dreams.”

Learn more > https://amydfoundation.org/ 

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Neighborhood Bike Works

“Neighborhood Bike Works inspires youth and strengthens Philadelphia communities by providing equitable access to bicycling and bike repair through education, recreation, leadership, and career-building opportunities.”

Learn more > https://neighborhoodbikeworks.org/ 

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Rocking the Boat

“Rocking the Boat engages over 200 teens per year in a series of STEM-based programs that last throughout their high school careers and into college. Participants enter as freshmen and sophomores and choose from one of three programs: Boatbuilding, Environmental Science, or Sailing. They move from being students to paid apprentices to alumni once they graduate high school, at which point they are eligible to work part-time for Rocking the Boat as Program Assistants.”

 

Learn more > https://rockingtheboat.org/ 

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Front and Centered

“Communities of color, people with lower incomes, and indigenous people are on the frontlines of climate and environmental change. We are hit first by extraction, pollution, and climate change, which makes existing health and economic disparities worse. Yet frontline communities are often left out of or are the last to be included in the transition to a healthy, resilient and sustainable future.”

Learn more > https://frontandcentered.org/ 

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South – North Nexus

South – North Nexus’s focus on climate and social justice globally and locally brings together a wide range of committed people to innovate and learn. They currently are working in Montana, Mongolia, Colombia, Kenya, and Nicaragua with those most forgotten yet least responsible for climate impacts. Also, their strong gender focus is getting women’s voices heard and to the table.

Learn More > Southnorthnexus.org

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Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

The mission of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is the preservation of the outstanding wilderness at the heart of the Colorado Plateau, and the management of these lands in their natural state for the benefit of all Americans. SUWA promotes local and national recognition of the region’s unique wilderness character through research and public education; supports both administrative and legislative initiatives to permanently protect the Colorado Plateau wild places within the National Wilderness Preservation System, or by other protective designations where appropriate; builds support for such initiatives on both the local and national level; and provides leadership within the conservation movement through uncompromising advocacy for wilderness preservation.

Learn more > suwa.org

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Friends of the Boston Schoolyards

The mission of Friends of the Boston Schoolyards is to advocate for and to support outdoor teaching and learning for all students in the Boston Public Schools, as well as to support the maintenance of these vital public spaces throughout Boston. These beautiful vibrant schoolyards are not only centers for physical activity, teaching and learning, social-emotional development, environmental stewardship, and school gardening, but they are also parkland and green space for neighbors in every corner of Boston. 

Learn more > https://www.friendsofthebostonschoolyards.org/

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CicLAvia

CicLAvia catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation and good health through car-free street events. CicLAvia engages with people to transform their relationships with communities and with each other.

Learn more > https://www.ciclavia.org/

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San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

For over 45 years, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has been transforming San Francisco streets and neighborhoods into more livable and safe places by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. They are one of the largest and most effective bicycle advocacy groups in the country. Through their day-to-day advocacy, education and working partnerships with City and community agencies, the SF Bicycle Coalition creates safer streets and more livable communities for all San Franciscans.

Learn more > https://sfbike.org/

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The Kaleidoscapes

The Kaleidoscapes is an eco-theatre company dedicated to performing accessible storytelling and facilitating experiential learning in non-traditional spaces. 

Learn more > https://www.thekaleidoscapes.org/

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San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition advocates for and protects the rights of all people who ride bicycles. They promote bicycling as a mainstream, safe, and enjoyable form of transportation and recreation. Since 1987, SDCBC has acted as voice for bicyclists in the region and have advocated for safer streets and hundreds of miles of bike paths, lanes and trails all across the San Diego region. They conduct educational programs, promote awareness of bicyclists and bicycling issues, review infrastructure improvements, and act as a voice for bicyclists to elected officials and decision makers all over San Diego County.

Learn more > https://sdbikecoalition.org/

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Washington Area Bicyclists Association

Washington Area Bicyclist Association empowers people to ride bikes, build connections, and transform places. WABA envisions a just and sustainable transportation system where walking, biking, and transit are the best ways to get around.

Learn more > https://waba.org/

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Bike San Diego

BikeSD is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission it is to establish San Diego as a world-class bicycling city and create a more livable urban community by promoting everyday riding and advocating for bicycling infrastructure.

Learn more > https://bikesd.org/

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National Interscholastic Cycling Association

The National Interscholastic Cycling Association builds strong minds, bodies, character, and communities through cycling. Every youth is empowered to be part of a thriving and engaged cycling community.

Learn more > https://www.nationalmtb.org/

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East Side Riders Bike Club

East Side Riders Bike Club’s mission is to prevent kids from being in gangs and doing drugs, helping those in need and educating all who seek to enrich the community.

Learn more > https://www.esrbc.org/

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The Dinner Party

The mission of The Dinner Party is to transform some of the hardest conversations and most isolating experiences into sources of community support, candid conversation, and forward movement using the age old practices of gathering and breaking bread.

Learn more > https://www.thedinnerparty.org/

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Rhode Island Food Policy Council

The Rhode Island Food Policy Council was established on Food Day 2011 with a mission to promote a more equitable, economically vibrant, and environmentally sustainable food system in Rhode Island. RIFPC works to coordinate a statewide collaboration of diverse, committed and engaged stakeholders from all sectors of the food system. They create partnerships, develop policies, and advocate for improvements to the local food system to increase and expand its capacity, viability, and sustainability.

Learn more > https://rifoodcouncil.org/

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Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council

The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC) sparks economic development through their work restoring the Woonasquatucket River and communities around it, and by enhancing, extending and bringing people to the Woonasquatucket River Greenway. The WRWC is a successful model of community revitalization that helps people discover this local American Heritage River and its natural resources, channeling life and economic development into neighborhoods.

Learn more > https://wrwc.org/wp/

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Bikes Not Bombs

Bikes Not Bombs uses the bicycle as a vehicle for social change to achieve economic mobility for Black and other marginalized people in Boston and the Global South.

Learn more > https://bikesnotbombs.org/

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Greenstand

Greenstand is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization developing open-source technology to address climate change and alleviate poverty through digitizing environmental goods and services. Greenstand is made up of about 350 contributors across the globe. Their Treetracker app verifies and tracks individual trees, thus creating transparency in the reforestation sphere. Organizations and donors can locate individual trees and trade their ecological impact. By facilitating ownership of trees and their ecological services, Greenstand allows for tree-growing organizations to stay accountable. 

Learn more > https://greenstand.org/home

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Gateway to the Great Outdoors

 

GGO partners with low-income public schools (currently in Chicago, IL and St. Louis, MO) to provide extensive environmental, outdoor, and STEAM education. GGO’s curriculum combines hands-on, inquiry-based classroom STEAM instruction, and nature-based outings & overnight trips, with year-round mentorship provided by university students. GGO partners directly with the classroom science teachers to assure that the  curriculum augments traditional classroom learning. 

Learn more > https://www.gatewayoutdoors.org/

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The GrowHaus

The mission of The GrowHaus is to cultivate community-driven food justice through education and food access. Growhaus offers food distribution programming and educational opportunities related to growing and cooking food, as well as overall wellness. 

Learn more > https://www.thegrowhaus.org/

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Outdoor Outreach

The mission of Outdoor Outreach is to connect youth to the transformative power of the outdoors to realize the positive attitude and behavioral changes that help them become happy, healthy, and successful adults.

Learn more > http://www.outdooroutreach.org/

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Stop Line 3

Stop Line 3’s mission is organizing, educating, and advocating to stop Line 3 and build the future we want. Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. It was proposed in 2014 by Enbridge, a Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in the US. Enbridge seeks to build a new pipeline corridor through untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe peoples, through the Mississippi River headwaters to the shore of Lake Superior.

Learn more > https://www.stopline3.org/

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Earth Matter

Earth Matter seeks to reduce the organic waste misdirected into the garbage stream by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting.

Learn more > https://earthmatter.org/

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Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates

Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to making the Sacramento region a safer, healthier, and friendlier place to ride a bike, whether for commuting, recreation, or exercise, for all people, regardless of race, income, or ability. SABA stands committed to fostering safe and accessible streets for biking and other modes of active transportation in Sacramento area neighborhoods that, as a result of historically unsustainable and inequitable land-use decisions, are disproportionately burdened by poor air quality and the highest rates of traffic injuries and fatalities. SABA will work to promote diverse and inclusive participation in local transportation decision making by raising the voices of residents of historically marginalized communities and communities of color. 

Learn more > https://sacbike.org/

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GirlTrek

GirlTrek’s mission is to pioneer a health movement for African-American women and girls grounded in civil rights history and principles through walking campaigns, community leadership, and health advocacy.

 

Learn more > https://www.girltrek.org/ 

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NatureBridge

The mission of NatureBridge is to connect young people to the wonder and science of the natural world, igniting self-discovery and inspiring stewardship of our planet.

Learn more > https://naturebridge.org/

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Our Climate Education Fund

Our Climate mobilizes and empowers young people to educate the public and elected officials about science-based, equitable climate policy solutions that build a livable world.

Learn more > https://ourclimate.us/

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Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Asian Pacific Environmental Network is an environmental justice organization with deep roots in California’s Asian immigrant and refugee communities. Since 1993, they’ve built a membership base of Laotian refugees in Richmond and Chinese immigrants in Oakland. Together, they have fought and won campaigns to make communities healthier, just places where people can thrive.

Learn more > http://apen4ej.org/

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Street Business School

Street Business School provides women living in poverty with entrepreneurial training and mentoring to help lift their families out of poverty.

 

Learn more > https://www.streetbusinessschool.org/ 

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Prime Ability 

The mission of Prime Ability is to build communities and inspire the lives of young people through fitness. 

 

Learn more > https://www.stayprimeability.com/ 

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Watson Institute

The Watson Institute is an educational organization in Western Pennsylvania made up of special education schools, programs, and resources for children with special needs and their families – including outpatient behavioral health services for children and adolescents up to the age of 21. Whether it’s an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, neurological impairment or another serious emotional challenge, they are on a mission to help children and youth reach their fullest potential in all aspects of their lives. Their special education school resources and programs also serve as a learning environment for teachers, therapists and other professionals or pre-professionals who serve those children.

Learn more > https://www.thewatsoninstitute.org/

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Literacy for Environmental Justice

LEJ promotes ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco by creating urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future.

 

Learn more > https://www.lejyouth.org/ 

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Mycelium Youth Network

Mycelium Youth Network (MYN) prepares youth in the East Bay Area — who are most vulnerable to and already feeling the effects of environmental racism — for climate change. They use a merger of indigenous environmental traditions that emphasize youth environmental stewardship and relationship building alongside a rigorous STEAM curriculum that focuses on practical hands-on skills for climate resilience and mitigation that youth create and implement in their homes and local communities. They empower youth to grow as visionary leaders and budding environmentalists, connect with ancestral teachings, and trust in the wisdom of the natural world.

Learn more > https://www.myceliumyouthnetwork.org/

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Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator (LACI): Women in CleanTech (WICT)

                     

 

Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator (LACI)  is unlocking innovation through startups, transforming markets with partnerships and enhancing community inside their campus and out in their neighborhoods. Women in Cleantech is an LACI initiative to empower women and influence lasting institutional change by creating meaningful connections and providing an open platform for discussing gender barriers and advantages. To do this, Women in Cleantech holds monthly meetups and quarterly workshops, with titles such as Imposter Syndrome—What’s Behind Your Mask, How Men can Advocate for Women and Redefining Failure. Speakers at the workshops include CEOs, founders and other leaders focused on bringing more women into the entrepreneur ecosystem.

Learn more > https://laincubator.org/women-in-cleantech/

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Farming Hope

Farming Hope is a garden-to-table job training nonprofit. They offer paid, empowering transitional employment in their garden and kitchen with formerly incarcerated or unhoused neighbors.

Learn more > https://farminghope.org/

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Peace Peloton

Peace Peloton began with a bike ride demonstration in support of social and economic equity for people of color – in particular, Black people. From there, they grew into a means to support and invest in Black livelihoods, communities, and Black-owned businesses and enterprises through organized bicycle rides, community development events, and sustainable economic enrichment programs. Their anchor program, Fresh Air, invites cyclists to Black-owned businesses where commerce happens and encourage return patronage before taking the peloton on a bike ride, usually through neighborhoods of historical Black significance, then ending at another Black-owned establishment.

 

Learn more > https://www.peacepeloton.com/

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Adventure Scientists

Adventure Scientists is a nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips partners with data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental and human health challenges. By leveraging the skills of the outdoor adventure community they are able to gather difficult-to-obtain data at any scale, in any environment.

 

Learn more > https://www.adventurescientists.org/ 

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Spokeland

Spokeland is a bicycle mechanics education nonprofit that aims to be a radical and inclusive space for people to learn how bikes work and how to fix them. 

 

Learn more > https://www.facebook.com/spokeland/