Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up: Environmental Justice in California

Compiled by Martha Matsuoka

Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up is the result of discussions between environmental justice organizations in California who participated with other labor and social justice organizations to explore and strategize possible statewide efforts and collaborations. The five environmental justice organizations – Asian Pacific Environmental Network (Oakland), Communities for a Better Environment (SF Bay Area/Los Angeles), Environmental Health Coalition (San Diego), People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (San Francisco), Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition/Health and Environmental Justice Project (San Jose) – have long histories working together in coalitions and have begun to proactively develop collective analyses and explore possibilities for action at the state level. This report represents our initial shared understanding of the landscape of environmental conditions and policy in California and our working framework to address these issues. The report was prepared by Martha Matsuoka, a Board member of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning. The printing of this report was made possible by The California Endowment. For additional copies of the report, contact any of the five author organizations; see the Appendix for organizational information.