Recorded on February 14th, 2023, Renée Mazurek, Resilient Communities Manager for River Network and team member of the Urban Waters Learning Network, interviews Maria De Jesus, the Housing Justice Organizer for Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC), and a member of the Urban Waters Learning Network Equitable Development and Anti-Displacement Collaborative.
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The Urban Waters Learning Network (UWLN) and its members are happy to see this work continue. “It’s wonderful to have the recognition of what the country should be doing.” – Gloria McNair, Groundwork Jacksonville. We see that the executive orders relate to the work that the UWLN has been doing for years, particularly with the UWLN Equitable Development and Anti-Displacement Collaborative.
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On December 8, 2022, the UWLN Equitable Development and Anti-Displacement Collaborative hosted a learning session about the intersections of environmental justice and equitable development. This blog post is a follow-up to the session addressing questions from the session.
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Communities can’t exist without good housing, solid housing development that is fair, equitable and just. That’s where I see us moving.
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Daniel Joseph Wiley—a lifelong resident of Newark, NJ—works on housing policy with the Ironbound Community Corporation as the Housing Justice Program and Policy Manager, advocating for both housing and environmental justice in the East Ward of the city where rapid riverfront development threatens affordable housing.
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Over the years, the Urban Waters Learning Network has curated and produced resources and tools to help organizations advance their practices in racial equity, environmental justice, and equitable development.
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Groundwork Trusts work at the intersection of the environment, equity, and civic engagement by making tangible improvements to the natural and built environments, mainly in underserved and environmental justice communities. River Rally provides Trusts with a powerful opportunity to convene and learn from each other, take advantage of professional development opportunities, and develop contacts with a wide variety of other organizations.
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As urban practitioners and leaders gain seats at more tables, they are helping to change the conversation within the larger environmental movement, elevating the role of city spaces and urban communities and teaching others how to better involve people in environmental problems.
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What challenges and opportunities arise where the water meets the land? For many years, cities like Lawrence turned their backs on their waterfronts, as industrial facilities choked off public access. These sites historically served as engines of both prosperity and pollution. When they finally closed, the wealth left the community, but the contamination remained.
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Rather than societal, the workshop focused on personal, interpersonal, and organizational racial equity. Without providing specific answers to questions raised throughout, the workshop was designed to have people think about how they can create actions in their own communities to foster change.
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The various Groundwork Trusts comprise a network of community-based nonprofits. They work at the intersection of the environment, equity, and civic engagement by making tangible improvements to the natural and built environment, mainly in underserved and environmental justice communities.
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Learn where your water comes from, how it’s treated, stored and distributed, and what policies and practices need to be in place to ensure that people have access to clean drinking water now and in the future.
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The impacts of Living Cully’s work reflect the recurring theme that strong partnerships and effective community engagement are key strategies to addressing the impacts of gentrification and anti-displacement – a theme I’ve uncovered again and again during my research.
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While we, as urban waters practitioners, do not need to come up with all the policy solutions ourselves, we should know how to make the right connections and have the right people at the table.
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This year, we are digging deeper into a topic that has been a concern of UWLN members for years: the gentrification and displacement of people that we see taking place in our urban communities, typically following efforts to revitalize and reinvest in the places we call home. This reinvestment can come in the form of the projects we pursue as part of our urban waters work.
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Here at the Learning Network we’ve been working hard to keep up with all the great work you’ve been doing. In 2019, we are going to expand on services we offer now, and introduce new collaborative work on themes that bubbled to the top of conversations throughout 2018.
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As a network of grassroots organizations, Groundwork USA is deeply involved in environmental justice, both at the community and national levels. As an environmental organization that centers people and the places where they live, work, and play, we are continuing to develop educational tools and resources to aid other organizations in advancing their environmental justice work.
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To put it in my own words: One Water describes a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to water. It has to do with understanding the many different ways in which water is a necessary and vital part of our physical and cultural lives—and finding ways to work together to make clean water available to everyone as a basic human right.
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Every year, Groundwork USA attends River Rally and, as a partner and organizer of the Urban Waters Learning Network (UWLN), offers scholarships to Groundwork Trusts and other organizations with urban waters programs so they can benefit from all that River Rally has to offer.
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Much of the world’s population lives in coastal regions that are vulnerable to rising sea level and storm events. After the impactful 2017 hurricane season, many urban waters practitioners are asking: How do communities effectively respond to devastating storms? And, … Continued
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Every year, people from around the country and from every sector—academics, inventors and innovators, advocates, public servants, and general enthusiasts—attend River Network’s conference, called River Rally. Aside from being fun—with abundant nosh, beverages, outdoor field trips, and live entertainment—it is a veritable professional development powerhouse, with lots of opportunities to network with peers, learn about new tools and approaches, and connect with mentors.
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Growing up in Savannah, GA, I always felt a strong tie to water. There was the Savannah River I would see when I would walk down River Street, the many bike rides to the marsh close to my house, and the countless trips to the beach for fun and with my school. These experiences created the foundation for me to pursue a career in water management. With each additional experience, I gained a greater appreciation for what was happening around me – much like a river’s flow increases with each tributary. Such powerful experiences can shape, not only who you are as a person, but who you become. They can shape how water resources are managed and conserved.
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As a community-based grassroots organization, We The People of Detroit (WPD) aims to inform, educate, and empower Detroit residents on imperative issues surrounding civil rights, land, water, education, and the democratic process. WPD has worked tenaciously with its network of volunteers to provide water to Detroit residents and advocate for a sustainable water future.
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Presented by the U.S. Water Alliance, the One Water Summit is a conference that seeks to bring people from all over the country, from a variety of professions, to exchange knowledge and develop strategies for achieving “a sustainable water future for all” — that is, a future where everyone has access to sufficient quantities of clean water and where water management practices are tied to healthy and thriving ecosystems, communities, and economies.
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Gentrification. Those of us who work in water cities and towns inevitably encounter it. As a result, we must discuss what it means, analyze our own role in the process, and come up with solutions.
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“Diversity and Inclusiveness” represents a growing movement, consisting of people from all walks of life, who recognize that we need representation from a larger variety of people, especially those who grew up experiencing the worst effects of environmental problems. This includes people of color, and people from low income backgrounds: those who come from rural and urban communities that have the least political representation, who deal every day with hazards related to contaminated homes, workplaces, playgrounds, and schools, and who are on the front lines of big issues like climate change.
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