By Marisol Cantú

Anti-Chevron Day Centering Workers + Community From Left to Right: D4 City Council candidate Jamin Pursell, Alfredo Angulo, attorney Steven Donziger, Vice Mayor Eduardo Martinez, Andres Soto, D6 Councilmember Claudia Jimenéz, Marisol Cantú, Bottom Row: Stephanie Garcia + Miguel Diaz

The Listening Project is excited to announce that we are transitioning into the RPA’s New Environmental Action Team (NEAT). The New Environmental Action Team will work to support policy that is healthy for our land, water, air, and inhabitants, guided by the perspective of our communities most harmed by environmental racism, as a collaborative, intergenerational, racial justice-centered team.

As goals, we will:

• - Center community members most harmed by fossil fuels 
• - Protect our shoreline, ecosystems, community, and environment
• - Cross-pollinate with various RPA action teams and environmental justice organizations 
• - Push policy recommendations that reflect our collective wants and needs
• - Put power back into the hands of the people to fight environmental racism
• - Build collaboratively with coalition building 
• - Create pathways for all to build Richmond’s progressive movement

Join the New Environmental Action Team by signing up here: https://bit.ly/RPANEAT

As we close out our project, we want to share some new work we have published. In partnership with UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, we co-wrote the mini-report series entitled: Community Belonging and Climate Futures. 

Excerpt from the article:

What does this mean for the many cities around the US and the world that live with fossil fuel industries? In Richmond, CA, the Chevron refinery has been around as long as the city itself and has deeply embedded itself and impacted the health, economy, political institutions, and other parts of the local community. In the words of Richmond youth organizer Lizbeth (listen to audio), “Chevron impacts me personally. I know that there's a lot of asthma that runs in my family and I know cancer also runs in my family. All of these respiratory illnesses. I'm scared. What if one day I develop them just because of the air that I'm breathing? I also get scared because the climate crisis is in one way or another going to keep impacting everyone and Chevron is contributing to this crisis.”

Over the coming months, we will share videos, data, podcast episodes, and other expressions of the ideas, visions, and strategies coming out of this work. We offer this work to you and invite your contributions and reflections. Receive a monthly email with the resources we are publishing by signing up here: Community Belonging and Climate Futures Newsletter.

Thank you to all the Listening Project participants, community members, and supporters, and most of all, thank you to the Richmond Progressive Alliance for making this work possible. Join us in our community-driven people-powered movement by joining the New Environmental Action Team to continue educating, engaging, and activating our community towards a just future.