By Dani Zacky

The Listening Project Team has been hard at work over the last month.  As always, our main objective has been to listen to our community and those most harmed by the climate crisis and impacts of Chevron in Richmond.

This year, The Listening Project released five podcast episodes: The Lay of The Land, At Our Expense, Chevron En La Comunidad (an episode in Spanish featuring Claudia Jimenez), Silent Killer, and Asthma Club. We are proud to announce that our podcast has reached the ears of hundreds of listeners and can be heard on the Richmond Progressive Alliance YouTube Channel.  

We are pleased to further our work with RPA’s continued support and funding. We have had so much additional encouragement from community members, environmental organizations, and UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute. With this assistance we will give presentations of our work to community and environmental groups. If you are a part of an organization, such as a church, neighborhood group, etc. that would be interested in hearing about the Listening Project, email us at [email protected] and we can attend one of your meetings to present our work. 

Currently, refinery workers represented by United Steel Workers (USW) Local 5 are in contract negotiations with Chevron. To better listen and understand the needs of the workers, we attended a solidarity action held on Feb. 10, 2022 in recognition that the safety of the Richmond community is intertwined with the safety of Chevron workers. To learn more, listen to BK White and Shiva Mishek’s KPFA interview. We are also supporting Councilmember Jimenez and Martinez’s Resolution to support a safe and fair contract for refinery workers at Chevron, Richmond, CA. This will be adopted by the City Council on February 15th, 2022. Make sure to stay tuned for an upcoming Podcast episode highlighting worker’s rights as we create a bridge between community and workers! 

We are delighted to announce, in collaboration with the RPA Communications Committee, the launch of the Richmond Listening Project Website. This website is fully dedicated to the impact Chevron has had and continues to have on the people, land, and air in Richmond. The Listening Project Team has a number of events planned this month. We created an Engage page where you can get updates on upcoming community events. 

Additionally, we were invited to participate in the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Equity Training, where we presented the framework of the Listening Project and the importance of deep listening. Later this month we are scheduled to participate in bringing “kayaktivism” to the community in partnership with Urban Tilth and Rich City Rides.  If you are interested, please sign up here. Our hope is to break down the barrier between Richmond communities and the San Francisco Bay.  

Our community survey is now open to learn about the climate crisis from your perspective. If you have not filled out our survey, you can find that here: English Spanish.  

The Listening Project team invites interested RPA members to get involved in becoming active participants in our work. We have bi-monthly strategy meetings to elicit feedback on our progress and facilitate discussions on other possibilities. Meetings take place every other Wednesday—the next one will be held Feb. 23 at 4 pm. If you are interested, email us at [email protected].