East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) is an environmental health and justice organization working with impacted communities.
We engage members in the decision-making processes that directly impact their quality of life and also build programming that centers their needs and builds power.
EYCEJ organizes frontline community members all across Long Beach, Southeast LA, and East LA.
EYCEJ emerges from years of unheard community voices suffering the effects of land, air, and water pollution. Frontline neighbors bear disproportionate air pollution from decades of trucking and goods movement, further magnifying inequality. Various polluters like Exide, oil refineries, and indirect sources have long been operating unchecked are allowed to contaminate without regard. Gentrification and rising rents have already caused us to lose the EYCEJ community space. Threats of climate change will disproportionately affect our already overburdened and underresourced communities. When considering all these factors and preparedness, we see a need to create a space that can serve multiple purposes.
EYCEJ is pursuing a community-centered resilience space. We hope to grow capacity internally and also amongst the community at large to activate self-determination in the face of climate change through a space that will serve as a permanent hub for regenerative community organizing and power, building off the foundation of all EYCEJ has done to date. Just as important as the infrastructure is the organizing- hence we want to fund capacity to materialize efforts and select an adequate site that meets the needs of our community members and the growth of the organization. We have started doing intentional engagement with our community members that informs the vision for this space and is supporting our search for a site. While meeting with several of our community spaces to assess needs, we are also growing our capacity to take actionable steps in the financing of a physical space.
A community member shared that resilience looks like having a space to share resources, cultivate knowledge, and growth. Through this project, there will be an opportunity to grow 6 current programs that build resilience (such as our water work, cosecha collectiva, compost hub, Youth In Action, and tenant organizing) in addition to our campaigns. Our intergenerational membership has grown to about 200 people and we have already seen the impact of fostering a space where community members can gather and organize in response to ongoing attacks in the community. Our communities also deserve a place to thrive and build self-determination.
We would appreciate any support in the form of donations or connections to resources such as technical assistance for infrastructure, financing, and design.