We have a lot more to gain when we celebrate, share, and learn with one another. Celebrating Our Community Power is an interactive 90-minute community event hosted by the Lab. In this space, participants will have the opportunity to:
- Build relationships with other Lab members and partners of the Lab
- Celebrate and learn about climate justice wins as a result of multiracial, cross-class organizing and;
- Reflect individually and collectively about the practice of learning and iterating in our work.
It is our hope that by attending, we can co-create a space of learning across the Lab community and inspire one another with concrete lessons on multi-racial, cross-class organizing in the climate movement. This community space will feature stories and insights from:
- Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, who spent years building a big, broad, inclusive coalition of folks who cared about energy equity, climate justice, and bringing a clean energy economy to Illinois. In September 2021, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) became law in the state of Illinois. CEJA is the most comprehensive and equitable clean energy legislation in the nation.
- NY Renews, which is a broad coalition that encompasses over 300 organizations including: labor unions, environmental and faith organizations, community groups, environmental justice advocates, and more. In July 2019, this coalition passed the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
- North Bay Jobs with Justice, which is a growing grassroots coalition of 32 labor and community organizations in Sonoma County, California. In 2020, the coalition launched the 5 for Farmworkers in Fires campaign with the aim of building power rooted in working-class leadership on the frontlines of climate change-fueled wildfires. The campaign trained farmworkers to be organizers in their communities, who in turn, have built an engaged base of hundreds of workers.