CBO: Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (ACTS)
Pleasantville community; Houston, TX

Leader: Bridgette Murray

ACTS is a non-profit organization focused on community based social and environmental justice. 

Latest Win: Reaching an agreement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to install a regulatory air monitor in the Pleasantville community.

CBO: Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe and Sustainable (C.H.E.S.S.) 

Africatown community; Mobile, AL 

Leader: Maj. Joe Womack 

C.H.E.S.S. implements strategies and best practices to improve the quality of life in their region’s most underserved areas. 

Latest Win: This community won the approval of the Mobile zoning board to establish a safe zone for the Africatown community that protects residents from the encroachment of industrial development

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) Through a partnership with DSCEJ, student interns were connected to local CBOs including:

Sankofa CDC
Lower Ninth Ward; New Orleans, LA

Leader: Rashida Ferdinand 

The Sankofa Community Development Corporation is a partner in our Gulf Water Justice Project. The project supports the Sankofa development of the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature Trail, a long-term recovery project to improve protection from hurricanes and flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward while creating a community asset that provides space for health, wellness and climate resilience as a green infrastructure. 

Latest Win: Sankofa has worked to transform the region from an area of blight and illegal dumping to a vast ecological wonder with Louisiana native wildlife, flora and fauna returning in droves. Currently they’re partnering with the City of New Orleans to develop the remaining 32 acres, providing a space for outdoor recreation and education programs with fishing, canoeing, biking, walking, and other physical activities. 

Economics, Education, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO) 

North Gulfport communities; Gulfport, MS

Leader: Katherine Egland 

EEECHO focuses on racial equity in flood protection and wetland preservation. 

Latest Win: EEECHO is working to stop a proposed project that would risk contaminating waterways that flow through Black neighborhoods with arsenic and lead. EEECHO’s legal action continues to protect residents from harmful industrial developments.

Unity in the Family Ministry 

Wedgewood, Olive Heights and Rolling Hills communities; Pensacola, FL 

Leader: Dr. Calvin Avant

Unity in the Family joined the DSCEJ family in order to become more empowered to address the toxicity harming the well-being of the people it serves. 

Latest Win: The organization won the approval of the Escambia County Board of Commissioners to develop new permit requirements for borrow pits and construction and debris landfills to address flooding and other adverse impacts on communities after applying the principles, training and practices.