How Do We Reach the Poor?

Dear Laurie and Colleagues--

You bring up a really good and difficult series of questions that need to be addressed across the board in the Sustainability Movement if we are to be even marginally successful. The "Green Movement" is notorious for being white and upper middle class. We have found that the key is constant contact with organizations and individuals in the various communities that make up our City and County environment. This is an intensive, long, drawn out process but it's about the only thing that works. Community, trust and team building for the goals of sustainability must cut across race, cultural and socio-economic barriers. We sponsor events that all can participate in--block parties, youth orientated events, programs that show the working poor and people of color that there are simple things they can do to conserve energy, save money and stretch precious resources. One very successful program has been energy efficiency training programs for small groups of home owners in the black community. This program is supported by grant money from a local foundation. When people see that there are inexpensive things they can do to save energy and money they are inspired to investigate other aspects of sustainability and spread the word to their peers. Another effort is called the Race Liberation Alliance. This is a coalition of various organizations to promote "social sustainability"--the equal and simultaneous promotion of social and economic justice and sustainability as our mutual goals must be sought together if we are to be successful. This group sponsored a very successful, large block part and other events. This emphasis on equality and sustainability has become the theme of our local sustainability movement for the coming year. One series of events is a monthly community gathering with this theme. Some proposed topics are "Youth Envisioning a Positive, Empowered Future", "Racism and Sustainability", "Green and Just Schools for Our Children", "Sustainability and Spirituality" and "Green Collar Jobs for Our Region". Our "umbrella" sustainability organization, Sustainable Tompkins, of which I am a member, plans, coordinates and presents these monthly events. This coming spring we sponsoring, with a broad coalition of organizations, a day-long, regional Green Jobs Fair with speakers, workshops and exhibitors. The target audience is youth and especially youth from "disadvantaged/disenfranchised" communities. It is planned to be held at the local high school so as to provide an environment already familiar to the local young people. So, the answer to your questions is going to come from a lot of hard work from a lot of different folks. The collapse of corporate capitalism would help, but this won't happen any time soon.

Good luck with your programs.
Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
[email protected]
http://www.myspace.com/99319958

You might take a look at Green For All and Sustainable South Bronx: http://www.greenforall.org/ http://www.ssbx.org/ Both are using sustainability as a means to lift people out of poverty; they do a lot of work with the Bay Areas poor inner city communities, and might be able to offer insight.

Best,
Jess

Jessica Sand
Principal
http://www.roughstockstudios.com
Roughstock Studios
PO Box 460010 San Francisco, CA 94146

Last night I attended a lecture by Professor Muhammad Yunus, nobel peace prize recipient and author of "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. His path-breaking work has brought microcredit (tiny loans for small businesses) to millions of impoverished Bangladeshi women through the creation of the Grameen Bank. Microcredit now reaches four-fifths of all poor people in the country, and 64% of them have moved out of poverty in the last 5 years. This banking system is based on trust, and astonishly, the repayment rate is a whopping 98-99%! His methods have now been applied in 58 countries - including the US. Everyone on this list should read his book to learn about this important movement. At the 3rd Global Microcredit Summit in 2006, it was estimated that 100 million families worldwide receive microcredit and other financial services, a number they hope to increase to 175 million by 2015. Assuming there are roughly 5 people in each family, this means half a billion people may be elevated out of poverty during the next decade - a number consistent with the UN's Millennium Development Goals. His vision is no less than to eradicate poverty in the 21st century. Furthermore, in his book he describes an impressive number of business ventures that grew out of Grameen, addressing everything from solar energy to healthcare to cellular phones for poor communities. There are 30 Grameen Energy centers promoting solar homes and biofuel systems, and a partnership between Intel and Grameen to set up a WiMax network in Bangladesh and bring PCs into the high schools. Here are links to an interview with him, as well as how our community (Santa Barbara) is getting behind this movement in a real way.

http://independent.com/news/2008/jan/10/man-who-creating-world-without-poverty/

http://independent.com/news/2008/jan/10/santa-barbarans-get-behind-microloans/

Please learn more and think about what you can do in your community!

Shelly Cobb
[email protected]
(805)201-2461

I am also working with a "poor community" and would love some ideas.

Sandy Totter
Northern Berkshire Solid Waste Management District

Along the lines of reaching more of the community in the sustainability movement; does anyone have examples of successful educational programs or materials that reach the Spanish speaking communities in regards to sustainability, carbon reduction, green building, recycling, etc?

Thanks,
Adam

Adam Segel-Moss,
LEED AP Green Building Outreach Coordinator,
Fresh AIRE - Arlingtin Inititative to Reduce Emissions
Arlington County
Department of Environmental Services
Utilities and Environmental Policy Division
2100 Clarendon - Suite 710, Arlington, VA 22201
OFFICE 703.228.3066
FAX 703.228.7134
EMAIL [email protected]

One thing to remember about "the poor"...if you are having trouble getting food on the table today, you will have a hard time finding energy to worry about environmental consequences next year or several years away. Also, many environmental initiatives require some money to put in, and if you are barely surviving paycheque to paycheque, you may not be able to afford the up-front money (even if it is as little as $10 to purchase plastic to cover your windows, and especially if you are not absolutely sure you will save more than $10 in a short enough time that you can still meet your financial obligations.) Therefore, when working with "the poor"...it is key to find ways to help them finance the change, and (as with anyone, rich or poor) make it easy and "do-able".

Karen Gventer, someone who has been "poor" and still is "low-income"

Yes, Karen, there is also this understanding that 'using resources' is equivalent to being rich. One could make a sustainable argument that the poor are more sustainable in their uses, because they use less (how much energy am I really wasting, if I'm not able to afford heat?).

Peter, who vows never to be 'poor' again. ;-) ....

Hello Adam.

The Toxics Use Reduction Institute (http://www.turi.org/home) has worked with a number of communities including Hispanic. Here is a link to one of their case studies: http://www.turi.org/community/grants/further_information/past_projects/categories/households/tur_for_lowell_households.

TURI is a great organization - if you need further information contact them.

Regards,
Nancy Webber

Program Officer
Clean Nova Scotia
902.420.7931
[email protected]
www.clean.ns.ca

Hi Adam,

My colleagues and I did two trainings for 100 local Mexican leaders through the UNESCO Cultural Forum. We focused on evolutionary leadership, sustainability and systems thinking (it is the work we do but we did it all in Spanish). I am attaching a flyer for our upcoming workshop to give you an idea of some of work we do. I would check out my colleagues' websites (both grew up in Latin countries and do a lot of work in Mexico, Chile, Columbia, etc.) and contact them. They will have great resources for you. www.syntonyquest.org http://www.evolutionleader.com/ Let me know if you need any other information.

Cheers,
Miriam

Miriam Karell
Three Point Vision
[email protected]
415.318.9719
www.threepointvision.com
Research: http://www.partnerships4SSD.blogspot.com