Livable Communities: Environmental Justice

     The Crag Law Center believes that there are identifiable systemic causes of injustice and imbalance of power – corporate greed, corrupt government, mass media, underfunded education systems, and the list goes on. These universal problems affect different groups in different ways.  To overcome these problems, the progressive movement must build relationships across issues in order to mobilize a strong collective movement. This movement is based on broader principles that apply to all of us and keep us working together. The Crag Law Center sees the need to build relationships across racial and economic lines as direly important and recognizes that we as a civilization must begin to see how we all suffer from the same root causes of inequity. Only then will we be able to collectively change a system that has broken down for the majority of Americans.

     The Environmental Justice Initiative is the Crag Law Center’s response to the largely homogeneous environmental movement in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Traditionally the people and groups advancing environmental goals have been white and middle to upper-middle class. Traditional environmental groups in this state have been successful in organizing certain segments of the population, but they have ignored others to their own detriment. The Crag Law Center believes that the environmental movement can strengthen itself by connecting with a larger progressive movement – and that movement must include historically disadvantaged communities.

     The Crag Law Center seeks to build relationships across issues, to seek out leaders in the community, and to help empower these communities to advocate for themselves. The Crag Law Center recognizes and encourages the community members to be at the forefront of the campaign, with the Crag Law Center providing support and assistance as needed. The Crag Law Center has traditionally aided communities by:

(a) Providing legal advice and representation;

(b) Helping clients prepare and disseminate press releases and work with the media;

(c) Helping clients craft and obtain grants for specific projects; and

(d) Helping clients design and implement coordinated campaign plans; and more.

The Crag Law Center’s Environmental Justice Initiative

• Building Relationships: The Crag Law Center is actively making connections with the EJ community and with individuals and organizations working on EJ issues. The Crag Law Center is using this process to seek leadership from the target groups, to find ways to provide professional legal services in the way that best serves the community’s agenda for social change.
• Planning & Advocacy – Cooperative Strategic Planning:  The Crag Law Center has and continues to convene with members of the Northwest EJ movement to build relationships between the groups working on these issues and identify the current work taking place.  Through these meetings, the Crag Law Center has identified the gaps and issues that need attention and the strategic role that the Crag Law Center can play to the movement forward.
• Action through Individual engagements: As a result of relationship building and strategic planning, the Crag Law Center has engaged with clients on specific issues impacting their communities. The Crag Law Center has worked in partnership with these groups to look at the larger landscape to identify the best opportunities to secure lasting social change.

Current Projects

     The Crag Law Center is currently working with:

• Multnomah County PACE-EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence), a county sponsored community health advocacy organization. Through this project, the Crag Law Center is work with a community impacted by environmental racism. 
• The Inupiat Community of the Artic Slope to ensure that their traditional hunting and fishing grounds are not overrun by offshore oil and gas development.
• The Rosemere Neighborhood Association to protect them from retaliation for their efforts to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act in their low-income Vancouver neighborhood.