Download the training "Introduction to Environmental Justice."

This curriculum book can be useful for service organizations who want to try community organizing, to organizing groups who want to incorporate a healthy homes program.

Going deeper in our exploration of improving the environment “where we live,” APEN has been waging housing campaigns in the last several years. Our members were being displaced by the housing crisis that hit Richmond and Oakland, as part of a larger trend of gentrification. The problems ranged from evictions without just cause, lack of affordable housing available related to city funds that were subsidizing market-rate developments, and substandard unhealthy homes due to landlord neglect.

This is the context in which we wrote the curriculum for this book. We have documented key education tools used by APEN to reduce the exposure of in-home health hazards and improve the overall health of low-income Asian immigrant and refugee populations in Richmond and Oakland, CA. We have edited and formatted this information in a manner which is accessible and useful to other API and community-based organizations working with low-income immigrant and refugee populations.

The trainings were primarily held with leaders from our membership to reach a baseline political education on the issues and develop their skills as leaders so that they can, in turn, reach existing and new members in the community to improve environmental conditions. Once trained, they were able to repeat the trainings to achieve scale and reach many more in the community.

For the full curriculum, please email Mari Rose.