Track I:  Community Capacity

This track will provide information to community organizations to help strengthen their internal and external infrastructure.  The panelists will share practical tips, examples, lessons learned, and success stories.  Participants will have the opportunity to engage with national experts and service providers who will share strategies, tools and resources.  Participants will also have an opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer learning in the following topic areas: Building Successful Coalitions, Strategic Planning and Fiscal Sustainability, and Intergenerational Relationships.

Track 2:  Community Approaches to Environmental Assessment and Strategy Development

This track will offer lessons learned from community experts on problem solving and strategy development for environmental justice and tribal communities.  The focus of discussion will be on topics such as: 

• Multi-media issues within communities
• Honing an organization’s message
• Identifying strategic partners/alliances and other important resources
• Identifying and evaluating strategies to move an organization’s mission forward

Track 3:  Workforce Development and Job Creation

This track will focus on exposure of workers and communities to environmental toxics from hazardous waste and other contaminated properties such as Brownfields, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities (TSDF), and Superfund sites as well as job creation and training programs to support skills associated with the cleanup and operation of these sites.  This track will also explore the various health effects and exposures to those living, working near, or at these sites as well as resources available to communities for understanding and assessing exposure, training for communities and workers to safely clean up these sites, and the environmental justice implications and benefits of these training programs.  Other emerging workforce development issues such as creation of training programs to address weatherization, green jobs, nanotechnology, and wastewater management will be discussed.  Some of the resources to be shared include: worker training curricula, how to start and maintain successful job training programs, funding for workforce development training, how to use chemical and other tools to assess hazardous and contaminated properties, community based exposure/risk assessment tools, community right to know, disaster/emergency response plans, and mechanisms for obtaining job opportunities.

Track 4:  Waking up a Sleeping Giant: Closing the Loopholes to Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental and Civil Rights Laws and Statues

This track will consider the use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as other provisions of environmental and civil rights laws, regulations and policies as practical tools for use by communities in addressing EJ issues. The track consists of a series of three discussions, all addressing the issue of accountability, beginning with a focus on Title VI and then moving on to other potential tools such as delegation agreements, enforcement tools, MOA’s and so on, as well as international human rights.  Included in this track will be discussion of the Title VI administrative complaint process and how it can be used by communities to address a wide range of EJ issues, recent developments in the area of Title VI, and how EPA can improve its enforcement of Title VI.

A main goal of all of the discussions is to identify existing and needed practical tools and approaches in order to provide communities and their advocates with the means for bringing about greater accountability in the implementation of environmental and public health programs in their communities.