An Environmental Justice (EJ) Tour is an educational tour that demonstrates the environmental burdens and assets that exist in Sunset Park community. Our Sunset Park EJ Tour will educate participants on the array of environmental harms and risks that are present in the community and explain how the health of the community is impacted by them. Our tour will show the work that UPROSE and our partners are currently doing in order to combat these issues and will also speak of our past accomplishments. Each tour will have a specific theme focus displaying the complexities of issues that Sunset Park community faces. In some cases, we will have guest tour guides who have specialized skills and can better explain further updates and details of each themed issue. Hands on learning and educational packets will also be provided giving participants more information and tools to enact actions and involvement in the work for true Environmental Justice. Come tour with us!
Below is the schedule for public environmental justice tours in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There is a small fee per seat to cover basic expenses. If you are interested in joining a tour and for more information, please email: info@uprose.org. Spaces are limited so you are encouraged to sign up early.
We can provide additional tours to school groups or other large groups for a fee to cover the expenses. If you are interested, email: info@uprose.org.
Hybrid Bus EJ Public Tours
The themes are to serve targeted participants so that we can create a dialogue to further enhance interests and strategies in our work, but all themed tour listed below are open to the public.
Thursday, March 18, 2010 4-6PM
EJ 101: Environmental Justice Tour for Educators is intended to provide teachers, educators, and youth workers a general introduction on the history and concepts of environmental justice in communities like Sunset Park. They will physically see the disproportionate burden of pollution and injustices in one of the most vulnerable waterfront communities. The power of the environmental justice movement lies in grassroots neighborhood organizations that have worked for change. Therefore, a focus of this work is empowering individuals in urban environments to build communities that stand for environmental justice. Teachers have a unique opportunity to empower youth living within impacted neighborhoods to take a stand for justice. Through this tour, suggested activities and readings will also be included to better engage their students in Environmental Justice work.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 4-6PM (Date May Be Subject to Change, contact us for more information)
Sunset Park Community Greenway-Blueway Tour will focus on UPROSE’s creation of the “Greenway-Blueway” design for Sunset Park. The Greenway-Blueway plan coordinates an extended green space (greenway) within the community that leads and corresponds to the waterfront park (blueway). Sunset Park’s Greenway-Blueway plan is incorporated in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a larger effort to introduce a 14-mile greenway that will stretch from Williamsburgh to Sunset Park in Brooklyn along the waterfront. UPROSE are working to ensure that community priorities are incorporated in the final development of this plan. We will also introduce another component of the waterfront revitalization through our green port advocacy. Our Green Port initiative is to ensure engagement of the local community around regional efforts to revitalize our waterfront community.
Thursday, May 20, 2010 4-6PM
Generation Green is a Youth-Lead Environmental Justice Tour highlighting the work that UPROSE youth have accomplished in fighting for Environmental Justice in Sunset Park. This tour will show how our young people and other young people across the country are not only fighting the dynamics of environmental injustice, but organizing and leading the way to a new world that we all will want to live in. UPROSE youth are working intergenerationally, innovating new approaches and honoring the work of ones before them. They are making connections across issue areas and communities, and advancing a vision of a healthy movement that is sustainable for the long haul. Strong grassroots organizational networks led prominently by young people are among those anchoring communities in times of crisis.
Thursday, June 17, 20101 4-6PM
Brownfield Tour will be highlighting the work that UPROSE is doing with the Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) program. Brownfield is land previously used for industrial purposes, or certain commercial uses, and that may be contaminated by low or high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution and has the potential to be reused once it is cleaned up. This tour show UPROSE’s brownfields priority sites and will mention the development of community vision and comprehensive plan for remediation and redevelopment strategies for the sites in the study area we have defined.
Why Hybrid Bus EJ Tour?
The information we will provide through our Sunset Park EJ Tour will serve to further our participants’ knowledge and understanding of local environmental harms and risks, engaging and challenging them to be involved in our work to address these issues. By physically touring the community and pointing out existing burdens (types of contaminants and their sources) as well as incorporating hands-on demonstrations and educational activities, this project will expand common knowledge and understanding of environmental burdens and will encourage participants to get involved in local environmental and remediation efforts. This involvement could be anything from becoming EJ Tour guides themselves to planting trees, giving testimony or attending community meetings. In addition to these educational components, our hybrid bus will benefit the community by providing cleaner-fuel transportation throughout the community and will bring green jobs. Furthermore, the bus—wrapped with our unique design and logo—will heighten our visibility within the community and ultimately garner more support for and interest in our programs. Join us!