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Community Based Participatory Research
Several studies support the idea that low-income communities of color bear the burden of unequal access to a healthy environment, and this is why CBE prioritizes working with them to fight such injustices. These communities are the most vulnerable because they often lack the resources and protection needed to fight pollution and CBE’s goal is to empower them by providing them with “organizing skills, leadership training and legal, scientific and technical assistance". CBE uses Community-based participatory research, creating unity between the organization and the community, by investigating who is releasing the most toxic emissions. This also creates local partnerships and with professionals working with the community produce reliable research. CBE also organizes things such as community meetings, School groups, and political education, making the community aware of the resources they have. CBE also encourages community members to share their stories in the media and the general public so that their stories can have an impact on people from other communities. Rather than just sharing statistical findings, such anecdotal stories connect people on a personal level creating a bigger sense of community.

Case Studies

 * 1) Community-Based Participatory Research as a Tool for Policy Change: A Case Study of the Southern California Environmental Justice Collaborative
 * CBE collaborated with Liberty Hill Foundation and an academic research team from University of California, Santa Cruz, Brown University, and Occidental College in order to have Rule 1402 reviewed. Rule 1402, included in the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 1994, is the state’s goal was to reduce the public health risk from cancerous and noncancerous emissions produced by large industries. The maximum individual cancer risk was initially set at 100 cancer risks per million, but with CBE’s collaboration, it was reduced 6 years later to 25 cancer risks per million, representing a reduction in acceptable risk levels to 75%. This collaboration led to efforts to reduce the allowable risk level faced by various communities and it led to convincing the California Environmental Protection Agency to broaden their view on issues like this and put more emphasis on risk exposure whenever they are making new policies.


 * 1) Linking Exposure Assessment Science With Policy Objectives for Environmental Justice and Breast Cancer Advocacy: The Northern California Household Exposure Study
 * CBE’s research contributed to an investigation to whether a high amount of pollutants in communities increase a woman's chance of getting cancer. In the United States, African American women have the highest rate of cancer, when compared to other races, and they also have the highest mortality rate. This is also seen when they have the same accessibility to mammograms and other treatments as white women. In a study done by Brody et al. indoor and outdoor air pollution was compared in Richmond communities that lived near oil refineries and shipping facilities, and in communities in Bolinas, a rural town just north of San Francisco. Their findings found that Richmond had a higher concentration of pollutants in their indoor air and the study also brought awareness to how indoor air can indicate how the outdoor air quality is. CBE’s role in this was to retrieve evidence from the communities because they were the ones conducting the interviews. CBE set up various sampling equipment in the interviewers’ home, which made the research more personal making the interviewer feel comfortable with sharing their stories. This research method also allowed the community to be aware of where the chemicals around them come from which is important because many aren't aware of how the community they're in can affect their health. By becoming aware, they are able to get involved in environmental justice and can start voicing their opinion. CBE connected the science aspect of the research as well with the personal aspect which reassures people that they are not only a ‘test subject’, but those they also have a voice in this.

Northern California
CBE uses their Community Based Participatory Research method cities throughout California, focusing on northern and southern California. Richmond, California and East Oakland are two northern Californian cities and CBE works to make sure both have the resourced needed to eliminate polluters. Richmond is known for the Chevron Richmond Refinery that is located there, emitting various carcinogens to the communities that surround it. Oakland is home to the Port of Oakland, also emitting particulate matter and various fumes from the diesel trucks that transport material to and from the location.

Oakland

 * Neptune Society, a crematorium, planned to operate in East Oakland, exposing homes, churches, and schools to toxic emissions.  The crematorium was trying to work without a permit that would force them to regulate the amount of the pollutants emitted. In order to prevent such facilities from operating without a permit, CBE created an Emergency Ordinance plan that would prevent any crematorium from opening without first receiving a Major Conditional Use Permit (CUP) from the city and ensure that they were being regulated under California Environmental Quality Act.  Not only did they stop Neptune Society from opening, they also paved the way for future crematoriums from operating without harsh enforcement.
 * CBE also has partnerships with community organizations like the Allen Temple Baptist Church to make sure that Oakland residents are aware of new projects that are being planned but also that they have access to participation.
 * Diesel trucks play a main role in transporting material from the port of Oakland, exposing the communities adjacent to the route ways to pollutants. CBE decided to investigate this and conducted a study to show the effects it has on the community. Based on the report, East Oakland is the most affected by the fumes released by the trucks. CBE also fought for alternatives routes for trucks to take so that they can transport material avoiding going near vulnerable communities and minimizing their exposure.
 * Oakland is known as being a food desert and CBE is working on increasing communities’ access to healthier food options. They have created an alliance with Sowing Seeds program with several east Oakland groups that work on developing healthy gardens throughout Oakland.
 * There are synergistic effects that can be more toxic that one effect alone, and CBE released a report supporting this. With pollution and lack to healthy food access, one of CBE’s initiatives is to create Green Zones across the state, where CBE works to:


 * 1) Stepped up regulation and enforcement to hold polluting industries accountable;
 * 2) A community voice in making land-use decisions;
 * 3) Land use policies that prevent new pollution projects from locating in these communities;
 * 4) Focused private and public investment in local economic development;
 * 5) Support for businesses in the Green Zone that want to “green up” operations;
 * 6) Greening these communities by creating more parks, community gardens and urban farms, and developing green businesses and jobs.

Chevron
CBE was one of two organizations that conducted the research in the Richmond health survey and it showed that the chemical exposures in Richmond were high. They contrasted this with Bolinas, as seen in the case study, but Richmond’s air pollution was far worse, and this can be due to the Chevron Refinery. Chevron is the largest employer in town but as CBE research has shown, compared with the statewide average for all business activity oil refining creates ten times fewer jobs.


 * In 2009, CBE, along with other local organizations, filed a petition to have the Chevron Refinery’s plan to expand looked at once more. Expanding its facility would have allowed them to process dirty crude oil, increasing greenhouse gases and toxic emissions to local communities. They were able to stop the refinery’s expansion arguing that the Environmental Impact Statement violated the California Environmental Quality Act because it didn’t take into consideration how this would affect the local community.
 * Richmond came up with the General Plan 2030, and its goal is to become more sustainable and also develop healthy neighborhoods by 2030. As part of this plan, Richmond’s Planning Commission supported CBE’s campaign, Less Pollution, More Jobs in 2012. This campaign enforces regulation in facilities that emit toxic chemicals, and it would require them to use energy efficient equipment.

Southern California
CBE also works with various southern California communities, especially the most polluted in the country. The Los Angeles area, Riverside communities, San Bernardino, and Orange County were ranked the smoggiest area in the nation in 2012 when it comes to air pollution. CBE works with cities in southern California like Wilmington, Huntington Park, and the various cities that surround the Interstate 710, to minimize pollution.

Huntington Park

 * Huntington Park is near the Los Angeles area and air pollution is not the only environmental problem because it has a lot of “brownfields”, which are abandoned or unused land used for activities that may have left the land contaminated. As of now the EPA is funding this project and therefore the city of Huntington Park, CBE and local residents have begun the transformation from brownfield areas into sustainable areas.

Wilmington Area

 * CBE and other community groups are working with the Wilmington/Carson area that is exposed to high amounts of local pollution. This exposure puts such communities at risk for various diseases, mainly those affecting the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. These communities have proposed a policy, which is Clean up, Green Up, and hopes to reduce and prevent pollution throughout communities that are mainly affected by this. This policy also hopes to create green zones in these communities where the shift to green, sustainable communities will be encouraged.
 * The Clean Up Green Up policy was approved in Los Angeles City Council in 2011, and since then CBE has been working alongside the community in order to make this policy cover the regulation of polluting facilities.

I-710

 * The Interstate 710 freeway is 23 miles long and it runs from the long beach port to the city of Alhambra. .There has been planning to expand the I710 in order to make it easier to transport to and from the port but many oppose it because it will increase pollution leading to more exposure to the communities around it. CBE worked with other organizations to create the Community Alternative 7 plan, which calls for improvements to me made along the I-710 to minimize pollution.

Collaborations and Coalitions
CBE, a California environmental justice organization, has built a number of strategic alliances over its 34 years of work to work with partners that share a common vision of building power in marginalized communities.

The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) is a collaboration of organizations that organize in communities that are mostly impacted by pollution and work towards getting better protection for them and the environment.

Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is made up of over 35 community based organizations, including CBE, where they work towards the usage of sustainable energy in local communities.

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ) is made up of various community groups. CBE collaborates with GGJ to work with communities of color as they are adversely affected by environmental pollution and toxic exposure.

CBE and the Coalition for Environmental Health and Justice (CEHAJ) have worked together since the expansion of the I-710 to create the Community Alternative 7, to improve the environmental conditions along the I-710 corridor.

CBE focuses on employees of toxic facilities by working with Don’t Waste LA, where they have collaborated to create a proposal where they, along with the communities around it, would be protected from further exposure. This proposal would also require them to reduce toxic waste.

Green LA Coalition, Communities for a Better Environment, and other environmental justice groups, are focusing on LA in order to minimize the communities’ exposure to pollutants.

CBE also works alongside Asian Pacific Environmental Network to have the Chevron permits reviewed.

Local Clean Energy Alliance is made up of 70 organizations that call for renewable energy, pollutant reduction, and green jobs in communities around California.

Local Clean Energy Alliance is also a member of the Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative (BAEHC) where they work towards the reduction of pollution in vulnerable communities of color and low income.

Ditching Dirty Diesel works to bring awareness to the correlation between health problems and diesel pollution.[50].

CBE has a partnership with Richmond Equitable Development Initiative’s work by brainstorming activities that will increase the communities’ advocacy for a specific problem.[51].

CBE has been a member of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC), and because of this coalition Oakland’s Climate Action Plan included climate justice and health policies.