By Nathanael Hernandez
The Ninth Annual Environmental Justice Conference took place on Wednesday, Sept. 13, at the Riverside Convention center. People of South Coast AQMD (Air Quality Management District) and organizations who work on environmental quality gathered together to discuss the issues on providing cleaner air through the agency of AQMD, environmental justice and providing job opportunities within communities. South Coast AQMD is a program which works to help reduce air pollution and help communities on emission reduction.
The conference started off with former Sen. Vanessa Delgado who is the chair of South Coast AQMD. Delgado’s and AQMD’s goal is to help clean the air and remove toxins within the communities of Southern California such as San Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles. Delgado states how her “family's health and quality of life has been affected” due to the air pollution, and as a mother she wants to ensure her children as well as everyone else's have an equitable clear air future.
The challenge to expanding the program is “The state has not increased funding for this program in the last 4 years,” according to Delgado. South Coast AQMD needs the support in order to help the communities in providing healthier air as well as jobs.
It leads up to a discussion with Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome who is senior director on the council of environmental equity at the White House. White-Newsome and her team work hard to deliver the president's environmental justice agenda and implement the environmental justice executive order. The executive order creates “office within the council on environmental equality,” which will ensure that there will be environmental justice despite their being different political views.
The council is there to remove barriers, such as citizens not being able to connect to federal agencies. This is accomplished by having federal agencies partners, which are “committed to advancing environmental justice”.
The conference broke into breakout rooms with one of them being on job opportunities for environmental equity. The panel was composed of Estelle Reyes, senior vice president of enhancing community at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. Mike Slavich who is the dean of Career and Technical education at Rio Hondo College. Jaime Alonso is executive director of GRID Alternatives.
The problem is how challenging it is to get people into the workforce of green jobs while overcoming the lack of knowledge, lack of experience, and lack of access. Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is getting people job placement and internships after training. Rio Hondo College provides workshops to families and middle school students to get awareness of the programs they offer. GRID Alternatives is there to provide support services to partnership with organizations. Some organizations GRID Alternatives is partnering with are there to offer services to incarcerated individuals.
The conference helped provide opportunities for getting into programs, and shed light on issues that are faced within programs such as South Coast AQMD.
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