It's more that just a name change, it's a movement into a direction that will better serve girls, women, and non-binary individuals like us.
You're probably wondering first, "why the name change anyway?"
Our founder, Diamond can answer that!
"I wanted something more fun, simple, yet unique. Girl + Environment better identifies not only who I am, but who our community is."
Now, she did mention fun. Yes, environmental justice is a very serious topic, but we have to shift the way we talk about it especially when we're having conversations with people in our communities who haven't traditionally been at the tables where environmental justice topics are discussed. How can we get our friends and family to hear the words "environmental justice" and immediately get excited!?
Well, what else has changed?
“Being a Black woman myself, I wanted the organization to feel more like it was for people who looked like me and had similar barriers or experiences as me."
The short answer is... "A lot". We've switched up our pillars to built environment, earth environment, and social environment though our process remains to educate, engage, and empower. We also refined our target community. Originally we were focusing on millennials in general. This later was changed to Black and Brown millennials. As we looked more into our insights on our community, we learned that over 85% of our community identified as women. So, we made the decision to change our target audience to girls, women, and non-binary individuals.
Understanding that environmental racism is a concept that is primarily experienced by people of color, we wanted the people we serve to be that community. In fact, Black and Brown communities are primarily burdened by environmental, racial, and health inequities.
So, what can we expect?
"There's so many ideas that I have to increase our reach and impact to Black and Brown communities"
Any and everything is literally on the table. From expanding our Green Table Talk series, offering more ways for our community to get involved like joining our ambassador program, becoming a member, doing content creations, and giving our community the opportunity to share their stories on our website. We also hope to receive funds to support our Black hAIR program which will educate Black and Brown hair dressers about indoor air pollution in hair salons.
How can we support the transition?
During this time we would really appreciate patience as we're still going through our transition. We also welcome creative thoughts and ideas from our community. & If you want to get involved, send us an email to learn more about involvement opportunities!
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