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Collaborative Campaigns

Climate Justice Center

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy the community urged UPROSE to help organize them adapt to the changing climate, prepare for the next storm and put the neighborhood on a block-by-block, building-by-building path to sustainability, adaptation and resilience. In response, UPROSE has launched the Sunset Park Climate Justice Center, NYC’s first grassroots-led, bottom-up, climate adaptation and community resiliency planning project.

Following the storm and immediate recovery efforts, UPROSE convened and hosted a community meeting in Sunset Park on December 19, 2012 to listen and engage with community members about Superstorm Sandy and their experiences during and after the storm. Sharing stories of neighbors helping neighbors, and describing some of the unexpected problems and challenges families encountered, meeting participants declared “We are the First Responders!” Community members began to come up with community resiliency strategies and plans for organizing themselves to address the problems identified They also began to identify opportunities for climate adaptation projects in their own homes and neighborhood blocks to make the community more sustainable and resilient. Recognizing the need for experienced leadership in the area of environmental justice, the community members charged UPROSE with the responsibility for taking all of their ideas and energy and putting them together into a plan for action.

Thus was born the Sunset Park Climate Justice Center.

GOALS

  • To build the capacity of Sunset Park’s indigenous leaders and local businesses to effectively respond to future severe weather events, coordinate the allocation of community resources, and mitigate the impacts of future severe weather, including the possible release of harmful chemicals; such capacity will enable the community to care for itself and to enter the future not as passive victim, but as active designer and agent. (Resiliency)

  • To engage community members and local businesses in leadership development and in a block-by-block, building-by-building assessment, mapping and relationship–building process to create, implement and manage a truly grassroots-led climate adaptation and community resiliency plan. (Adaptation and Resiliency)

  • To develop the tools and partnerships needed to transition the Sunset Park Industrial area from a traditional 20th Century industrial operations model into a 21st Century climate resilient and sustainable industrial area adapted to climate change; such a transition will ensure the long term availability of business development and employment opportunities for NYC’s largest walk-to-work community, Sunset Park. (Adaptation)

  • To engage community residents and local businesses in the public processes (land use planning, infrastructure design, permitting, etc.) required to adapt the community’s infrastructure to climate change. (Adaptation and Resiliency)


In June 2017, UPROSE presented in Washington D.C. at the Trans-Federal Workshop on Extreme Events, Environmental Health, and the Elderly, coordinated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Sciences. We spoke to the public health impacts of extreme weather and acculturation on the elderly Latino population in the United States.

BE A BLOCK CAPTAIN! 

As a response to a request that emerged from the Sunset Park community, UPROSE is working with residents of the community to be better prepared for future extreme weather events. Over the past few years we have seen tornados, super storms and hurricanes, all right here in Sunset Park. These weather events are becoming more and more commonplace and they are sure to get worse with time. We are asking Sunset Park residents to partner with us to continue creating a community plan to be better prepared and to respond to these inevitable climate related emergencies.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN UPROSE IN THIS INITIATIVE AND BECOME A BLOCK CAPTAIN?

Block Captain requirements:

  • Commitment to Climate Justice.

  • Must be a resident of Sunset Park and live between 17th Street and 65th street from 4th ave to 1st ave

  • Knowledge of who lives in your building and on your block – your neighbors know and trust you.

  • Outgoing and personable.

  • Attend trainings and workshops at the Climate Justice Center within UPROSE.

  • Bilingual preferable

 

If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain or would like more information on the Climate Justice Center, please send an email with the form below to info@uprose.org or call UPROSE at 718-492-9307. THANK YOU!!