DSCEJ Student Interns to Share Documentary Films at Katrina 20 Mini Film Fest
We invite you to attend DSCEJ’s Digital Storytelling session during the Katrina 20 Week of Action on Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM. Our interns are participating in the K20 Mini Film Festival at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, 1419 Basin St., New Orleans, LA 70116.
DSCEJ’s Digital Storytellers Internship allows youth to take on the role of a climate journalist to tell the stories of environmental and climate injustices occurring in their communities and interview people and organizations working locally in their region, on solving the climate crisis. High school interns representing the Gulf Coast region partner with regional experts in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEMM) and environmental and climate justice organizations to chronicle stories of vulnerable communities adversely affected by climate change and environmental hazards.
Questions? Contact:
Mary I. Williams
maryw@dscej.org
This project is funded by the NASEM-Gulf Research Program.
HBCU students share community internship experience
Our 2025 HBCU Environmental Justice and Climate Corps Summer Interns had the opportunity immerse themselves in environmental justice advocacy and research with DSCEJ Gulf Coast community partners. The interns shared their internship experience during a Lunch and Learn held on August 1st.
The interns addressed key environmental priorities identified by DSCEJ partner CBOs, including collecting and analyzing data to support environmental justice reinvestment, reviewing state regulations and enforcement on landfills, conducting cost comparisons between incarcerating a child and investing in their future through environmental workforce training, teaching children in food deserts how to prepare nutritious meals, and educating summer camp youth about air pollutants and greenhouse gases that affect their communities.
Environmental Justice Voice Mid-Year Magazine 2025
MID-YEAR MAGAZINE
July 2025 Edition
IN THIS EDITION:
- Community & Partner Engagement
- Worker Training Program Graduation and Highlights
- Student Engagement
- Conference Recap Report
- AND MORE!
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice Joins Class Action Lawsuit Against Trump Administration for EPA Grant Terminations
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Today, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) joined a coalition of nonprofits and community groups to sue the Trump administration for unlawfully terminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) Grant programs – despite a Congressional directive to fund them.
Alongside plaintiffs across the country, DSCEJ is seeking class action certification so all grant recipients who have been harmed by the wholesale termination of the EPA program, may continue their projects.
“All communities deserve to live in clean, healthy and safe environments free from toxic pollutants and resilient to the harmful impacts of extreme weather. This is not a partisan position and our work across multiple administrations has supported communities across the south and nation,” said Dr. Beverly Wright, Founder and Executive Director of DSCEJ. “The Trump administration’s efforts to cut off funding, leaves communities vulnerable and families unhealthy, all while polluters are never held accountable. In terminating the Environmental and Climate Justice Program, our agreement to help communities secure needed resources to improve polluted environmental conditions and reduce climate risks was eliminated. The system is rigged against those who need it most. We joined the lawsuit to hold the administration accountable for its misguided actions and to spur the further creation of healthier, cleaner and more resilient communities.”
In November 2023, DSCEJ launched the Community Investment Recovery Center (CIRC) to provide direct services to community-based organizations (CBOs) and Tribal communities through capacity building, technical assistance, and training. The service area spans 13 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – and 73 Tribes. CIRC leveled the playing field by building the capacity of organizations, most of whom had never applied for a federal grant, to identify potential funding opportunities for their community and navigate the application process.
The cancelled EPA grants supported community-based initiatives that include improving natural disaster preparedness, expanding workforce development opportunities, improving and monitoring air quality, mitigating stormwater and flood damage, combating high energy costs, and improving community members’ ability to participate in decision-making and permitting processes that impact their health and environment.
Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project, and Lawyers for Good Government filed the challenge on behalf of ECJ grant recipients to seek the nationwide restoration of the program and to require the administration to reinstate awarded grant agreements.
The Environmental and Climate Justice Program was created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) under Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 138 to award $3 billion in grants to community-based non-profits, Tribes, local governments, and higher education institutions in every state to tackle the climate crisis and environmental harms at the local level.
The grant-funded initiatives in rural, small town and urban communities across the country include air quality monitoring, community pollution notification systems, tree planting in urban heat zones, lead pipes replacement in community drinking water systems, resilience projects to strengthen communities against more frequent and intensifying extreme weather events, and more.
“Since his first days in office, the Trump administration has unlawfully withheld congressionally-mandated funds,” said Hana Vizcarra, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “Terminating these grant programs caused widespread harm and disruption to on-the-ground projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity to tackle environmental harms. We won’t let this stand.”
“We are proud to stand alongside our partners and these plaintiffs to fight for the communities who have been unlawfully denied the resources Congress promised them. This is a blatant, illegal attempt to sidestep federal law and strip critical funding away from the communities who need it most,” said Jillian Blanchard, Vice President of the Climate Change and Environmental Justice Program at Lawyers for Good Government. “These grants were lawfully awarded, binding agreements, backed by clear Congressional authorization under the Inflation Reduction Act. The administration’s unconstitutional termination of these grants are not only destabilizing local projects addressing pollution, public health, and climate resilience, they violate core principles of administrative law and the separation of powers.”
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ginger LeBlanc – media@dscej.org
Grace Gill Qayoumi – gqayoumi@skdknick.com
Passing the Torch: A message to the next generation of climate and environmental justice leaders
Passing the Torch: A message to the next generation of climate and environmental justice leaders
There is a good reason to feel discouraged, but there is also a lot to be hopeful about.
We are coming out of a federal administration that advanced the most ambitious environmental and climate justice agenda in history, yet are now transitioning into an administration that has rescinded, rolled back, eliminated or frozen every instance of EJ policy progress and investment of its predecessors.
At the same time, uncontrolled climate change brings significant risks to both the natural world and human societies, as it causes not only loss of essential natural resources but meaningful harm to the fabric of communities and the disruption of ecologies and economies. If no major action is taken to address the rapid warming of our atmosphere, our land, and the overheating of our oceans, we can expect significantly more frequent and intense extreme weather events like heat waves, heavy rainfall, floods, wildfires, and powerful storms. We also know that coastal regions face the most immediate threats from rising sea levels.
The cost of climate inaction is expensive. A November 2024 report, commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce, estimates that climate-related extreme weather events have cost the global economy more than $2 trillion over the past decade.
For me the saddest thing is that we lost momentum, and that we must now accept that we can’t continue on that same path pursuing those same solutions in the same way. But we are still moving forward.
We recently hosted our 10th Anniversary HBCU Climate Change conference, designed to bring together Black and Brown students who attend historically Black colleges and universities to discuss the enormity of the threat that Climate Change poses to them and their communities and seek solutions. Students get to hear from climate scientists, researchers, policy advocates, and local leaders who look like them from across the globe. Alongside learning and education, we encourage these young scholars to pursue careers as climate scientists, researchers, policy advocates and leaders in the climate space themselves.
Being with this group of vibrant, hopeful, energetic and brilliant young people for 4 days was absolutely invigorating. The next generation of young people not only believe in climate change, but are overwhelmingly determined to take action. Their determination and belief in what is possible gives me hope for the future.
This year over three hundred students, mostly from HBCUs, attended the conference held in New Orleans. They came from across the country, and even included several international students. We kicked off the conference with a ceremonial passing of the torch from longtime EJ pioneers to a new generation of young EJ leaders with the placing of a Torchbearers medallion around the necks of the young, emerging Environmental and Climate Justice leaders.
One of the highlights of the conference is our poster presentation and competition where students can present their ongoing research. The students prepared and presented more than 100 research poster presentations covering a wide-range of topics including: Assessing the Performance of Soil Profile Rehabilitation for Pluvial Flood Mitigation in Baltimore City; Atlanta’s Growing Invasive Plant Populations Impact on the Soil Health and Microbiome; Black Faces and Green Spaces: How Black Students Navigate Identity, Behavior, and Community in the Environmental Movement; and Re-defining Traditional Environmental Advocacy via Environmental Education and Community-based Partnerships. Several of our students also participated in student panel discussions.
We have been here before.
Being in the presence of so many dynamic students inspired me, and reaffirmed that though we are facing an incredibly antagonistic federal government we are not going to languish in despair. I personally have been at this work for 40 years, and our Center has been at this for 33 years. We’ve been around through several previous administrations, both Republican and Democratic. Most of whom did not understand, appreciate or prioritize the need to undo the vestiges of inequality that show up as environmental, climate and health disparities. Yet we’re still standing. We will not be intimidated. We are not afraid of adversity and we will most certainly not back down from doing this vital work.
DSCEJ’s commitment to environmental justice has remained constant across seven previous presidential administrations and we’ve experienced countless environmental regulatory, statutory and policy shifts over the past three-plus decades. We will remain steadfast in our mission to advance environmental justice and environmental protection for all.
One of my favorite John Lewis quotes reminds me: “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
I take the long view, and if the young people attending the HBCU Climate Change conference are any indication of the vision and vigor of the next generation, I am encouraged by what the future holds. I believe that every generation is here to push the envelope a bit further. Sometimes the envelope is closed and we have to wait until we can open it again.
My advice to Generation Next
This is a moment for deliberate action. Use the knowledge you have acquired and turn it into something good and powerful. Here is what you can do now:
- Practice your trade.
- Conduct research that sheds light on the impact of climate change on underserved and overburdened communities and present it at conferences like the HBCU Climate Change Conference.
- Connect with real community heroes who are fighting the good fight but need better data and analysis in order to drive deeper impact from their actions.
- Know that your experience is highly valued.
– You can see things coming full circle.
– You can see the impact that your work can make. - Seek knowledge and enlightenment through focused education on climate and related issues.
- Seek awareness, connection and impassioned action.
We have known the hope of promises made, the joy of promises kept and the bitterness of promises broken. We will keep on doing the work. We will stand together with our communities as we always have. But now is the time for us to link intergenerational arms. Now is the time for your torch to burn bright, Generation Next.