HBCU Environmental and Climate Justice Corps Summer Internship Program

Mar 7, 2024

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Projects

HBCU Environmental & Climate Justice Corps Summer Internship

2025 DSCEJ Summer Interns

The HBCU Environmental and Climate Justice Corp Summer Internship will help to build the capacity of vulnerable communities by (1) providing research assistance to EJ and climate impacted communities; (2) building relationships that will be enduring between communities and HBCU students; (3) creating a career pipeline for the next generation of environmental justice and climate justice leaders.

Funded in part by:

August 2025

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.

View their presentations below >>>

From Incarceration to Investment: Building Youth Opportunity & Community Resilience in Columbus, Mississippi

Arlencia Barnes
Jackson State University
Major: Environmental Sciences, PhD. Candidate

EJ Yes: Empowering Youth for Environmental Justice

Paris Brye
Alabama State University
Major: Physical Therapy

Don’t Let Nobody Take Your Watermelon: Africatown is Worth Reinvestment

Marcus English
Bishop State Community College
Major: General Studies

Kids in the Kitchen

Michael Muse
Xavier University of Louisiana
Major: Political Science

Rooted in Justice: Green Waste Policy & Environmental Equity

Kailynn Williams
Southern University A & M, Baton RougeMajor: Master of Science Urban Forestry Environment & Resources

2024 DSCEJ Summer Interns

Read the Newsletter

Funded in part by:

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Gulf Water Justice Strategic Planning Project

Feb 6, 2024

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Projects

Water Justice Program

Recognizing that communities along the Gulf Coast Region are collectively exposed to but uniquely challenged by climate change, DSCEJ aims to positively contribute to equitable water management decisions in the region.

Project Overview

The predicted effects of climate change being severest on predominantly African American and low-wealth communities in the Gulf Region compel action to ensure that communities are able to effectively participate in the management of their public water systems. Human health and safety are dependent on these systems that provide drinking water, monitor groundwater usage, assess surface water quality, and either divert or drain flood water.

Through the increased intensity and frequency of climate-induced disasters in recent years, it has become clear that our water systems in the Gulf Region are poorly managed and operated and are fraught with aging and neglected equipment.

Consequently, significant health and safety risks for Gulf coastal residents result from:

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Unsafe drinking water

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Inadequate flood control

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Migration of toxic chemicals in stormwater

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Overuse of groundwater leading to land subsidence

Additionally, water utilities, which consume massive amounts of fossil fuel-generated electricity, are also contributing to the problem of power plant pollution that harms our health and warms our planet. Incorporating climate resilience into the management of water systems and switching them to efficient and renewable energy alternatives are at nascent stages and occurring mostly outside of the Gulf Region. Yet, even with these progressive efforts to make water utilities climate ready, there is scant attention to ensuring that the input and concerns of vulnerable communities are included in these efforts.

Water Justice Training Institute

In April 2021, the DSCEJ launched the Gulf Water Justice Training Institute, a component of the Gulf Water Justice Project. The Institute consists of a series of six workshops that build the knowledge and research skills of participating community-based organizations to analyze and create a flood risk map and develop a community flood protection plan. Each workshop integrates peer-to-peer learning and hands-on skills development.

The DSCEJ’s aim for the Water Justice Collaborative is to grow the number of Black community organizations advocating for equitable policy solutions to severe flood risks. To this end, the DSCEJ plans to replicate the Gulf Water Justice Project in other regions of the United States through partnerships with community-based organization members of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. The Network or NBEJN is a project of the DSCEJ.

Water Justice Training Institute Convenes Gulf South Community Leaders

Throughout our two days together, community leaders connected around shared experiences and exchanged strategies for addressing local and regional water challenges. In partnership with the Claiborne Corridor Cultural Innovation District and New Corp, Inc, we co-hosted tours of community-led green stormwater infrastructure projects making a positive impact in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans.

Dr. David Padgett of Tennessee State University demonstrated how communities can document and map flooding hotspots and community assets in need of protection, an important tactic that can be used to spread awareness and advocate for investment.

We closed the convening with discussions around how to stand strong and continue coordinated water and climate policy advocacy. It is a clear fact that water-related challenges driven by climate change will continue to impact communities across the globe. DSCEJ is committed to supporting communities as they rise to the challenge.

Funded by:

Funded by:

HBCU-CBO Gulf Equity Consortium Project

Jan 29, 2024

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Inc.
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Projects

HBCU-CBO Gulf Equity Consortium

The HBCU-CBO Gulf Coast Equity Consortium is designed by Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director and Founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Dr. Robert Bullard, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University.

The goal of the Consortium is to improve the health and lives of children and families in the Gulf Coast Region.

Project Overview

The HBCU-CBO Gulf Coast Equity Consortium Project is transformative and is guided by the nexus of three basic principles forming the foundation for our work.

PRINCIPLE 1

People must speak for themselves.

The first is a mainstay of Environmental Justice work. “People must speak for themselves.” This project is designed to listen to community concerns first and then provide education and training on identified issues preparing community residents to have voice on critical issues.

PRINCIPLE 2

Communiversity

The second guiding principle involves the establishment of equitable partnership with communities; “The Community University Partnership Model”. One such model, “Communiversity” developed by the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice sets guidelines and processes for ensuring an equal voice in the project among community members and researchers.

PRINCIPLE 3

Community-Based Participatory Research

The third guiding principle employs the use of the “Community-Based Participatory Research Model.” This model sets parameters to ensure that the overall project is community-driven and that community-members are substantively involved in the research undertaken. Much care will be taken to remain true to these principles to safeguard the integrity of the project.

Why it matters

We believe that by working with communities in this way – with academics respecting community input –communities can be strengthened.

Communities have increased their voices and built their capacity to respond to issues that affect the health and well-being of their children and families. This project is designed with the aim of leaving each community better off than where they were at the start of the project. Each community has increased in their capacity to organize, advocate for solutions to the challenges they face concerning environmental health, economic prosperity and social justice issues.

Our Partner Organizations

Gulf Coast Partner Community-Based Organizations:

Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, Houston, TX
Clean Healthy Educated Safe and Sustainable (CHESS), Mobile, AL
Sankofa CDC, New Orleans, LA
Education, Economics, Environmental Climate, and Health Organization (EEECHO), Gulfport, MS
Unity in the Family Ministry, Pensacola, FL

Gulf Coast Partner Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

Alabama A & M University
Dillard University
Florida A & M University
Jackson State University
Texas Southern University
Tennessee State University
Xavier University of Louisiana

Funded by:

Environmental Justice Storytellers Project

Jan 29, 2024

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Projects

Environmental Justice Storytellers Project

VISIT DIGITAL STORIES MEDIA LIBRARY

High school students representing five states in the Gulf Coast region take on the roles of climate journalists, partnering 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.

Funded by:

Publications

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HBCU Climate Change Conference

Jan 29, 2024

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Projects

HBCU Climate Change Conference

Join us in New Orleans!

Get ready for an unforgettable experience! The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, in collaboration with the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University, is thrilled to announce the 11th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference, happening in New Orleans from March 18 to 22, 2026!

Visit the 2026 Conference Website

History

This annual conference was developed to bring together HBCU faculty and students, researchers, climate professionals and environmental justice and coastal community residents impacted by toxic facilities and severe weather events related to climate change in order to bridge the gap between theory and the experiential realities of climate change. The conference addresses issues related to climate justice, adaptation, community resilience, global climate issues, and other major climate change topics (i.e. transportation, energy sources, carbon emissions, green jobs/green economy, just transition, and community economic development).

The conference also engages local high school students in the conference activities. High school students are introduced to climate science within the context of how their daily life activities affect climate. The sessions are interactive, including computer-simulated games. To date, the Consortium has hosted eight conferences.