Over the past 10 years, CEJA has grown in strength and has earned a reputation for being effective, collaborative, and powerfully representing the interests of now 20,000 members from low-income communities and communities of color throughout the state. We’ve been fighting polluting industries and working with legislators on state policies that promote Healthy Hoods across California. We have helped cultivate the vision, voice, and power of the communities that are the future of the nation, and we are now poised to mobilize this base to achieve big wins.

Given the growing climate crisis and range of environmental issues impacting communities of color across the state, there is an urgent need for strong, organized, grassroots voices creating change in our state and country.

CEJA’s 2015-2018 Strategic Plan represents our collective vision for deepening and growing both our alliance, and the overall movement for environmental justice.

From Fall of 2013 to Spring 2015, we engaged CEJA members in a strategic planning process to thoughtfully review CEJA’s history and strengths, assess the current environment and it’s likely future challenges and opportunities, and strategically map out a bold, ambitious but doable agenda that will bring smart, people-centered solutions to the greatest environmental injustices that we see in our neighborhoods and regions.
Our Strategic Plan was developed out of deep trust, strong working relationships, and concrete victories. The process solidified our internal cohesion, member commitment to the alliance, and established exciting, visionary goals for what CEJA can achieve together.

Read our full 2015-2018 Strategic Plan for more information.

Here is a snapshot of what we accomplished:

1. We developed 3-5 year Program Goals for our Green Zones and Energy Equity programs.

2. We launched a new Climate Justice Program. We are stepping to take leadership as California develops the “next generation” of climate policies. CEJA has carved out incredible opportunities to advance environmental justice in these debates.

3. We are launching a Statewide Environmental Justice Civic Engagement Program in 2016. Through our planning process, we recognized the importance of civic engagement work in moving public policy, the incredible potential of deeper coordination across our member organizations, and the need for a statewide civic engagement formation focused on advancing equitable environmental policy.

4. We developed a New Membership Structure and brought on New Partner Organizations. We welcomed CAUSE, Leadership Counsel, Pacoima Beautiful, and PSR-LA as new partners. We will be developing a new member handbook, orientation process, and system for supporting organizations as they join CEJA.

5. We updated and affirmed our Mission, Vision and Theory of Change.

6. We established a strategic framework that links together all our programs and will be the basis for developing a CEJA-wide Policy Platform.

7. We clarified our leadership groups and codified our decision-making structures to ensure that we function effectively together, and our internal processes are transparent for all members and any new organizations that join our alliance.

8. We affirmed CEJA’s leadership role in Movement Building. We fundamentally believe that a strong, community-led movement is necessary to winning the world we envision, and that CEJA has an important role to play in helping grow and support the overall environmental justice movement.

9. We created Principles of Collaboration that codify how we work together that all members, existing and new, must sign.

10. We created Fund Development Principles laying out our values and practices to help navigate the challenging world of coalition fundraising.

We deeply appreciate the leadership of Emily Goldfarb from RoadMap who facilitated our strategic planning process and the many CEJA leaders who contributed to this Strategic Plan.

Read our full 2015-2018 Strategic Plan. 

Filed under: Featured, News by Isa Flores-Jones