MISSION STATEMENT
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) was founded in 1992 in collaboration with community environmental groups and universities within the region to address issues of environmental justice. The DSCEJ Community/University Partnership, under the auspices of Dillard University in New Orleans, provides opportunities for communities, scientific researchers, and decision makers to collaborate on programs and projects that promote the rights of all people to be free from environmental harm as it impacts health, jobs, housing, education, and general quality of life.
WHO WE ARE
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) was developed in 1992 in collaboration with community environmental groups and universities within the region to address environmental justice issues. The DSCEJ provides opportunities for communities, scientific researchers, and decision makers to collaborate on programs and projects that promote the rights of all people to be free from environmental harm as it impacts health, jobs, housing, education, and a general quality of life. The Center strives to achieve three key objectives:
- partnership between universities and communities;
- interaction between program components; and
- legacy.
The DSCEJ has three components for reaching its objectives:
- research and policy;
- community assistance and education;
- primary, secondary, and university education.
A major goal of the Center has been the development of minority leadership in the areas of environmental, social, and economic justice along the Mississippi River Corridor. The DSCEJ has become a powerful resource of environmental justice education and training. A major aim of the Center has been the development of curricula that are culturally sensitive and tailored to the educational and training needs of the community. Over the past thirteen years, the Center has made great strides in the accomplishment of these goals. We have observed the incredible metamorphosis of local grassroots community residents into national and international leaders, advocates, and spokespersons for environmental justice.
The DSCEJ has developed and embraces a model for community partnership that is called “communiversity”. This model emphasizes a collaborative management or partnership between universities and communities. The partnership promotes bilateral understanding and mutual respect between community residents and academicians. In the past, collaborative problem-solving attempts that included community residents and academicians were one-sided in terms of who controlled the dynamics of the interaction between the two, who was perceived as knowledgeable, and who was benefited.
The essence of this approach is an acknowledgment that for effective research and policy-making, valuable community life experiences regarding environmental insult must be integrated with the theoretical knowledge of academic educators and researchers. Either group alone is less able to accomplish the goal of achieving environmental equity, but the coming together of the two in a non-threatening forum can encourage significant strides toward solutions. The DSCEJ has advanced the communiversity model with the formation of the Mississippi River Avatar Community Advisory Board (CAB). The board consists of representatives from grassroots organizations and leaders of affected communities in the corridor. The Center has been involved in valuable environmental research aimed at providing technical assistance. Additionally, the Center has developed environmental justice education curriculum infusion modules that New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) teachers in grades kindergarten through 6th were trained to incorporate across disciplines into their teaching. We trained over 200 elementary teachers to implement these curriculum modules and disseminated curriculum guides to sixty-two NOPS schools in the greater New Orleans area. The DSCEJ provides educational seminars to college-level students and integrates student interns and workers into its programs, research, and community outreach. Toward that end, the Center sponsors Environmental Justice clubs on university campuses and supports their projects.
The DSCEJ has gained a considerable reputation in the field of hazardous waste worker training. Over the past thirteen years, in partnership with the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, the DSCEJ has forged a new, culturally sensitive training model designed to meet the specific needs of urban city youth living in environmentally contaminated communities through the implementation of Minority Worker Training Programs and Brownfields Minority Worker Training Programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport, LA; Biloxi/Gulfport, MS; West Dallas, TX; Atlanta, East Point, and Savannah, GA, and Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, FL. The center has also implemented worker training under two-year grants with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor, and under a two-year contract with the US Corps of Engineers. In the upcoming year, minority worker training programs will be implemented in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Savannah and Detroit, MI.
The DSCEJ has worked with two military communities in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. This project was designed to strengthen the ability of communities living in close proximity to military bases to participate effectively in environmental restoration decisions. The project resulted in greater knowledge and participation in local Restoration Advisory Boards (RAB) and the election of several community residents to a local RAB.
Since its inception in 1992, the DSCEJ has implemented numerous grants in the areas of research, capacity building, and education and training. Projects have been conducted in the areas of community assistance and education, research and policy, and primary, secondary, and university education. In its long-standing history of providing service to communities that have sustained negative environmental impact, the DSCEJ has continued to forge ahead, training communities and building capacity.
In the Post Katrina era, the Center has directed its programmatic components and research efforts toward finding solutions and providing technical assistance for community residents along the Gulf Coast. Community projects specifically directed toward clean up and rebuilding and worker training programs for displaced residents represent the Center’s first efforts in what is intended to be a long term investment in the restoration of the devastated communities.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice In Action Post-Katrina
POST-KATRINA
 The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) at Dillard University like many other programs at colleges and universities in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, while physically destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, recognizes an even greater need for its services. It is imperative that our current programs are continued, but it is also necessary that we shift our major attention to the destruction caused by this devastating hurricane.
PROGRAMMATIC FOCUS
 Much of our work at the center in coming months will focus on the research, policy, and community outreach and assistance and education needs of the displaced minority population of New Orleans. There are critical issues of health and environmental restoration that must be monitored for fairness as it relates to standards of cleanup for re-settlement. Additionally, in the area of jobs and economic development, the center will engage in job training and placement related to environmental clean-up. Our focus will be on training displaced citizens of New Orleans and job placement for those citizens who have already been trained through our Minority Worker Training and Brownfields Minority Training Program funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
It is imperative that we seize every opportunity to make contact with the now dispersed New Orleans African American community. This will be accomplished through the establishment of Advisory Boards in key cities within the diaspora that now constitutes the displaced population of New Orleans and its surrounding areas.
TARGET POPULATION
 The project will facilitate a visioning process for the shaping of the “new” New Orleans that includes race and class. We will attempt to bring stakeholders to the table, with special emphasis on the poor, health, and the environment. Moreover, it is imperative that the grassroots are solidly at the table during the planning process.
PROJECT APPROACH -- KATRINA SURVIVOR PROJECT (BRING BACK NEW ORLEANS)
 The immediate task of the Center will be to provide a space for dialogue between community leaders who are concerned about how the “new” New Orleans will be shaped by race and class. Of most concern is the potential for permanent displacement and permanent removal of poor and working class African Americans who have called New Orleans home for centuries. Also, at stake is the loss of a culture that is deeply rooted in the African American community and has been preserved and practiced by the grassroots. First and foremost is the goal of returning residents who wish to return and the monitoring of all aspects of government and commerce that may hinder that effort.
POST KATRINA OBJECTIVES
- Facilitate the re-empowerment of the citizenry of New Orleans to govern themselves and participate in the design for rebuilding the city of New Orleans;
- Facilitate the flow of information and promote a dialogue among the citizenry to ensure participation in some of the critical areas of rebuilding that include clean-up standards and health.
- Identify, train, and mobilize minority workers and minority firms to participate in the clean-up and re-building of New Orleans;
- Facilitate linkages between impacted community residents, health professionals, educators, scientific researchers, small and minority businesses, and government officials to address environmental and health disparities and other issues related to re-entry, re-population, and housing re-construction in New Orleans;
- Monitor land use, insurance and lender redlining, clean-up standards, and clean-up process in New Orleans to ensure health and environmental justice.
THE MISSISSIPPI AVATAR ADVISORY BOARD
Bishop James Black
UJAMA MART
Biloxi, MS
"From the 1960's protesting to professing the gospel-civil justice and economic empowerment of my people has been a life pursuit."
Elodia Blanco
Concerned Citizens of Agriculture Street Landfill
New Orleans, LA
She is a focused determined leader who is driven by the desie to ensure that all people have the right to live and raise their families in an environmentally safe community.
Mary Boler
Parents Outreach Network for Youth
Destrehan, LA
A community activist who works hard to educate young people in environmental careers to ensure the next generation is prepared to address environmental issues.
Richard Burton
St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment
Convent, LA
Priscilla Edwards
Central City Economic Opportunity
New Orleans, LA
BOLD ENOUGH TO LEAD AND STRONG ENOUGH TO DELIVER. All of this energy is used to enhance the Centeal City community.
Edward Jackson
Ascension Parish Citizens Aainst Toxins
Geismar, LA
Involved in the environmental justice movement since 1958 and is continuously striving to make a difference in the Geismar community.
Charlotte Keys
Jesus People Agains Pollution
Columbia, MS
"My primary task is to obtain environmental health services and generate self-help housing programs with sustainable economic development for toxic exposed communities, to achieve environmental justice.
Margie Richard
Concerned Citizens for Norco
Norco, LA
A retired teacher and community activist she has worked for many years to improve the quality of life in her small community and all communites surrounded by industry. She has traveled from South Africa to the Neatherlands speaking for all who suffer from environmental injustice. In all aspects of her community work she involves children so that they will learn to make a difference in the world in which they live.
Gloria Roberts
St. James Citizens for Jobs and Environment
Convent, LA
A community activist involved in all facets of the environment and community concerns.
King Wells
Central City Economic Opportunity
New Orleans, LA
Concerned with economic development of Central City and the provisions of business and job opportunities for the area residents.
Emelda West
St. James Citizens for Jobs and Environment
Convent, LA
A grandmother, community activist, and world traveler,she has fought to guarantee all children the right to live in a toxic-free environment.
Eloise Williams
Concerned Citizens of Algiers
New Orleans, LA
A human rights activist fighting for the rights of all people
KATRINA SURVIVORS EXPANDED ADVISORY BOARD
An advisory board was established for Atlanta, GA, Baton Rouge, LA, Houston, TX and Jackson MS. The advisory boards serve as a liaison between displaced New Orleans residents and local government, and community leaders involved in the rebuilding and repopulation of the city of New Orleans.
Atlanta, GA Advisory Board Members- Linda Butler, Philip White, Cherlyn Thomas, Lawrence Fleury, Brigette Wright, Harold Montgomery, Kelby Lynch, and Jamila Coleman.
Baton Rouge, LA Advisory Board Members – Marian Gross, Lynette Causey, Matthew Causey, Sheila Burns, Ronnie Burns, Dottie Reese, Wayne Richard, Margaret Montgomery Richard, Jinks Broussard, and Sarah Moody Thomas.
Houston, TX Advisory Board Members – Gail Frazier, Simone Marion, Bonnie James, Paulette Lynch, Betty Cox, Orelia Duvernay, and Judith Jackson.
Jackson, MS Advisory Board Members – Evola C. Bates, Leslie F. Duvernay, Susan Eddington, Jared Johnson, and Rachel Jordan.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
DSCEJ PARTNER COMMUNITIES
Agriculture St. Landfill/Press Park - New Orleans, LA - Orleans Parish
Algiers - New Orleans, LA - Orleans Parish
Central City - New Orleans, LA - Orleans Parish
Tremé - New Orleans, LA - Orleans Parish
Destrehan, LA - St. Charles Parish
Old Diamond Plantation- Norco, LA - St. Charles Parish
Convent, LA - St. James Parish
Geismar, LA - Ascension Parish
Biloxi , MS - Harrison County
Gulfport, MS - Harrison County
ASSOCIATE COMMUNITIES
Alsen, LA - East Baton Rouge Parish
Gert Town—New Orleans, LA - Orleans Parish
Mossville, LA - Calcasieu Parish
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