Center For Health, Environment & Justice (Chej)

Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) mentors a movement, empowering people to build healthy communities, and preventing harm to human health caused by exposure to environmental threats. Through training, coalition-building and one-on-one technical and organizing assistance, CHEJ works to level the playing field so that people can have a say in the environmental policies and decisions that affect their health and well-being. By organizing one school, one neighborhood, one community at a time, CHEJ is making the world cleaner and healthier for all of us. Day after day, year after year – from when we were founded 32 years ago – calls pour into our office from all over the country. CHEJ responds by sitting down with local leaders, either in their communities or over the phone, and helping them to identify the problems they are facing – problems like leaking landfills, polluted drinking water, incinerators and hazardous waste sites – and helping them find the paths toward change. We help community groups research the extent of a problem, break it down into manageable “action steps,” and then develop the leadership skills and knowledge needed to be able to carry out those steps, one by one. At the same time, we are uniting community voices and facilitating collective action by building nationwide collaborative initiatives focused around specific environmental health issues. Our current campaigns focus on environmental health threats to children and building public support for preventive action to protect public health, the environment and our economy. These efforts focus tools, resources and media attention on local grassroots struggles and support organizing around state and local policy initiatives. By building political pressure from the bottom up, we are working toward systemic change at the national level.