Community Organizing

Community organizing is the key to creating social change and addressing social inequities and injustices through its focus on power, the large-scale and continued involvement of people from the base, a continuing focus on leadership development, and the strategic role played by the professional organizer. We build power through large-scale and continued involvement of people from the base.

Residents on the Westside of San Bernardino for years have organized to hold polluting industries, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Omnitrans, accountable by urging for more action on pollution reduction measures through zero emission technology and infrastructure.

Current Campaigns:

Advanced Clean Truck Rule
Indirect Source Rule
Community Benefits Agreement

By the 1970s, land use in Jurupa Valley was used heavily for commercial and industrial development, specifically to benefit the logistics industry. The concentration of highways and warehouses has made this community a major shipping hub at the cost of community health. Trucks and rail lines accessing these facilities generate increased levels of diesel emissions. This issue is further compounded as the pollution mixes with oxygen in the presence of sunlight to form ozone.

These impacts are worse in Mira Loma Village—a community of 101 homes located just north of the 60 freeway. This neighborhood is plagued by constant high industrial truck traffic, noise and light pollution, as well as high levels of particulate matter. In February 2013, CCAEJ—with support from California Attorney General, Kamala Harris—won a lawsuit against Riverside County for allowing 6 mega-warehouses to be built and for violating Environmental Quality Acts in the process. Mira Loma Village residents won a settlement of mitigation measures to lessen health impacts and improve the quality of life for the residents.

Current Campaigns:

Advanced Clean Truck Rule
Indirect Source Rule
Community Benefits Agreement