Core E: Community Outreach Core

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The Community Outreach Core promotes environmental health and justice outreach and education across Rhode Island, a small, densely populated state burdened by a long history of industrial activity. Its program complements the SBRP's focus on a state-based approach by working on multiple levels with a variety of constituencies, including community-based organizations, state and federal government agencies such as EPA, ATSDR, and Rl Department of Environmental Management, and our and other universities. The Core pursues four specific aims. 1) We will continue to work closely on environmental health and justice education and outreach with our community-based partner organizations (Environmental Neighborhood Awareness Committee of Tiverton.Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, and Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island) as well as with other community groups addressing issue such as school siting on brownfields. The Outreach Core will continue to help develop the capacity of these organizations to advocate for remediation of existing toxic waste sites and the prevention of future contamination. 2) We will expand our 4-week after-school environmental health education module into middle and high schools in the 6 Woonasquatucket River watershed towns, and launch an after-school/evening Community Environmental College for teenagers and adults, offering free classes on a wide range of environmental health and justice issues. 3) We will continue to work with 6 municipal governments, 2 state agencies, 3 EPA offices, and legislators in 2 states to develop comprehensive environmental legislation on remediation and reuse, strengthen existing legislation such as the ECHO home loan program for contaminated areas, and promote alternative models for school siting. 4) We will communicate our work to the broader Brown community, and also promote and broaden faculty, undergraduate, and graduate student awareness of and involvement in community environmental health and justice issues. We will continue to both promote our community partners' contributions to courses and sharing of their experiences with students and faculty as well as encourage students to work with our partners on participatory research projects. The Core leader, Dr. Phil Brown, has dedicated his career to combining academic scholarship, community service, teaching, and mentorship that helps community organizations in their campaigns for environmental health and justice.