Environmental Health and Justice

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   800 Innes Ave, Unit 11
   San Francisco, CA-94124
   Phone:415-282-6840
   Fax:415-282-6839

ENVIRONMENTAL
HEALTH AND JUSTICE

FOOD JUSTICE

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

LEJ TOXIC TOURS
Come and take a walking tour of our neighborhood. We stop by some of the toxic sites in Bayview Hunters Point like the Hunters Point Shipyard and the PG&E power plant, and talk about the relationship to our community's health. The tour focuses on the role that community advocacy has played in improving conditions for our neighborhood, with a visit to Good Neighbor merchant Surfside Grocery, and a tour of Heron's Head Park. Along the way, we talk about environmental justice, development and gentrification, food security, and grassroots environmental health activism.
All are welcome, and there is no charge. To arrange a tour for your group, contact La Constance Shahid.

Environmental Health and Justice Programs

LEJ has a long history in environmental health and justice advocacy; the Youth With A Plan and Safe Fishing programs are the newest incarnation of this ongoing concern.

Youth With A Plan

This is truly a focal moment for Bayview Hunters Point, with the wholesale transformation of the entire community underway via the largest redevelopment project in the city's history. The goal of LEJ's Youth With A Plan program is to promote a community redevelopment process that supports the education, health and empowerment of youth in southeast San Francisco.

Launching in September 2008, Youth With A Plan directly involves the youth of Bayview Hunters Point in the redevelopment of southeast San Francisco. Through intensive research, community outreach, and direct participation in the public process, our youth will be educated about core redevelopment and planning issues and strategies, and take an active role in shaping the future of their neighborhood. Youth will focus on questions such as:

What do youth need to thrive in BVHP?
How can the redevelopment of southeast San Francisco support youth education and health?
How are youth priorities reflected in the current redevelopment plans?
What opportunities exist to bring the youth voice into the redevelopment process?

Watch this space for more details of the Youth With a Plan Program as it unfolds or contact Program Manager Rachel Russell.

Youth With A Plan is a collaborative project with Arc Ecology.

Safe Fishing

LEJ has begun a new partnership with the Occupational and Environmental Health Program of the UCSF Graduate School of Nursing to assess whether safe fish advisories are actually reaching subsistence fisherfolk on the southeast shoreline, and what kinds of messages will be most effective in protecting the community's health.

We don't expect or want to stop community members from fishing--our poor and environmentally compromised neighborhood has little access to fresh food as it is--but we know that there are ways to mitigate the risks associated with mercury and other toxins. As this project rolls out in 2009, we will involve youth from southeast San Francisco in creating culturally relevant materials for the diverse communities who fish from the Bay.