Our Mission

Founded in 1991, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) is a non-profit, 501(c)3 citywide membership network linking grassroots organizations from low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in their struggle for environmental justice. NYC-EJA empowers its member organizations to advocate for improved environmental conditions and against inequitable environmental burdens by the coordination of campaigns designed to inform City and State policies. Through our efforts, member organizations coalesce around specific common issues that threaten the ability for low-income communities of color to thrive. NYC-EJA is led by the community-based organizations that it serves. NYC-EJA was founded with two clear, yet profound charges: to identify the systemic reasons why communities of color were environmentally and economically overburdened, and to develop strategies to dismantle those inequitable systems.

Create, nurture, and organize a collective voice to mobilize citywide support to resolve environmental justice issues.

Highlight key environmental justice issues and policies that arise in multiple communities, or impact citywide conditions, requiring innovative and creative problem solving.

Involve people of color and other stakeholders directly affected by environmental justice issues in leadership roles to resolve them.

Damaris Reyes,
Executive Director
GOLES
Lower East Side

Jessica Clemente,
President & Chief Executive Officer
We Stay/Nos Quedamos
South Bronx

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre,
Executive Director
UPROSE
Southwest Brooklyn

Maria Torres,
President & COO
THE POINT CDC
South Bronx

Frances Lucerna,
Co-Founder, Artistic Director & President
El Puente
North Brooklyn

Michael Higgins,
Senior Organizer of Housing & Sustainability
Brooklyn Movement Center
Central Brooklyn

NYC-EJA Fellowship

In partnership with Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE), NYC-EJA recruits Pratt graduate students for a 2-semester, paid fellowship with our member organizations. Fellows have the opportunity to work directly with grassroots organizations, supporting community outreach, research and policy analysis. At this time, the fellowship is only open to Pratt’s GCPE graduate students who can commit to working 1 day per week for 2 semesters. For more information, email info@NYC-EJA.org