Pay up: Now is the Time for Bold Investment in Environmental Justice Groups

By Huda Alkaff and Donele Wilkins
Colorlines
June 4, 2021

Two environmental justice leaders in the Midwest offer solutions to the Biden-Harris Administration.

At this moment when climate and environmental justice are being centered and marked for remedy, it is vital that the female founders and vanguards who have long centered their work around environmental justice principles be heard. As the Biden-Harris Administration begins to act on its climate, infrastructure and jobs policies and goals, it is imperative that people of color who have been most impacted by the burden and legacies of climate injustice are the first to receive its benefits, and that environmental justice groups who have already been on the ground doing this work are empowered, affirmed and receive fiscal investment to continue their efforts.

We are two women of color and environmental justice leaders in the Midwest: Huda Alkaff, an ecologist, environmental educator, environmental justice activist, and the founder and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims who for more than two decades has advocated for environmental justice and initiated Muslim and interfaith programs on energy democracy, and water equity, and Donele Wilkins, an environmental justice activist, founder and CEO of the Green Door Initiative in Detroit; she has provided workforce development in the environmental and green collar sectors for people of color for nearly two decades, ensuring that more than 400 people secure good paying employment.

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