When Communities Lead, Change Happens

Real environmental protection emerges when affected communities organize and demand the policies they deserve. CWRO's grassroots advocacy model combines community organizing with strategic federal engagement to ensure comprehensive soil remediation for all California families.

Our Community-Centered Approach

• Listen to Those Most Affected: CWRO centers families displaced from fire zones, workers exposed to contamination, children vulnerable to lead exposure, and environmental justice communities disproportionately affected by inadequate cleanup.

• Transform Experience into Power: We help community members translate lived experiences into policy advocacy through story collection, policy education, advocacy training, and leadership development.

• Build Broad Coalitions: Environmental justice requires partnerships between affected communities, environmental organizations, public health advocates, scientific researchers, and labor organizations.

  
  

Strategic Federal Engagement

• Target Decision-Makers: House and Senate members who vote on disaster relief, committee chairs who control hearings, EPA administrators who set priorities, FEMA administrators who determine protocols, and Army Corps leadership who implement cleanup.

• Use Multiple Channels: Congressional meetings, public hearings, regulatory comments, and media campaigns create comprehensive pressure for policy change.

  
  

How Communities Can Take Action

Individual Advocacy

• Contact representatives about soil testing policies

• Get soil testing through USC CLEAN program

• Document health impacts from contamination exposure

• Take protective measures to limit soil contact

  
  

Community Organizing

• Form neighborhood groups with other affected residents

• Host community meetings to educate about contamination risks

• Create petition campaigns demonstrating support for testing

• Plan demonstrations at federal agency offices

  
  

Building Advocacy Skills

• Tell Your Story: Share personal impact with specific details, connect experience to needed policy changes, and focus on solutions.

• Know the Facts: Understand contamination science, cite peer-reviewed research, compare to other disasters, and show economic benefits of comprehensive testing.

  
  

Current CWRO Campaigns

• Restore Comprehensive Testing: Reverse FEMA's 2020 policy eliminating post-cleanup soil testing

• Emergency Testing for LA: Immediate comprehensive testing for all fire-affected properties

• National Standards: Establish comprehensive testing as standard federal disaster response

  
  

Join the Movement

CWRO provides training, resources, and coordination to transform individual concern into collective power for policy change. The federal government has the resources and expertise for comprehensive soil testing—what's missing is political pressure to implement protective policies.

Get Involved: Attend advocacy training, join community meetings, participate in campaigns, and help organize your community for environmental justice.