Bay Area

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project to Receive $180K Grant

Published

6 years ago

October 6, 2020

Kiki

Courtesy Margaret Gordon

The Shoreline Leadership Academy via the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) is poised to receive up to $180,000 from the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority.

The staff’s recommendation for the grant will be voted on by the Board virtually on Oct. 2, 2020. In the history of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, the board has always voted in favor of the staff recommendations.

The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority allocates funds for shoreline restoration projects raised by 2016’s Measure AA parcel tax.

The Shoreline Leadership Academy “will educate a cohort of local residents about environmental and social issues along the Oakland shoreline and host a community-led planning process in which the cohort of residents will help to develop shoreline restoration projects in Alameda County.”

Co-founded by and is co-directed by Margaret Gordon, WOEIP is a “resident-led, community-based environmental justice organization dedicated to achieving healthy homes, healthy jobs, and healthy neighborhoods for all who live, work, learn and play in West Oakland.”

WOEIP previously hosted a similar program that educated participants on topics related to air pollution and air quality regulation, and how to advocate successfully for community health.

WOEIP has decades of experience advocating for environmental justice for local communities, and the Shoreline Leadership Academy project has support from community representatives who participated in the East Oakland Neighborhood Initiative and helped develop the Oakland Equitable Climate Action Plan.”

Per their website www.woeip.org, WOEIP believes in:

Self-determination
Self-examination and evaluation
Radical confidence
Struggle is healthy
Unite without uniformity
Trust in the process
Resident-based power through knowledge and political engagement
Personal and organizational integrity
Respect for the individual and the individual experience
Courage to speak truth through power
Loyalty to allies and an understanding of self-interest
Leadership by affected persons

The Shoreline Leadership Academy will be a six-month program, with participants meeting two days a month – one day consisting of educational training, and the second day consisting of community planning. The outcome of this training will be the creation of community-led, implementable shoreline restoration projects.

“The overall project has the following objectives; Recruit a cohort of 18 residents from economically disadvantaged communities living on or near the shoreline in Oakland to participate in the Shoreline Leadership Academy, ” the website says.