Welcome to NLEH

Environmental Health Watch and Neighborhood Leadership, Inc., along with the Cleveland Clean Air Century Campaign and Earth Day Coalition, have formed Neighborhood Leadership for Environmental Health. This partnership will bring together community stakeholders (e.g., residents, businesses, churches, institutions, and government agencies) in a collaborative process of data gathering and education, followed by consensus priority-setting and action plan development, to address significant environmental concerns in Cleveland’s eastside, inner-city neighborhoods. Our goal is to develop a sustainable environmental justice partnership.

We have been awarded initial funding through the US EPA Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program (Level 1). Subsequently, CARE Level 2 funding would be sought for implementation of the action plan.

Neighborhood Leadership for Environmental Health will be carried out in the context of an effort by NLI and EHW toward “greening the ‘hood,” aimed at bridging the divide between Cleveland’s strong environmental organizations and people living in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods. In these communities there are numerous problems (e.g., substandard housing; lack of access to fresh, quality food; air pollution; and high lead poisoning and asthma prevalence) which can be improved by green approaches facilitated through collaboration between environmental organizations and neighborhood groups. This inclusive “green for all” strategy strengthens both.

Neighborhood leaders and the faith community are organizing to help join the green and neighborhood agendas. Faith-based organizations provide a key link to engage and educate inner-city residents, particularly those who are otherwise hard to reach. Faith leaders are trusted resources who know their families and significantly impact the way that families see their world and their own possibilities to affect their environment.

Neighborhood Leadership for Environmental Health (NLEH) is grounded in the extensive network of community residents who have been trained through the Neighborhood Leadership, Inc. programs. NLEH also builds upon numerous past and ongoing environmental projects that gather the data needed for community education, priority-setting and action plan development. This data, presented in accessible language and formats, includes air pollution levels, air toxics sources, mercury contamination of Lake Erie fish, housing-related health hazards, local carbon footprint, pesticide exposure, and other information of concern to community stakeholders.

More than just talk and planning, Neighborhood Leadership for Environmental Health will link with on-going action and advocacy activities, providing concrete benefits and vehicles for action by community participants. These on-going activities include programs for home energy conservation and efficiency (reducing local pollution, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, shrinking utility bills); community gardens, farmers markets; and reducing exposure to lead hazards, asthma triggers and pesticides.

neighborhoodleadership.org

ehw.org

earthdaycoalition.org