Last week, the Supreme Court issued three decisions that have profoundly damaged our country’s ability to address pollution and climate change. We in the nonprofit sector must do all we can to shore up vulnerable communities in the face of these attacks.
Young people continue to be underrepresented in our democracy, and COVID-19 has severely curtailed traditional youth voter registration efforts. As a result, Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project is using digital tools to reach potential voters and providing the information they need to navigate the 2020 election and beyond. Rachel’s Network is providing Student PIRGs a grant to help enable this work.
Are women more likely to support and champion environmental legislation? Rachel’s Network has been seeking answers to that question in our When Women Lead report. Previous iterations of the report analyzed the voting records of federal legislators going back to 1983 using League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Environmental Scorecard data. This year, we’ve extended our data to 1972, the year that LCV first began keeping records of Congress’ votes on the environment.
Rachel’s Network announced that it has awarded environmental justice advocate Juliana Pino with its inaugural Catalyst Award. Juliana is policy director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), a community-based frontline group that organizes for environmental justice and self-determination of immigrant, low-income, and working-class families. She was lead negotiator for low-income programs in the 2016 Illinois Future Energy Jobs Act, the most transformative piece of energy system legislation in the state’s history.
Rachel’s Network announced that it has awarded environmental policy leader Brionté McCorkle with its inaugural Catalyst Award. Brionté is the director of Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV) where she works to elect pro-environment candidates and hold elected officials accountable. In 2014, Brionté led the Georgia Sierra Club’s successful effort to expand Atlanta’s transit system.
