Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, a Sunset Park-based grassroots community-based organization working on climate change and racial justice, discussed the importance of this collaboration.
She said that to truly operationalize a just transition, unconventional partnerships must be created that genuinely work with community leadership and support frontline community-led priorities.
“Too often, we see frontline communities like Sunset Park get left out of these large billion-dollar infrastructure projects that impact our community,” Yeampierre said. ”We need clean energy but we also need accessible workforce training, education, resources and direct investments to strengthen social cohesion and build long-term community wealth.”