It may sound like an idealist goal, but we believe that human nature and human ingenuity are better than what our cultural mirror is showing us right now. Our current reflection is filled with injustice and carelessness, despite how well advertising and the world of commodities seem to gloss over this. EcoAware is about calling on the best in each of us and creating something better. Innovative things happen when we focus on our strengths and collective wisdom.
We welcome everyone to the table with whatever knowledge or time you have to offer. There are so many things we can do; it’s simply a matter of choosing something and then acting on it. No matter how small or big. Each act is valid and valued. Many small daily acts of EcoAWareness can lead to larger actions.
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM THE ECOAWARE PROJECT IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS.
EcoAware Advocacy trainings are small group trainings and personal empowerment sessions. Learn advocacy skills and ideas for how to get involved in creating Eco(A)wareness in your neighborhood and household environments. Become an EcoAWare advocate.
Healthy Home Parties are quick, hands-on learning sessions about our immediate environment. There are thousands of chemicals in everyday products, but few have been adequately tested for health effects. Find out where dangerous chemicals lurk in your house and about safer substitutes. These home parties will also offer participants an opportunity to voice their concerns about how toxic chemicals may be impacting their life. We will be collecting photos, children’s drawings, letters and stories to deliver to our local elected officials and community leaders impressing upon them the importance of taking action to protect our health by protecting the environment. Join one of 100 home parties that will come together in next two years.
Women and Their Toxic World and Caustic Spring are two WEI publications that will be released as educational tools near the end of 2007. They will take a penetrating look at our over-reliance on toxic chemicals, what it’s doing to humans and nature and the innovative policies and practices that are re-shaping our future for the better.
EcoAware Knowledge Cabinet will be hosted on the WEI website with current updates on research about toxic exposures in our everyday lives and what you can do about this.
WASTE Papers, read this and recycle, this 8-page free publication will provide practical information on EcoAware conscious living and information about WEI’s environmental justice and sustainability projects and policy work. Watch also for neighborhood lit drops of WEI flyers
(in various translations) to turn your daily life into acts of small resistance.
Democracy School is a weekend training about reclaiming democracy from the hegemonic grip corporations. How did they get so much power and how do we get it back?
Precautionary Principle School is another weekend long training. In this school, learn how to develop new policies and knowledge claims not based on absolute causality but on the precautionary principle. How in the absence of absolute certitude can we create policies designed to prevent health and environmental problems instead of settling for “allowable thresholds” for toxic pollutants?
Connect-the-Dots is a day-long gathering that will examine four locations near and far away where communities struggle with industrial pollution. What are the connections between Bhopal, India, Seadrift, Texas, Oakdale, Minnesota and the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis? This day will showcase WEI’s research program and community actions, and share (tentatively) the evening with Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman and radical environmental activist from Seadrift, Texas.
From the Home to the Summit. A weekend conference gathering in 2008 that will provide an opportunity for the participants of our previous gatherings and workshops and newcomers to vision together and create a road map for a better future. This gathering will include round table sessions for people to discuss policy opportunities at all levels. Driven by the people, this is an opportunity to combine our skills and knowledge with diverse stakeholders at the table into effective policy and action plans.
EcoAware’s two year birthday will be celebrated with a Rally at the Capitol with other environmental justice and environmental groups. On this day, our voices will become one and we will demand protection of the commons, promotion of environmental justice, proactive and preventive environmental health policies and better environmental protections for our neighborhoods and homes. We will lay down all of our toxic household and personal care products on the steps of the Capitol and refuse to surrender our lives to these toxic contaminations. Help us create a public and legislative attitude that human health includes prevention of man-made environmentally-caused illnesses and the right to toxic free environments.