Program Officer Laura Fernandez Gains Inspiration from GreenLatinos

Rose Foundation Program Officer Laura Fernandez attended the annual GreenLatinos summit to learn about how environmental leaders in Latino communities are taking action for healthier and more just communities. Here is Laura’s account on her experience at the recent GreenLatinos Summit.

Gathered at the footsteps of the awe-inspiring Rocky Mountains in Colorado, a broad coalition of Latino leaders, committed to addressing the most pressing environmental issues affecting the health and welfare of Latino communities in our country, participated in the annual GreenLatinos Summit. The panel discussions, inspiring presentations, outdoor activities, and insightful breakout sessions covered topics ranging from climate disasters and relief efforts, to California fires and hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico, to environmental health disparities, and equity and inclusion in the environmental movement.

The summit convened at a critical moment when our communities, our identity, and our natural environment are under persistent siege and facing an unstable political climate. Because of our shared circumstances, I found the core policy priorities for the upcoming year that were proposed, discussed, and voted on during the summit particularly important.

The GreenLatinos Summit brought together environmental justice leaders from all over the country

These core policy priorities served as a roadmap for GreenLatinos to work in coalition with its members through policy working groups to educate policymakers, stakeholders and the public at-large. They are developing position papers, research, and insights on the broad implications of these priorities to the Latino community, and coordinating advocacy, while providing leadership to effect change. The priorities are also relevant to the mission, vision, and values of our work at the Rose Foundation. All the issues below are intersectional and central to our grantmaking and New Voices Are Rising youth program, as well as to the way we operate as a philanthropic organization that internally reflects, represents, and supports the diverse communities in which we work, from Oakland to Puget Sound and across the nation.

GreenLatinos Core Policy Priorities 2018 – 2019:

• Clean Transportation
• Clean Water
• Climate Change & Clean Air
• Environmental Justice & Civil Rights Protections for Communities
• Public Lands

“GreenLatinos believes that Latino communities have a right to live in environmentally healthy, just, and vibrant places. We seek to build an inclusive table at which our members establish collaborative partnerships and networks to improve the environment; protect and promote conservation of land and other natural resources; amplify the voices of minority, low-income and tribal communities; and train, mentor, and promote current and future generations of Latino environmental leaders for the benefit of the Latino community and beyond.” – GreenLatinos