The Program to Facilitate Environmental Justice in Minority and Under Served Communities works across the various disciplines in building partnerships and collaboration to achieve environmental justice and healthy communities. The purpose of this project is to assist minority educational institutions in the following two areas: (1) expanding and enhancing educational research opportunities in health promotion and disease prevention related to exposure to hazardous substances in the environment; and (2) providing education and information to African American communities and Hispanic communities, and other minority communities that are affected by hazardous waste sites and that have environmental justice concerns. This program includes two major EJRC's projects: the Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty Initiative and the Dickson County Landfill Toxic Racism Case.

Race and Regional Equity This project targets African American leaders and institutions to support research, policy, and advocacy on equitable development, smart growth, transportation, and regional equity. There are two major components to this project: continue collaboration with the African American Forum for Race and Regionalism (AAFRR); and the Cleveland African American Regionalism Project. The report Regionalism: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity to All, is a product of this collaboration and is intended to show how equity must be seen as a corner stone in regional planning, not a stumbling block. This study was commissioned by the Presidents’ Council of Cleveland. In addition, the goals of this research is to identify equity based regional policies that could improve conditions for the African American community, increase the social health and economic vitality of the entire Cleveland region, providing benefits to all residents of the Cleveland metropolitan region.

Disaster and Emergency Response The EJRC is involved in research, public policy analysis, community outreach, technical assistance, education and training, information dissemination, and publication under this project. The project utilize the diverse assets (using a multidisciplinary sector approach) of environmental justice, smart growth, transportation justice, equitable development, and healthy communities scholars, researchers, practitioners, and activists to identify and develop a research, policy, legislative, and "action agenda" for addressing key problems created and or exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina, i.e., environmental contamination, waste management, toxic exposure, transportation, access to jobs, uneven metropolitan growth, spatial mismatch, sprawl-driven development, etc.

National Equity and Smart Growth Initiative As a follow-up to the EJRC's Suburban Sprawl Research Project and the Atlanta Transportation Equity Project , the center has undertaken a National Equity and Smart Growth Initiative. This national initiative is designed to explore social equity issues as smart growth solutions are sought to address transportation, air quality, land use, affordable housing, gentrification, predatory lending, concentrated poverty, access to jobs, redlining, schools, parks and green space, brownfields, community economic development, and related urban concerns.

Metropolitan Atlanta Suburban Sprawl and Smart Growth Project examines the effects of urban sprawl in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area on the region's minority and low-income populations and formulated action plans and policy agenda to address the needs of negatively impacted communities. This research project uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine equity impacts of suburban sprawl on demographic trends, governance, public policy and planning, and minority opportunities. This project addresses the issue that urban sprawl has unintended consequences that are not randomly distributed. Sprawl-fueled urban disinvestments, depresses property values, and stagnates business opportunities in central cities where African Americans and other people of color are concentrated.

The Atlanta Transportation Equity Project (ATEP) is a collaboration with local, regional, and national organizations and the EJRC to explore transportation issues in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. The project will expand the transportation and urban sprawl work currently underway at the EJRC. It will use an interdisciplinary approach to examine transportation issues and : (1) Demographic Trends, (2)Governance, (3) Public Policy and Planning, (4) Minority Opportunities, and (5) Social, Economic, and Physical Mobility.

Building Environmental Stewardship Program seeks to assist, support, train, and educate minority students, faculty, and staff on issues of environmental justice and sustainability.

The People of Color Environmental Groups Directory 2000 is the only resource guide of its type in the country. The current edition of the directory lists more than 400 people-of-color groups from 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, up from 200 groups in 1992. Created as a standard reference guide, the directory is designed to help environmental justice organizations network with one another, as well as aid public and private decisionmakers reach community constituents and stakeholder groups.

Information Clearinghouse: The EJRC serves as a major archive and repository for multimedia (i.e. videos, audio tapes, documentary and educational films, photographs, and slide exhibition, books, monographs, newsletters, and technical reports that chronicle the history and activities of the environmental justice movement. The EJRC also retrieves, compiles and disseminates environmental justice literature, abstracts, articles, monographs, and hearing testimony to major conferences and national meetings. The material will be disseminated to the environmental justice network leaders, grassroots groups, civil rights organizations, HBCU/MI Consortium Institutions, and the other minority institutions (MIs) upon request. The components of the information clearing house are: internet web site, multimedia and video archive, annotated bibliographies, vita bank, mailing lists, databases, toxic release inventory, community access and use of the Internet, communications and networking, needs assessment, surveys, and expert testimony.

The 3rd edition of The People of Color Environmental Groups Directory (C.S. Mott 2000), compiled by the Environmental Justice Resource Center, lists over 400 people of color, resource, and legal groups from 40 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The directory includes resource groups on a wide range of technical, research, legal education, and training support. It also profiles more than a dozen people of color grassroots struggles from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It has an annotated bibliography, list of videos, and selected web sites. The Curriculum Resource Guide is the result of a national survey of colleges and universities, conducted by the EJRC, to retrieve information and profiles on environmental justice course offerings, syllabi, student research, and internship projects in a wide range of disciplines such as environmental studies, sociology, transportation, urban planning, land use, political science, housing, law, public health, geography, business, natural resources, public administration, waste management, pollution prevention, risk assessment, occupational health and safety, and international affairs. The information collected from the surveys will be compiled in a Curriculum Resource Guide book that highlights model environmental justice syllabi, resource material and student projects. The Guide will also contain an interdisciplinary annotated bibliography. The Guidebook will be made available on the Internet and distributed to HBCUs/MIs and to other institutions on request. The EJRC Video Productions in conjunction with CAU-TV produces videos. The videos are used as education and training materials by government, nongovernmental organizations, and educational institutions. This component involves working in conjunction with students, faculty, and staff at CAU-TV and the Mass Communication Department. Archiving the videos include: script development, video taping, film editing, video production, post production and distribution, press releases and briefings, electronic newsletter, marketing, media relations, publicity, and news. The videos listed in the Video Directory highlights the diverse issues linked to environmental injustice. Many of the videos show communities taking direct action to address their specific problem. The videos can be instructive in educating the public about major environmental problems in or near people's homes, neighborhoods, and works places. The video directory will be updated and expanded as additional material is retrieved. The Annotated Bibliography is designed as an educational resource and will be periodically updated. An interdisciplinary approach was taken in highlighting some of the major studies, articles, reports, monographs, and books written on environmental justice. The subject has captured the attention of a wide range of authors ranging from community activists, social scientists, environmentalists, lawyers, planners, health care professionals, and journalists. The annotated bibliography presents the environmental justice literature, which has blossomed over the past twenty years (1980-2000). The Press Releases are part of the EJRC intense outreach and communication strategy to educate the community, community-based organizations, elected officials, legislators, and opinion leaders on environmental justice issues in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. The press releases will address such issues as: transportation, air pollution, asthma, and respiratory illnesses among people of color in the Atlanta region.

The Technical Support and Outreach to Communities Project provides technical support and outreach to several grassroots community groups in their struggle for environmental and economic justice.

Training Institute:

The Brownfields Job Training Program is a partnership, between Clark Atlanta University, Xavier University, the Laborers International Union of North America, and the Center to Protect Workers' Rights, to develop and implement a comprehensive job training program designed to (1) foster economic and environmental restoration of brownfields communities and (2) provide training to socio-economically disadvantaged young adults interested in careers in the construction and environmental industry. The Minority Worker Training Program is a partnership, between Clark Atlanta University, Xavier University, and the Laborers International Union of North America, to develop and implement a comprehensive job training program designed to socio-economically disadvantaged young adults interested in careers in the construction and environmental industry. The Atlanta Housing Authority Youth Apprenticeship Training Program is a partnership between Clark Atlanta University, Georgia State University, and the Atlanta and North Georgia Building Trades to provide public housing residents with the academic and occupational skills needed to work in the construction industry and qualify for entrance into any of the building trades apprenticeship and training programs.