Please see the follow up items and updates to from our April Convening!
Conference Close-out and Logistics
- Reimbursements? For those of you who need to submit receipts for reimbursements, please follow the instructions on the micro-site (here) and get those in ASAP so they can be process. Feel free to reach out directly to Colleen Baker for questions and concerns. cbaker@americanrivers.org, 202-243-7069.
- Interest in advising a CREWs Learning community? Over the past couple of months, it has been a pleasure to work with the convening planning committee. At this point in time, what I’d like to do is identify 3-5 individuals that are interested in helping guide the next steps of this learning community. Again, please reach out to me if you have an interest. More to come!
- Upcoming opportunity to reconnect in New Orleans! If you will be attending US Water Alliance’s One Water Summit in New Orleans (or have an interest in attending), please let me know ASAP so we can find a space/time for us to reconnect. (see more information below)
Announcements from grantee partner organizations
US Water Alliance: The US Water Alliance is hosting their annual One Water Summit in New Orleans from June 27-29. It is the premier conference focused on sustainable and equitable water management. As Radhika mentioned, they are offering reduced registration for our water grantees/partners. See more information on the website.
Ceres: wanted to share their brand new website and our 2016 Annual report highlighting the significant progress we have made in moving investor and companies to take bold, unprecedented action to ensure a sustainable future for our families and for the planet.
Alliance for Water Efficiency: Has launched the Net Blue work products that we have worked on over the last two and a half years. You can read our press release here and the work products are live at www.net-blue.org. We will also hold a webinar on June 7 to introduce the Toolkit and registration is available here. We are incredibly proud of the work that has been done to change the way we think about land use and water resources. With the help of an enthusiastic and expert Project Advisory Committee and seven motivated partner cities, we have created a suite of tools that we hope will be useful to any community that might want to consider a water-neutral development ordinance.
We hope you will help us spread the word about these resources. Below are some draft social media messages that you may wish to adapt and share with your online communities. If your organization is interested in utilizing your blog or other platforms to share, we encourage you to use the Fact Sheet/FAQ available or to reach out to us for assistance.
Sincerely, The Net Blue Project Team: Alliance for Water Efficiency, River Network, and the Environmental Law Institute
Georgetown Climate Center, Equity Adaptation Portal: In this portal we will refer to people facing disproportionate climate impacts as "frontline communities" since these are groups that are on the frontlines of impacts from climate change. http://www.adaptationclearinghouse.org/networks/adaptation-equity-portal/
Next steps for the learning community?
During our closing circle on the last day of the convening, many of you made suggestions/commitments to continue connecting in the short term. I have attempted to capture these in list below. If this is incomplete, or inaccurate, please let me know. Once we have a complete list, the ‘newly forming’ advisory team and I will sketch out a proposed path forward as a first step….and hopefully this could be a part of the discussion in New Orleans if we are able to come together!|
Jessica/Melissa |
Add resources to the GCC site; give access to equity portal and microsite; |
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Ella |
Interested in resource sharing around neighborhood engagement models |
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Megan |
Sharing Legislative Watch Initiative to track equity-related water |
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Jenny |
Do an asset mapping of our group; work to establish a framework of how we will work together |
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Mary Ann |
Add water and equity to Alliance for Water Efficiency site; working on water affordability; |
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Karen |
Create some webinar training for the topics that came up; use microsite to share the documents; bring investors to the table |
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Lauri M. |
Short form content and OpEds |
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Ronda |
Want community partners at next convening |
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Brenda |
Put out a statement or paper of solidarity talking about the water shutoffs in Detroit |
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Darryl |
Pull in other networks to come into the room |
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Radhika |
Mapping to understand how we fit together; having a sidebar conversation at the OneWater Summit |
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Laurie W. |
Have a ‘top to bottom’ collaboration; how it ties together; opportunity to illustrate the One Water concept and tell that story a different way; creating a case study of your grantees to connect the dots working |
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Mark |
Gather solutions – collect them in one place |
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Shawn |
Do not forget small, mid-size cities |
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Michael |
Training around racism; history, power analysis |
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Lila |
Definition of equity, accountability- who will be accountable to whom; no bottled water |
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Diana |
Would be really helpful to talk to each other since we are all serving as change agents; how to bring this type of training into the network; |
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Derrick |
How we can convene municipal leaders to learn how to run water systems; involve rural water cooperatives; create convening and governing best practices; understand how resources are being allocated at the state level; |
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Josh |
Ways to leverage partnerships between cities, nonprofits, and community foundations; important to just knock the fence down |
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Michael |
Equality is sameness; equity is fairness |
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Susanna |
Community partners do work on policy too! |
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Mary Wright |
JFFs resources |
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Matt |
Describe the cost of inequity; how do we create a framework around that |
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Gary |
Clean Water 4 All campaign; discovery of his intrinsic bias |
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Darryl |
Didn’t spend time discussing white guilt, but got to the issues (positive); Create a rating system for investors to use when they are proposing investment opportunities; make sure some of fun is being rededicated back to the community |
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Kimery |
Have more conversation around ‘allyship’ and how to enter into it effectively; water justice communications |
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Kim |
Training videos (referenced by Seattle Public Utilities) |
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Adam |
Continue discussion on federal policy; more informal networking |
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Zoe |
Sharing the water equity briefing paper |
Quotes shared during the convening
If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy.If the world were merely challenging, that would be no
problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire
to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or
savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
E.B. White
Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke the wisdom – a mind stretched by experience and learning never returns to its normal size
[Every good law or case you study was once a dream. Every good law or case you study was dismissed as impossible or impractical for decades before it was enacted]. Give your creative thoughts free reign, for it is only in the hearts and dreams of people seeking a better world that true social justice has a chance.
… remember that we cannot give what we do not have. If we do not love ourselves, we will be hard pressed to love others. If we are not just with ourselves, we will find it very difficult to look for justice with others. In order to become and remain a social justice advocate, you must live a healthy life. Take care of yourself as well as others. Invest in yourself as well as in others. No one can build a house of justice on a foundation of injustice. Love yourself and be just to yourself and do the same with others. As you become a social justice advocate, you will experience joy, inspiration and love in abundant measure.
Bill Quigley
Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.
Joel A. Barker
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.
Paul Hawken
If there ever was a moment to change the world, this is that moment
That moment when everywhere we turn
The air is filled with the sounds of women
Weeping for their children
Husbands calling to their wives.
Babies born into chaos and confusion
A world desperately in need of changing
A world filled with questions
To which we must find answers
That are grounded in our humanity
Shaped by our compassion and informed by our membership in
This unique community of women and men
Who accept responsibility for changing the world…
And this is the promise, this must be the promise, we will not be the ones to break the chain.
Pearl Cleage
Do your best to find a small circle of people with whom you can create a community, with whom you can travel a road together. And build in a way so that you’re learning about yourself, about the world, about fortitude & character…Share that…
The Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values
