Shared Struggle Strengthens Environmental Movement
Published December 7, 2023
Posted by MacArthur Foundation
Starting around 2011, Wasserman’s organization banded together with four other neighborhood groups to form the Chicago Environmental Justice Network (CEJN). Together, they pool resources to address industrial projects and structural environmental injustices across the South and West Sides—communities facing severe environmental and health disparities due to their proximity to pollution sources. CEJN amplifies the voices of women of color in the environmental justice movement—women who, as Wasserman said, were brought into the cause out of necessity. For Wasserman, that moment came in 1998, when her oldest son was diagnosed with asthma at 3 months old.