Environmental Issues, Community Development at Earth Day Network
Earthday Network logo
Homepage About EDN News Get Involved Programs & Events Support EDN Resources
Programs & Events Programs & Events
Campaign for Communities
Water for Life
Submit Your Events
Find Groups & Events


Campaign for Communities

Campaign for Communities is a joint coalition of Earth Day Network, NAACP National Voter Fund, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Project Vote/ACORN. This historic coalition is committed to a long-term project building healthy communities through participatory democracy. As a new coalition representing the multiple cultures and demographics of America, Campaign for Communities is focused on fully engaging and uniting the interests of environmental and community development problems that persist in our communities.

Our Mission

Campaign for Communities’ mission is to broaden the environmental movement and redefine its agenda by including non-traditional environmental issues that face communities of color and low-income communities.

Campaign for Communities is breaking old barriers to change the face of the environmental movement. We are seeking environmental equality and the right of all people to live in healthy communities regardless of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status or geography.

Addressing Environmental Issues Facing Our Communities

Campaign for Communities has expanded the meaning of “environment” to include issues not typically associated with it, including clean schools, access to public transportation, asthma prevention and healthy and affordable homes.

We are building a solid national agenda to address tough environmental issues facing our communities, such as:

  • Crumbling Infrastructure
  • Unsafe Drinking Water
  • Children’s Environmental Health
  • Air Pollution
  • Water Pollution
  • Lack of Public Transportation

What We Are Doing

The Campaign for Community partners focus primarily on the under-represented: low income, people of color, and youth. In addition to educating and mobilizing communities, each of our major partners also works to train and promote new community leaders. We often work directly with our community-based partners on leadership training at the local level and organizing around local community development issues.

While we build long-term community infrastructure, we educate, train, and register voters. Our goal is to make sure that people who would not otherwise vote are registered and mobilized - to help traditionally underrepresented voting constituencies participate.

Earth Day Network and our Campaign for Community partners were able to implement the first step in the process of broadening the environmental movement and redefining its agenda. That first step was our voter registration, education, and mobilization activities and efforts.

In the 2004 presidential elections, Campaign for Communities registered and turned out close to one million new and infrequent voters from communities of color and college campuses.

The next steps will be to empower our targeted communities around the new environmental/community health/community development agenda through increased public education and awareness.

Using the 35th anniversary of Earth Day we will highlight issues that affect our target communities such as community development, health, housing, schools, access to decent jobs, livable communities, consumer protection, environment, and worker safety.

Vote for Change

Get involved and let your politicians know what you think! Campaign for Communities is about reaching out to diverse communities and uniting behind a common goal – to improve the quality of life in our communities. The first step to this process is voting. Register to vote today!