Today, the Wisconsin Environmental Justice and Infrastructure Initiative (EJII) announced Capacity Building Grants to aid Wisconsin advocacy organizations in need of support in raising community awareness on environmental justice issues. EJII will be offering grants ranging from $1,000 – $10,000 to organizations for the purpose of increasing community-wide awareness of climate change. The funds are designed to assist Wisconsin-based organizations in building the technical capacity and skills to support the EJII’s collective environmental justice and climate resilience work across the state of Wisconsin.
The EJII seeks to unite diverse grassroots environmental organizations and develop an innovative approach that assists communities of color in receiving the resources, support and recognition they need to foster transformative environmental impact. As a coalition, the EJII provides numerous environmental organizations with educational and financial resources while aligning around common goals that ignite equitable public access and influence around infrastructure investments to benefit communities across the state of Wisconsin.
“Environmental Justice affects us all in different ways and for some, the effects are far more severe because of the compounding impact of existing social and economic inequities,” said Antonio Butts, Executive Director for Walnut Way Conservation Corp, the organization facilitating the Wisconsin EJII. “EJII is an effort to increase participation, resources and influence of impacted communities across Wisconsin, partnering to address environmental justice and infrastructure issues.”