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Our Partner Network
None of our work would be possible without giving credit to the company we keep.
Check out *some* of our amazing partners & major donors!
(For a full list of partners, check out our Annual Report below.)
PODER, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources, is a social and environmental justice organization based in East Austin. PODER was formed in 1991 to increase communities of color in East Austin's participation in political and economic decisions and to combat environmental racism.
Start:Empowerment's environmental justice (EJ) curriculum was taught in their annual Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) program for youth ages 14-18 to learn about the intersections of environmental justice (EJ) principles with community issues, as well as foundational organizational operational and organizing skills.
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Current Coalition Member
National Wildlife Foundation's
The Climate and Resilience Education Task Force (CRETF) is a project of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in New York City. CRETF is dedicated to increasing access to interdisciplinary climate education and professional learning opportunities in New York's schools. The Task Force collectively manages a range of projects that advance climate education in New York.
Start:Empowerment has been a member since 2020 and has participated in furthering climate literacy and education policy and is currently aiding in creating a mock statewide climate education platform with the coalition.
National Grid has built 4 out of 5 phases of a massive fracked gas transmission pipeline in North Brooklyn called the Metropolitan Reliability Infrastructure (MRI) or as the coalition dubs it, the North Brooklyn Pipeline. This project is not a replacement of leaking pipelines, it is an expansion to charge us, the rate-payers, millions of dollars in rate hikes to fill its shareholders’ pockets without community consent. Dangerous fracked gas now flows from Brownsville to Bushwick with a direct connection (if completed) to even more dangerous liquefied gas (LNG) depot on Newtown Creek
Start:Empowerment works in partnership with members of the coalition like Sane Energy Project and Frack Outta BK to organize actions and provide community education support in bringing awareness to N Brooklyn neighborhoods since 2022.
NY Renews is a coalition of over 300 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups, and the force behind the nation’s most progressive climate law calling for clean, green jobs and climate justice.
Start:Empowerment has been a member since 2020 and our work under the coalition has primarily been focused on the passing of the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) supporting low-income communities disproportionately hurt by climate change with revenue generated by a fee to polluters. We helped co-organize 2 of the largest protests held in May and November 2021.
The first members of the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend (IPCB) came together in 2016 but in 2018, they began fighting for Indigenous Rights and received their first proclamation honoring the collective as IPCB. Their mission is to preserve, conserve, and cultivate (an) indigenous culture in the Coastal Bend area, where their ancestors once lived together.
Start:Empowerment's work with IPCB includes helping to organize their protest against Enbridge and help IPCB sustain its on-the-ground and operational work as a collective through the provision of advisory and PR services.
The Connected Chef (CC) is a non-profit that works with families to teach them how to cook and garden with what they have available. Additionally, they are the creators of the Lifeline Grocery Initiative which directly delivers these goods to over 700 households out of work and unable to collect unemployment and provides sliding scale groceries to the Queens, NY community.
Start:Empowerment works in partnership with CC to co-operate the Food Justice Coalition (FJC) and provide in-school grocery support for our student and family network.
The Freedom Agenda NY, the vehicle for the Renewable Rikers project, believes that the bare minimum to start addressing Rikers Island's horrific legacy is to ensure, as the jails there are closed, that the island’s future uses benefit and respond to the wishes of the people and communities that have been harmed through its long, painful history. After hundreds of conversations with people who’ve been incarcerated on Rikers and had loved ones there, a consensus emerged: use the island for green infrastructure through the Renewable Rikers Plan.
Start:Empowerment's work includes providing research and organizing support to the implementation of the Renewable Rikers Act (the closing of Rikers Island and the return of that land to community determination) under the #RenewableRikers campaign.
