Module 5: Advancing Health Equity with Environmental Justice

A guiding principle for engaging environmental justice communities is recognizing that community members are experts in their own lived experience. Community members also have relevant knowledge through intensive study of information relevant to the environmental challenges they face. To holistically address environmental injustices, it is essential to foster authentic and meaningful participation from environmental justice communities and other nontraditional partners in the development of policies and programs. 

Meaningful engagement with environmental justice communities will support comprehensive cancer control planning in their ability to:

• Identify priority concerns and knowledge among community members and underlying cancer risks
• Enhance understanding of those risks given lived experiences
• Gain insights into potential risk reduction strategies
• Ensure effective program development and implementation through sustainable collaborative partnerships

To foster meaningful participation from members of environmental justice communities, it is essential to actively mitigate the daily obstacles they encounter. Examples of approaches to support the increased engagement of environmental justice community members in cancer coalition activities include:

• Offering meetings in the community. Community members cannot always be expected to travel to attend meetings outside of their area. Arranging for meetings in the community provides multiple benefits.
• Offering special meeting times. Meetings scheduled during standard work hours may exclude many environmental justice community members whose jobs make it impossible for them to join virtual calls or in-person meetings during the workday. Consider querying what times work best for community members and schedule meeting times accordingly.
• Providing non-English language accessibility through translation and interpretation. English may not be the first language of many environmental justice community members in your state.  Meaningful engagement will require providing translation and interpretation in languages spoken by community members.
• Offering stipends to support people’s time and effort during meetings and/or provide services at the meeting, such as childcare. Providing funds to cover direct costs incurred by community members, such as child-care or transportation, can make the difference in a community member’s ability to participate in meetings or events. Scarce financial resources may also be a reality for environmental justice organizations representing specific community interests during cancer coalition meetings; offering stipends can make it possible for these organizations to engage and sustain their involvement and can signal that you value their contributions.