Environmental Justice

With an environmental justice commitment at its center, ECO Girls especially aims to reach girls of color and girls in economically challenged areas who have less access to green spaces, whose neighborhoods too often become dumping grounds for pollution, and whose communities are under-informed about the effects and risks of global climate change and natural resource depletion. The conceptualization of ECO Girls also accepts the thesis of ecofeminist scholars that environmental issues profoundly affect women and girls. All over the world (with variations in definition and degree depending on geography and wealth) women and girls carry out domestic and community activities (such as gathering water & biomass for fuel, nursing babies, feeding families) that are dependent on natural resources within degraded environmental contexts. In economically privileged nations like the U.S., women frequently direct household shopping and consumption norms; they are therefore situated at the cross-roads of culture change for families and communities regarding the creation (and recovery) of sustainable life ways.

ECO Girls organizers share the view that by fostering in girls a connection with and understanding of nature, and by teaching girls about a range of cultural strengths, values, and strategies, we can build on solid ground the kind of self-empowerment that comes from knowing one’s place in the world. Education, emplacement, and empowerment, then, become our stepping stones of positive change -- for girls and the women they will become, for their diverse communities, and for the earth that is the heart of it all.