Since 1989, the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment has centered our Theory of Change in our work through community-led organizing, community lawyering and policy advocacy.
Our founder, Luke Cole, was one of the nation’s most important and innovative environmental attorneys, who also served as CRPE’s first Executive Director for many years. While representing low-income communities and workers throughout California in fighting environmental hazards, he stressed the need for community-led organizing and litigation, and provided technical support with this model to other attorneys nationwide. Our co-founder, Ralph Abascal, also centered communities in more than 200 major cases and left his mark on nearly every major facet of civil rights legal advocacy.
For more than 35 years, CRPE has been working alongside low-income communities and communities of color in California’s San Joaquin Valley to lift up the voices and collective power of those who are most impacted by environmental harms.
The Valley is home to the worst air pollution in the nation, some of largest waste dumps west of the Mississippi, intense oil and gas production, and a dense agricultural landscape that has complex air and water issues. It is also the nation’s poorest region, according to the Congressional Research Service, which means it lacks the resources to fight these issues. But, it is also home to people with a robust vision for change and a history of resiliency, culture and power. It is where the farmworkers movement originated, which resounded across the nation and had tremendous impact. CRPE builds on these rich traditions and it allows us to scale up our work in Kern and Tulare counties and across the state.
