Fathers and Families of San Joaquin (Health Justice) CalEPA Final Report

Healing, Re-imagining, and Re-investing Stockton

Report 2018-2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01

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Letter from the Executive Director

Our Mission

Formerly Incarcerated Roundtable Discussion

Testing Workshops

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2019-2020 Projects Overview

Environmental Justice (EJ) Workshop Series

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Community Beautification

Participation in EJ Planning Process

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Photovoice

Conclusions

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Intergenerational Elder Interview

Thank You Acknowledgements

Stockton is a city on the rise. While Stockton has a past of redlining, foreclosures, and bankruptcy that created economic hardships for low-income communities of color, a wave of recent investments and community efforts are beginning to bring transformation in the most impacted neighborhoods. On many metrics, Stockton and much of the Central Valley has bad environmental conditions from high diesel emissions, climate risk, and other social vulnerabilities.

We cannot ignore that many in Stockton that are living on the margins and pushed aside from the structural and systemic injustices and a long history of disinvestment. When the soil is bad then it is hard to get a seed to germinate and grow; similarly, having bad environmental conditions make it hard for people to thrive and seek better conditions.

organizations and South Stockton residents worked through a planning process to create a Sustainable Neighborhood Plan. This has led to Stockton receiving investments to better the environment through a $10.8 million Transformative Climate Communities Implementation Grant as well as state funding from AB 617 to do emissions reductions initiatives.

Fathers & Families of San Joaquin (FFSJ) has worked diligently to build the capacity of disinvested-in communities to push systems leaders to be more responsive to community needs and amplify the voices of our most marginalized populations such as systems-impacted youth, formerly incarcerated, and families experiencing trauma. In 2016, we conducted a series of forums titled “Greenlining the Hood” which sought to educate the public about the effects of redlining in our communities. It was through these forums that community members were able to realize the structural and environmental vulnerabilities they faced in their neighborhoods and voice the need for more green spaces in Stockton.

Through the collective efforts of community based organizations, city entities and officials, and investment of private philanthropy, Stockton is becoming a place of innovation with a bright future.

We believe that “nothing about us without us is for us.” As black, indigenous, and people of color, we have a history of environmental stewardship and connection with the land. It is our duty to care for our natural environment soon and with our whole hearts or there may not be a natural environment. If you would like to be a part of our efforts please feel free to reach out to us and we look forward to building with you.

Since that time, Stockton has moved forward toward bringing in more investment and initiatives to address environmental justice and climate equity concerns. A coalition of community based

This report lays out some of the work FFSJ conducted within environmental justice from 2019-2020 thanks to an investment from the California Environmental Protection Agency around our Greenlining the Hood Initiative. These include efforts to build environmental stewards/leaders, improve air quality, plant healing trees, and develop parks - all within an environmental justice framework. We hope this information can be useful to others to: learn about environmental transformative work happening locally from the perspective of a grassroots nonprofit, look at effective ways to engage residents in environmental justice learning and service activities, and learn how to better incorporate qualitative perspectives and stories with the quantitative data piece with both methodologies being owned by the residents.

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OUR

MISSION Fathers and Families of San Joaquin

Founded in 2003, Fathers & Families of San Joaquin (FFSJ) is a racial justice organization whose mission is “to promote the social, cultural, spiritual, economic, and environmental renewal of the most vulnerable families in Stockton and the greater San Joaquin Valley. Together, we are reimagining what’s possible for ourselves, our families, and our communities. We lead with purpose, passion and an unyielding commitment to our collective liberation.” FFSJ is a progressive, solution oriented community organization working on the frontlines of racial justice, community healing, trauma-informed care, community re-entry, and education equity in Stockton, San Joaquin Valley, and throughout California. FFSJ provides socially-and culturally-relevant human services that build a foundation for intergenerational healing and leadership.

Health Justice & Environmental Justice

The Health & Environmental Justice department at Fathers & Families of San Joaquin (formerly Health Justice department) works to reverse the harm and extraction of our environment and natural resources and aims to restore healing and regeneration to the environment. With a focus on neighborhood scale we find solutions to address the social determinants of health. We build up the people who have been most impacted by environmental (in)justice, marginalized black, indigenous, and people of color, by building up environmental stewards rooted in our cultural practices and going from redlining to greenlining the neighborhood (hood).

Greenlining the Hood

Greenlining the Hood is an initiative started by Fathers & Families of San Joaquin to raise awareness of environmental (in)justice in South Stockton neighborhoods and to spur reinvestment and reimagining of how to build up sustainable communities and spur economic development. We do the community beautification piece through our urban greening Healing Roots Initiative and we do the awareness piece through our Seeds in Concrete Curriculum. Seeds in Concrete is a Youth-and System-Impacted Participatory Action Environmental Justice workshop which trains participants to cultivate a relationship to land, a relationship to community, and a relationship to self, building capacity to educate system leaders and the public to elevate community concerns through policy and Participatory Action Research.

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2019-2020

PROJECTS OVERVIEW EJ Workshop Series We held a series of environmental justice workshops called the Seeds in Concrete curriculum in the summer of 2019 as well as the summer of 2020. The workshops focus on topics such as: environmental injustice, environmental hazards, how to understand CalEnviroscreen Data, community gardening.

It also aims to teach skills such as media advocacy, design, participatory action research, and community healing.

Photovoice Our youth took photos of our environmental areas in South Stockton they felt were issues in our community and voiced their opinions on the photo they took.

Intergenerational Dialogues Conduct intergenerational dialogues and learning exchanges between youth and elders focused on the history of their neighborhoods in order to build community pride and capacity in youth to become stewards of their neighborhoods. We also hosted a roundtable discussion with youth and individuals who are formerly incarcerated to discuss the intersections between environmental justice and criminal justice and discuss ideas for developing green job pathways and opportunities.

Testing Workshops & Environmental Science In order to promote the development of community based research that protects and enhances public health and the environment we will equip community residents to start monitoring various environmental hazards (soil, water, and air). We also disbursed informational guides on environmental hazards and how to test them.

Community Beautification Part of Greenlining the Hood’s campaign is to actually make communities greener through promoting more community gardening, tree planting, and other greening projects. We undertook efforts to continue to implement our tree planting initiatives, Healing Roots tree memorials, and development of the Brandon Harrison Memorial garden.

Vision Creation & Involvement in Planning Processes Getting community participation into planning efforts that would impact the environment in South Stockton including Transformative Climate Communities, AB 617 Air Monitoring Initiative, CalEPA Environmental Justice Taskforce and broader communication through social media platforms.

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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (EJ) WORKSHOP SERIES

In 2018

We launched our Seeds-in-Concrete environmental justice workshop series. It was a weekly group that works with systems-impacted youth and formerly incarcerated individuals to teach life skills, learn the history of environmental justice and learn how to cultivate a better relationship to the natural world. We worked with a cohort of 10 participants and reviewed over topics like: learning how to plant seedlings, introduction to community gardening and #decolonizeyourdiet, introduction to environmental justice, Stockton EJ history, CalEnviroScreen, and tree planting. In addition to the workshops we focused on helping participants utilize lessons from nature to incorporate more mindfulness into their lives with incorporated reflection journal prompts and weaving in art and creative activities such as composing a haiku, creating spoken word pieces, and creating art. We have run three rounds of the EJ series (spanning 12 sessions) and presented to the Rise Stockton Collaborative and CalEPA EJ Stockton tour.

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look at the impacts of incarceration and alternatives to incarceration. The other campaign was around understanding environmental justice vulnerabilities in Stockton. It was capped off by the youth doing a photovoice tour around South Stockton.

We re-launched our Seeds-in-Concrete Environmental Justice warriors workshops virtually in 2020 working more closely with youth and young adults. In addition to improving and repeating our past workshops on local environmental justice history, CalEnviroScreen analysis, and gardening we have also expanded more workshops to include topics of climate justice, impacts on global communities, learning about environmental hazards and how to test, and environmental stewardship through an indigenous lens.

In the Summer of 2019 We held our annual summer youth academy. This is an intensive daily 5 week summer session to work with you on their summer breaks to delve into learning more about FFSJ campaigns. The summer academies are structured to begin workshops to learn the history of various campaigns, to implement their own research based project to delve in deeper, to develop skills in media and policy advocacy, and to participate in service-learning projects. The campaigns promoted included researching “Who Pays the True Cost of Incarceration” to

These workshops are vital to make sure that communities understand environmental concepts. Pollution and environmental hazards directly impact the health and wellbeing of residents living in that hazard; however, environmental concepts can seem abstract or too future-leaning and can take a backseat to more pressing issues such as economic security and violence concerns. When the only time communities hear about environmental concerns are through city and governmental agencies doing “community engagement” it can be presented in a way that is too technical, dense, and not compelling. Part of having these workshops is to distill important information in a lively and engaging way, allow for hands-on learning experiences, and to have people learn from others who understand the lived experience of pollution and who speak in a way that is accessible to the community.

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PHOTOVOICE What is Photovoice?

Photovoice is a participatory method defined as a “process by which people can identify, represent and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique.” It uses images and people’s personal commentary on that image to deconstruct problems in a detailed and qualitative way to provide a data point to be able to uplift something positive or point out something that the individual wants to take action on. We utilize photovoice to spatially document conditions on the ground that can point to specific examples of things that are improving or things that are harming the built environment. It is also a method of engagement that we value as it is an outlet for participants to be creative and have more agency in articulating their thoughts and being able to speak in their own words of change that they want to see.

Click here to view our photovoice map Photovoice has an added benefit to triangulating data to mix in qualitative perspectives with quantitative data sets. Various local and state agencies create maps and spatial data information to measure different metrics around the environment, health, economics, safety, education, among others. Many of these maps show Stockton very red, meaning that on many metrics Stockton zip codes and census tract rank are the worst in the state. By overlaying our photovoice points over these maps we can show perspectives on what might be causing the “red” or point to assets in the community that may have an impact on changing those outcomes. One map that we take interest in is the redlining map looking at the areas that were physically separated out to place hazards and to restrict economic opportunity. Overlaying this with the recent CalEnviroScreen map shows the same boundaries are the worst in environmental quality.

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During the Summer of 2018 & The Summer of 2019 We took our youth on a photovoice tour to locations they preselected to allow them to take pictures of things in their environment that they wanted to lift up.

For our photovoice efforts we held a few preliminary workshops-one to introduce photovoice and show examples, one to learn photography basic point-and-shoot techniques, and a workshop around CalEnviroScreen to understand some of the vulnerabilities in Stockton and learn about issues of concerns. We have youth identify areas that they want to visit; often they are sites within their own neighborhoods that they have personal experiences and stories of that location. Prior to the day of the photovoice, we sketch out a map of the general areas that we will be stopping by and break into groups based on the number of vans available.

After going out and taking the pictures, we hold a reflection session to display the picture and have youth write out their perspectives on that image. Finally, we work to digitize the photos and commentary on an online mapping platform so that others can click through the points and photos.

We were able to hold the photovoice as part of the 2019 summer academy but were unable to do so in 2020 due to COVID restrictions. We plan to do photovoice on a yearly basis to be able to provide a temporal look at points of interest (good or bad) over time to see whether identified problem locations see improvements and to better document promising practices that are happening due to community action and community innovation.

INTERVIEWS

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Intergenerational Our organization rolled out these two projects throughout the year: the elders intergenerational interviews and focus groups. Our task with the Elders Intergenerational Interview spanned a couple of months. This interview gathered the experiences of various elders throughout the Stockton area.

Totaling the work of staff members and youth volunteers, we were able to interview 10 elders. We used an application called Otter.ai to help transcribe our materials. The types of questions we asked pertained to each individual’s environmental factors.

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Focus Groups

One of our focus groups tackled similar questions involving their environmental spaces during incarceration. Our organization provides programs and services to help formerly incarcerated individuals re-enter society through job opportunity, training, and mentorship under our Family Strengthening Department. Through our department, we were able to obtain our two interviewees, Clay and Raul. The other focus group we conducted was with our youth and their perspective on their environment.

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INTERGENERATIONAL ELDER INTERVIEWS Why Intergenerational Exchange?

Intergenerational Elders Interviews

In many Indigenous cultures, elders are seen as bearers of wisdom.

Our youth led this interview project with elders to learn their perElders are committed to contributing their knowledge, yielding spectives on the environment and changes they have witnessed. advice, and educating others on the importance of respecting and These were intended to be intergenerational dialogues and learning listening to the natural world. A big component of an elder’s teach- exchanges between youth and elders in disadvantaged comming to society is the importance of healing. They have a close ununities, in an effort to “Reclaim Roots and Reclaim Power.” During derstanding of what holistic well being requires, which includes the these exchanges, youth interviewed elders about the importance mental and emotional aspects of one’s life. The American ideology of community, how elders view the environmental changes they of bootstrapping to better your life and achieve success, does not have witnessed over their lifetime, and how that ties into how they take into consideration the value the community they live in. Our task with : How would you describe your neighborinequalities that communities the Elders Intergenerational Interview spanned a hood to your family or friends? of color continue to face couple of months. We worked with our youth to in this country. This crehelp create the interview tool guide and recruit ates a fog between the elders to participate in the interviews. In total, elders and youth, making we were able to get a list of 21 elders interested it impossible for youth in conducting the interview. In the end, we sucto find their way back to cessfully interviewed 10 elders due to declined their original maestros. interviews as well as internet connectivity issues Our elders’ relationship to connect to the virtual interviews, abiding by with Mother Earth aligns the COVID-19 distancing protocol. with the ongoing fight for environmental awareness and justice. This intergenerational interview bridged youth to elders, allowing them to reconnect with ancestral knowledge. In addition the exchanges can also bring benefit to elders that are increasingly facing social isolation and disconnection.

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need for government officials to provide more resources on eduQ: How would you describe your neighbor hood in terms of the environmental conditions? (for example cating our youth sustainable ways of living and growing their own food, highlighting the bigger issue of food insecurity rates in San green space, trees, parks, liquor stores, crime).

“I love flowers. I need shade in the backyard. And I have that plum, the purple plum. That one gave me some beautiful shade. And I have another tree . . . I bought it for $5 and now it is huge and the shade from that tree.” “ . . . in the north side we have a lot of trees, but on the south side, no.

Depends on the neighborhood, so those with small houses, the old houses they have lesser trees.”

The responses unanimously identified the need to create green space in their neighborhoods and homes, showing already taken personal action. Our N. Stockton interviewees addressed no close proximity to liquor stores, but having access to a relatively safe park, with no crimes occurring. 50% of those interviewed mentioned trees, with half of them reporting a lack of trees in their neighborhoods. 67% of interviewees stated concern about high pollution and S. Stockton’s environment. Reflections identified S. Stockton’s lack of streets and sidewalks, abandoned streets forming potholes affecting the flow of cars and damaging tires. Concerns for the lack of trees in S. Stockton were unanimous, identifying it as a concrete jungle. One interviewee brought up concern for the Delta, with harmful algal blooms greening the water.

Q: How do you feel like your neighborhood scenery connects to safety (feeling safe) and care from the government?

55% percent of our interviewees shared having no concerns about their environment. The diversity of their neighborhoods reflected their responses of feeling safe. Another response of identifying no concerns was neighborhoods having street lights and more greenery. Our interviewees who stated concerns about their environment reflected on the need for more safety and attention to community. Concerns for community neglect suggested a call of action to divert more funding to cleaning the city’s air and water.

Another concern was the lack of fresh produce, bringing forth the

Joaquin County. One of our elders noted, “It seems like no one cares about Stockton. If we don’t even have access to clean water and air.”

Q: Is there anything you believe can be done to improve the environment?

44% of our interviewees do participate in recycling and 55% of them partake in gardening. One of our interviewees mentioned that they try to not use as much plastic as possible, while another says they only drive their car for necessities only. When it came to what they believed the government should do to improve the environment, our interviewees focused a lot on beautification.

33% of the needs addressed concentrated on clean water. Our interviewees explained how water is crucial to the Delta, comparing its level of cleanliness to the Bay Area’s water. Water was also discussed as a recreational need to cool down during the dry, scorching temperatures the summer months bring to Stockton. Air quality was mentioned by 44% of our interviewees who explained the need for more focus on clearing air pollutants, more green space, and overall more cleanliness. With 33% insisting that the shift to more access to solar energy and clean cars should be implemented, with help from the government because a lot of Stockton’s families struggle financially. An interviewee suggested, “The money can be invested in purifiers in homes, filters for vehicles, starting with children who have asthma, and investing in air purifiers.”

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Formerly Incarcerated Roundtable Discussion Why is it important to get perspectives of formerly incarcerated on the environment and green jobs?

Since our founding, one of our core campaigns has been to dismantle mass incarceration that has shown the influx of prisons built in the Central Valley and a War on Drugs that criminalized black and brown populations. We believe that criminal justice efforts are tied into environmental justice efforts; the mass construction of prisons and placement in Central Valley communities is similar to the placement of toxic waste sites in low-income communities of color. In fact these toxic sites are often placed directly next to prisons, putting the population there at a prolonged and higher exposure to environmental hazards; as an example, the Stockton Department of Juvenile Justice youth jail is located directly next to the Republic company’s dump site (a main waste disposal company in Stockton). Another overlap of formerly incarcerated issues with environmental justice is that, as we saw during the California COVID wildfire season, that incarcerated individuals were providing nearly free prison labor to help fight fires. While they were a valuable workforce, they are not provided the same opportunities to be able to qualify in forestry careers upon release due to their record. Formerly incarcerated individuals need to be a part of the just transition to green jobs as they have been severely impacted by environmental injustices and have been providing nearly free labor on the environmental careers that we need to fill.

What We Did To continue on the intergenerational exchange, we also held a roundtable / focus group discussion discussion with formerly incarcerated individuals to elucidate intersections between environmental justice and criminal justice and discuss ideas for developing green job pathways and opportunities. Our focus groups tackled similar questions involving their environmental spaces. Our organization provides programs and services to help formerly incarcerated individuals re-enter society through job opportunity, training, and mentorship under the Family Strengthening Department. We recruited participants specifically from the Back2Work program, this program is a partnership between FFSJ and CalTrans to train participants to do cleanup and beautification along the highways and is a representation of a green jobs pathway that we are trying to develop and research to expand opportunities with reentry individuals who have numerous barriers to getting jobs. Through this department, we were able to obtain our two interviewees.

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Analysis Both the interviewees addressed concerns in their physical environments, claiming a huge issue in homelessness. Our first interviewee explained, “there’s homeless all over this place. They have nowhere to go, other than St, Mary’s.” Whereas, our second interviewee stated, “One thing that stands out to me is the homelessness and their behavior. I picture life back in the early 90s and mid 80s. Now, people in the middle of the street, people pushing carts all over the place, disregard for society as a whole . . . it was different.”

When asked what they think their environment is lacking or has too much of, they agreed on the lacking end. One mentioned “I think they should have more public programs.” Raul insisted, “I think one thing our community is lacking is the connection among the public servants, and I mean firefighters, police department, post office, to be connected to the community they live in.” We were able to hear their opinion on whether or not they believe the environment impacts their health. Clay suggested, “I do, yeah.

I think that’s a lot of the reason this COVID-19 is here. The city is filthy and it’s overcrowded. I think that has a lot to do with why so many people are getting sick.” Raul explained a personal experience describing, “Yeah, I think that pollution, I remember vividly when I stepped out into Stockton, I had a nagging cough for almost a month and a half. There was no sinus medication to stop it. We can see it in our cars every morning. You can go wash your car tonight, and tomorrow morning you can swipe your hand over it and you can see the amount of dust falling on it. Our breathing system suffers . . . so does our farming land.” Both of these residents agree and are experiencing daily consequences of harsh environmental conditions. Both their area codes, 95206, covers South Stockton as well.

Prison building has been known to cause negative effects on inmates’ lives. Most prisons are built in the Central Valley, with 3 located in the city of Stockton. Prisons are geographically placed

in industrial zones that produce heavy pollution and hazardous waste. To provide an example, the Republic Waste Service site is located north of the Division of Juvenile Justice. The COVID-19 situation showed the unjust use of inmates as a cheap or free labor force to protect the state, not able to get that assistance because it was a prison population hit by COVID. If they are a valuable workforce in our state, why are they not given job opportunities once released, but instead shunned because of their record?

We were able to have follow-up conversations with our two interviewees, found below: Q: Anything you remember being exposed to harmful environmental conditions?

Raul: “One of the big ones for a great while was staff infections. It was very common. Air borne diseases: cold, flu, H1N1 was a bad outbreak. Exposed a lot to breathe linen dust from other peoples due to small cell space. 2014-2019 working at Environmental Services at hospitals. Cleaned the hospitals. Found homeless living in better conditions. The water was in bad condition, dirty; [Chowchilla] arsenic in water. Brief time in Tracy Water from tap and water ‘Staff Do Not Drink the Water.’ But 4,000 inmates are drinking the water. The water exposed through the stainless steel, because it was highly contaminated. Exposure to Invisible bugs that get under skin from linen.”

Clay: Couldn’t recall any environmental conditions.

Q: Types of jobs you had inside prison. Skills/jobs experience?

Raul: “He’s Certified Hazmat: he worked to sanitize/disinfect hospital settings. Certified carpenter, Teacher’s Aid in Carpentry. Clerical work. Recreational Coordinator. Literacy Program. Their pay is $2030 a month in prisons.”

Clay: “Welding in prison most of the time. Porter work.”

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Testing Workshops About Citizen Science Citizen science is “the practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge.�

Through citizen science people share and contribute to data monitoring and collection programs. Citizen science projects are increasingly being used to equip everyday lay people with the tools and knowledge to better understand the toxins in their air, water, and soil. This has numerous benefits, one being that it can empower people to monitor levels of toxins in the natural resources they consume such as water and the air they breathe.

Another is that it promotes public contributions to a shared monitoring network so that it can create a broader picture of baseline levels and spikes in data indicators to provide useful information that can be used to alert public agencies of any concerning changes in the levels. It creates an additional level of accountability to provide a comparison to official reported levels and in some cases can illuminate when these agencies are not being transparent about their recordings. Finally, the experiential nature of learning about environmental hazards and actually using the testing equipment and reporting data has the benefit of creating that deeper knowledge and understanding of environmental hazards; whereas prior residents may not take interest in it or know where to get information about environmental hazards. Various citizen science environmental monitoring testing networks have sprung up around the US and have been highlighted by the US Environmental Protection Agency such as the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative’s water quality monitoring and the Richmond (CA) Air Monitoring Network.

Last year we purchased testing kits for water, soil, and air. We were able to recruit participants to join virtual workshops to learn the importance of water/soil/air and contaminants that can be found and their potential harm. Although we were not able to hold workshops in person, we delivered the testing kits to participants who signed up in advance so that they could learn how to use the testing equipment and be walked through the process of collecting samples to measure contaminant levels in their natural resource.

While it was our first time doing the environmental testing workshops, we are excited to continue it on and plan to repeat these workshops on a yearly basis.

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The following is some of the feedback we received from participants:

Results for Environmental Testing

Quote 1: “I feel it’s going to be a great experience for them something they can entertain themselves and know about what’s going on and they can experience on what they’re drinking, how they grow their vegetables, what they eat, where it comes from, and just little things like what goes in the air, and why we have to wear masks. Because a lot of kids don’t understand, “but why do we have to put our masks on?” And I have to be on them, “ put your mask on, put your mask on.”

And they don’t understand why. I think it’s something for them to do at home, instead of being bored or being on a video game or just so they don’t have their mind so shut into games or they have the experience to know OK, what goes on in this is daily life.”

Air testing results identified a site located in the 95209 zip code having the safest levels of PM2.5 and PM10. When you breathe in particle pollution, this will cause harm to your health, according to the CDC. PM10 are “coarse (bigger) particles that can irritate your eyes, nose, and throat.” Different types of PM10 include dust from roads, farms, dry riverbeds, construction sites, and mines.

CDC reports that PM2.5 are smaller, finer particles. They are “more dangerous because they can get into the deep parts of your lungs — or even into your blood.”

Quote 3: “ it will benefit them (Community members) not only to have that bond with their kids but it should be a learning experience for all of them and I think it’s something good that that way their kids are not into trouble or just not bored and a memory for them to say, ‘oh I remember that; and carry it on through another generation, even when they’re older like I remember doing this you know I’m gonna do this with my kids or they remember, ‘oh I shouldn’t drink that or you know that’s my health I got to take care of myself…’”

Quote 1: “This is a great start to finding any kind of issues that you may be having around the house or anything like that. You know, these are beneficial just like plants we need water and air, so why not make sure everything is clean and good? Because we’re not actually afforded these opportunities, so why not take advantage of things like this? You know starting your own garden? There’s constantly throughout the years we had so many recalls on vegetables and different things so why not do it at home? Go back outside and get back from our roots cause we all come from people who live off the land, so why not take advantage of that? You know especially during this pandemic to be able to know that everything is okay, so then we can make those next steps to making fresh vegetables at home and clean air and water. You see how Flint, Michigan got I don’t see why we don’t kind of get a heads up from that. Just doing your part as far as for your family and yourself, you know a positive step in this world.”

Air

Water The water testing indicated bacteria found at a testing site located in the 95210 zip code. The CDC explains that “If the water system has a positive test for one of these indicators, it can mean recent contamination with soil or human feces.” Which can lead to a risk of water borne disease.

Soil In terms of soil health, one testing site in the 95207 showed a depletion in all categories: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nitrogen in soil helps plants create proteins, amino acids, and its own DNA. When there are little to no nitrogen levels in the soil, plants are stunted. Without phosphorus, energy cannot be transferred from sunlight to plants. Phosphorus helps with plant health and accelerating plant maturity. Potassium depletion causes plants to be more sensitive to drought, frost, and a high salt content. Potassium aids plants in resisting diseases.

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Community Beautification What is Community Beautification?

Community beautification is about making visual improvements in a neighborhood and can be done through efforts like trash cleanups, landscape enhancements, tree planting, and community gardens. It is also a way to address and acknowledge that neighborhoods can become “blighted� or fall into disrepair because of a lack of care and investment from governmental agencies of owners of vacant lots.South Stockton is a community that has been targeted by redlining and blight. We have freeways that box in three sides and a large industrial zone and airport that make up the fourth side of the box on the South which really can concentrate pollution in South Stockton. On top of that, the Central Valley itself is a low lying zone where air pollution can blow in from the Bay Area and get trapped in our Valley. Then, also, we have a Port and two major train lines that cut across right through the center of South Stockton. It is no wonder that pollution rates are the highest here than in the rest of the state.

With beautification like tree planting and community greening it can have a myriad of positive benefits. Cleaning the public access sidewalks of trash can help create a more walkable and safe space for kids and families to access and create more neighborhood pride. Having trees and community gardens can clean up the air, provide shade for reducing energy bills or creating a cooler sidewalk for walking, and green spaces can improve mental health.

What We Did South Stockton could benefit from having more trees. It was found that in the summer heat, there was a three degree temperature difference between South Stockton and Northwest Stockton putting S. Stockton residents at higher risk for heat-related illnesses and higher energy utility bills. Community organizations such as PUENTES CA and FFSJ have been able to receive investments to help plant more trees in South Stockton. And moving into next year the city is going to be able to plant more trees through the Transformative Climate Communities program. From 2018 until 2019, we were able to plant over 200 trees in homes and churches throughout South Stockton and in our community garden through community tree planting days.

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We also tie tree planting to healing through our Healing Roots initiative. The idea behind Healing Roots is that we plant trees to honor and memorialize a loved one who has passed away due to violence as a way to promote healing through the grief process as the family receives healing services from our Stockton Trauma Recovery Center. It is planting life where life has been taken. Most of the Healing Roots trees we have planted are located in our Brandon Harrison Memorial garden just south of the crosstown freeway.

Map of all of our tree planting locations Last year we also partnered with CalTrans to provide a workforce training / transitional employment opportunity for formerly incarcerated individuals on parole. The participants were able to provide a needed community benefit by cleaning up litter and debris from our highways, plant natural vegetation and remove unwanted brush, paint over and remove graffiti, and do storm damage repair. In exchange, participants develop valuable work history, employment soft skills, paid job training, and receive access to therapy and case management. We were able to expand some of this work to the broader community by partnering with the City’s department of public works to hold volunteer days where we cleaned up trash along the city’s waterways such as along the Port in Louis Park and along the Smith Canal at American Legion Park.

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PARTICIPATION IN EJ PLANNING PROCESS Importance of resident participation in planning processes Transformative Climate Communities In 2017, Stockton was awarded a Transformative Climate Communities planning grant that would support community engagement efforts to understand what residents and community stakeholders would want to see in their neighborhoods to help improve environmental conditions. From 2017-2019, a variety of activities including community workshops, survey canvassing, Climate Leaders workshops, and a tree census were conducted. The main cornerstone of these efforts was being able to create a Sustainable Neighborhood Plan which laid out the action items identified.

These 12 Goals Are: Increasing the availability of affordable housing

Promoting water conservation

Improving transportation

Protecting natural resources and agricultural lands

Promoting public health & equity

Revitalizing community and urban centers

Strengthening the economy

Improving air and water quality

Encouraging greater infill and compact development

Assisting state and local entities in planning of sustainable communities

Advancing the priorities developed in the state’s climate adaptation strategy

Advancing the goals of the Stockton’s Climate Action Plan

AB617 Stockton was not only selected as a Transformative Climate Community city but also an AB617 city. AB617 is a state law that requires state air regulatory agencies (such as CA Air Resources Board and San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District) to engage residents and community stakeholders towards creating a community air monitoring plan and a community emissions reductions plan. This plan would outline ways that the city would need to do in order to reduce air pollution and comes with statewide funding to be able to implement the solutions put forward through the process. The process kicked off in January 2020 and the monthly community steering committee meetings are still ongoing into 2021.

These both illustrate the value and local opportunities for residents to be able to shape decision making processes to improve their neighborhood conditions especially related to environmental conditions and pollution.

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CONCLUSION From our past year of holding workshops, interviews, focus groups, environmental testing sessions, and engaging with Stockton residents through 2019, we were able to examine the past legacy of bad environmental decisions that placed many hazards in the neighborhoods that we work, live, and play. However, we have become active agents in taking control of the knowledge and research tools to begin analyzing the issue through our own terms - interviewing elders and actually collecting testing data on the pollution hazards. Youth and residents have had the opportunity to voice their opinions and stories in public forums to state and local agencies. This has made an impact and the seeds that were sown have finally sprouted with seeing an influx of investment intended to meet the challenges raised through community voices with TCC and AB617.

The following are some of the findings and policy recommendations that we have pulled and distilled from our various engagement opportunities. These are things that we will be active at monitoring, taking action on, and advocating to decision makers and stakeholders. This way concerns identified can be fixed and promising developments and stories can be uplifted and shared widely.

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RECOMMENDATIONS AND HOW THEY COULD BE IMPLEMENTED LOCALLY AND STATEWIDE Creating More Green Spaces From our EJ workshops and elders interviews it was identified that people want more green spaces in Stockton through tree planting. Locally this can be done through community tree planting efforts. Both PUENTES, the City of Stockton’s Department of Public Works and FFSJ will be doing tree planting into 2021 that residents can help volunteer to plant trees in South Stockton. Statewide there have been efforts to create more greenspace through Prop 68 which set aside $255 million for local park development.

This is what is potentially going to help transform parks like Van Buskirk to bring in more amenities like playgrounds and community gardens to benefit the surrounding community.

Increase access to fresh produce During the photovoice, interviews, and workshops many mentioned the prevalence of liquor stores and the lack of fresh produce grocery stores in South Stockton. One local legislative update from last year is that Stockton passed an urban agriculture ordinance which now allows for residents to be able to sell produce grown in home gardens whereas before that was restricted to commercial operations, farmers markets, and community gardens.

Expand solar energy and electric vehicles Particularly from our elders interviews there was interest in expanding more solar energy and expanding use of electric vehicles to improve the environment. Locally these are efforts that will already be underway in 2021 with organizations like Grid Alternatives doing solar roof installation and the San Joaquin Council of Governments and Housing Authority starting electric vehicles rental programs (it is also a measure that is prioritized in the AB617 Community Emissions Reduction Plan). Statewide, Governor Newsom just announced a statewide pledge to ban sales of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 and there are various incentives that can give low-income residents up to $9,000 in rebates towards purchasing an electric vehicle. Additionally, the City of Stockton is currently considering establishing a Community Choice Energy agency, which would give residents a new choice in where their electricity comes from.

Such an entity could also help accelerate an expansion of local clean energy sources and launch locally tailored programs with a focus on EV adoption and developing charging infrastructure, among others.

Clean up Stockton’s Dirty Air Statewide programs like the AB617 program are bringing together the CA Air Resources Board local air pollution control districts and community members together to come up with a plan to clean up air pollution. There have also been efforts to create more separation between residential areas to places of pollution (oil, gas, industrial zones) with bills like AB345. There are also good examples in Richmond and Fresno of community groups that have set up their own community air monitoring networks to get real time data on air quality that are promising models to adapt in Stockton.

Protect the Delta and access to clean water Many of our interviewees expressed concern about water quality and protecting the Delta. There is a lot of advocacy action currently happening about the San Joaquin Delta through as there is a current statewide effort to build a Delta tunnel that could harm local native plant and animal species that inhabit the Delta as well as reduce water flows needed for drinking supply and agricultural uses. In addition the Delta Conservancy just concluded their climate change vulnerability assessment and will be starting adaptation plans to try to reduce the potential flooding, drought, wildfire, and extreme heat risks that are currently projected due to climate change projections.

Educate youth on sustainable ways of living There is growing youth activism globally to take action on climate change and encouraging more sustainable ways of living. Over this year, many have said that there needs to be more efforts locally to raise awareness of environmental issues and build up more resident leaders. Programs like Transformative Climate Communities next year will be giving stipends to S. Stockton residents to learn to become climate leaders. Statewide we are seeing agencies like the Natural Resources Agency and the Coastal Conservancy expanding grants to promote outdoor and nature education to young people in areas where they do not have a lot of access to nature through grants like the Youth Community Access Grant and the Explore the Coast Grant.

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Call to Action & Next Steps

Partners and Funders

We thank you for reading our first Greenlining the Hood report. We hope to complete these on an annual basis to share the work that we are doing and also to update data baselines to see how environmental conditions are changing in Stockton for the better or worse. Through combining quantitative data (such as public data sets and environmental readings) as well as qualitative data (from photovoice accounts from youth’s own words and resident stories), we hope to triangulate multiple sources of data to be able to present to elected officials and community stakeholders to advocate for the changes that residents want to see. For those that resonated with some of the activities and actions mentioned in this report, we hope that you join in the work by reaching out to us to see how you can join in some of the efforts whether it is joining the environmental and health community workshops, participating in a photovoice tour or tree planting event, and participating in Stockton community engagement efforts such as Transformative Climate Communities and AB617 and others that will continue into 2021.

Writers: Irene Calimlim Paige Tengeluk

Designers: Celine M. Pham Leo Martinez

Youth Researcher & Organizer Jasmina Patchell

Other Report Contributors: Brittany Harrison

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