About This Document

The document that follows is the culmination of more than a year of collaborative community work undertaken by Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services and RiverWise, two nonprofit organizations located in southwestern Pennsylvania While working over the last year to establish a modest coalition of partners interested in community benefits organizing, we have been careful to document our process, thinking, and outcomes

Parts One through Five, Seven, and Eight were written primarily by Daniel Rossi-Keen, Executive Director of RiverWise. This portion of the text is an admittedly incomplete set of reflections about community benefits from the standpoint of an interested but cautious group of community stakeholders. The interest derives from a recognition that community members must be “at the table” to participate in decision making. The caution comes from the fact that many of the processes related to community benefits often fail to represent and empower community interests in authentic ways.

Part Six, which exists an online companion to this document, is a compilation of guidance, recommendations, and resources developed during the last year of community facing work Meagan Niebler, the Community Democracy Program Manager at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, created, compiled, and assembled the extensive resources found in Part Six We envision this online set of resources as a kind of guide or handbook for other communities seeking honestly and strategically to engage community members around the issue of community benefits. We are also hopeful that it holds some value for corporations who are genuinely interested in understanding and engaging with community interests.

The bulk of the activity represented in the following pages emerged while working with community stakeholders in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Considerable insight also emerged with developing and deploying the Justice 40 Opportunity Navigator, described briefly on the following page

Throughout this process, Scott Wolovich, Executive Director of New Sun Rising, has been a steady advocate and thought partner about how best to engage community interests, how to undertake data informed decision making, and how to seize current opportunities while continuing to represent community values and priorities

Daniel Rossi-Keen, PhD

Executive Director

RiverWise daniel@getriverwise com in collaboration with Scott Wolovich

Executive Director

New Sun Rising scott@newsunrising.org

Meagan Niebler

Community Democracy Program Manager

Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services mniebler@fairshake-els org design & photography by Dani Brown, RiverWise

Christopher Padgett, Human City Creative

Erin Ninehouser, Rustbelt Mayberry

Many of the insights expressed in this document have been developed in real time, on the ground, and in ongoing relationships with frontline environmental justice communities Much of this activity emerged as part of an ongoing initiative entitled the Justice 40 Opportunity Navigator.

A collaboration between RiverWise and New Sun Rising, this program works alongside federally designated environmental justice communities in southwest Pennsylvania to fund and implement projects that improve their health, climate resilience, and economic opportunity.

The Justice 40 Opportunity Navigator was strategically designed to take seriously the promise and possibility introduced through the Justice 40 Initiative As such, this program works diligently to grow community power and voice so that residents of environmental justice communities can be active participants in the many federal investments currently being made in communities all over the nation.

The Justice 40 Opportunity Navigator has helped to secure $8,184,453 of investment for community energy, resilience hub, green space, food, and engagement projects to date.

Learn more about the Justice 40 Opportunity Navigator: