The long-term object of this project is to improve environmental health conditions in the rural South by supporting grassroots leadership and community empowerment. Isolated rural areas of the south have high levels of poverty and unemployment. Low land prices, wage levels and lack of political influence have made them susceptible locations for polluting industries and toxic wastes. This project seeks to make a long-term impact on environmental racism by facilitating technical and political capacities of rural African-Americans to be partners in research, to engage in community education, and to organize around environmental health issues. This will be accomplished through partnerships with university scientists and local health professionals. The project is centered around a strong community organization, the Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT), located in Halifax County, North Carolina. The population of Halifax is 50% African-American, 40% of whom live in poverty; the Tillery area is 98% Black. Southeast Halifax Environmental Reawakening brings together CCT, the Halifax County Health Department, and environmental health scientists from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. This coalition will work to expand participation in prevention and remediation of environmental health problems, develop educational and organizing material for use in other areas, provide outreach to communities in other eastern North Carolina counties, and offer training in rural environmental health and environmental justice issues to public health students. Southeast Halifax Environmental Reawakening will reconnect isolated, rural communities with fundamental environmental values that have become dormant as rural residents have lost intimate connections with the land.
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