Just Energy Academy participants engaged in their first session 

On Saturday, February 16, 27 applicants of the Just Energy Academy (JEA) met for their first inaugural class. During their first session participants focused on: an academy overview, the PSE "Equity Ecosystem", and storytelling including a Q&A with local environmental equity leader Na'Taki Osborne Jelks. 

Organizing for Opportunity is the Partnership for Southern Equity's community organizing training for members of the community who have a passion for change and are seeking innovative and proven organizing methods. Registration is only $10 until March 28, when it goes up to $15, so register today!

• Just Energy Student Organizer Chinelo Tyler and Just Energy Director Chandra Farley spoke at the Tennessee State Conference NAACP Town Hall Forum on the campus of Lane College in Jackson, TN on Friday, March 1. The Lane College NAACP chapter hosted and the attendees included students from Haywood High School. Co-presenters included Ameera V. Graves, Lane College historian & NAACP chapter adviser; Donald Addu, Citizens Climate Lobby southeast director; and Sandra Upchurch, NAACP national environmental & climate justice co-lead and energy justice manager, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (Just Energy Circle member organization).
• Metropolitan Atlanta Just Energy Organizer Isoke Luqman worked with leaders from Neighborhood Planning Units (NPU) S, T and X to host community conversations about Atlanta’s energy burden.
  For background, energy burden is the percentage of household income spent on home energy bills. The City of Atlanta ranks fourth highest in the median energy burden with a disproportionate impact on African-American and renter households in the zip codes served by these NPU’s. 
  In an effort to inform residents and discuss solutions to this issue, PSE along with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Electric Unit Director Sheree Kernizan and Georgia Public Service District 2 Commissioner Tim Echols, presented to the community information about Atlanta’s energy burden, opportunities to reduce their burdens through local utility assistance programs, and how residents can advocate on their own behalf during the upcoming Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) proceedings in front of the Public Service Commission. 

• The Just Growth Team invites all to the Spring 2019 Environmental Justice Academy (EJA). The EJA will be held at Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC), March 28-30, 2019. The academy is a three-day event beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 5:30 p.m. each day. The on-site session is followed by homework, online assignments, and interaction with faculty mentors and is to be completed by April 30, 2019. Completion of the course will be marked by a Capstone ceremony at AMSC to be held on May 10, 2019, where students will present a project that demonstrates skills learned through the academy. Click here to apply!
• The Just Growth Circle will begin collecting data from members to create and analyze a map of the Just Growth equity ecosystem, asking questions like:
  • Who is involved in the conversation?
  • Who needs to be brought to the table? 
  • How are resources shared?
  • How do we strengthen relationships within the network?
• PSE and the TransFormation Alliance are excited to announce a youth-focused version of the TransFormation Alliance Academy that will be offered as a summer camp. In order to plan for this new program, we are rescheduling the spring TFA Academy to the fall. Stay tuned for more details about the camp!
• In 2018, the U.S. Water Alliance invited Atlanta to be among six peer cities represented in a national Water Equity Task Force (WETF). Atlanta’s WETF team includes the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, PSE, The Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Eco-Action and West Atlanta Watershed Alliance. Together, the team participates in learning exchanges with peers in Cleveland, OH, Milwaukee, WI, Buffalo, NY, Louisville, KY and Camden, NJ, exploring water equity issues and developing a road map for action.
  In 2019, preliminary priorities of the Atlanta WETF will center around leveraging the City’s Environmental Impact Bond requirements for social impact to improve community engagement and community benefit from six bond-funded green infrastructure projects in Atlanta’s Proctor Creek watershed.
  The City of Atlanta and WETF partners will be hosting their first community forum on March 23, 2019 from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. at the Antioch Baptist Church Annex, 456 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA 30318. Please spread the word to residents in the Upper Proctor Creek Watershed and join us to learn more about these exciting projects. 

• The Just Opportunity Team is preparing for its inaugural Just Opportunity Summit May 1-2, 2019 at Morehouse College. Registration is now open and tickets can be purchased here! 

• The Just Health Team is currently in the hiring process to fill two Community Ambassador positions. Community Ambassadors will support The Two Georgias Initiative (TGI) rural partnerships and communities to engage residents in Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) strategies/activities, and advance health equity on the local level.
• The Just Health Team recently had a meeting with TGI partnership groups and communities.  In the next quarter they will provide follow up "boosters" or health equity round table "discussions".
• Planning and preparing for the inaugural Just Health Summit is underway and is tentatively scheduled for fall 2019. Stay tuned for more information!
• Even though Just Health is classified as a PSE Special Project, it continues to grow as capacity building with community partners and other health professionals has led to requests for additional health equity trainings throughout the state and region. Visit us on Instagram to see our travels!