Breaking down barriers to form progressive, action-based partnerships in Northern California and the Central Valley
Central Valley Partnership
The Central Valley Partnership has set the emulative example of how smart organizing and facilitation can break down barriers and create alliances where none previously existed. Candidate Forums, Income Inequality actions, Bus Rapid Transit testimony, Healthcare Forums to enlist disadvantaged communities in the AHA, farmworker food drives and community organizer trainings are a few of the 2013-2018 Partnership activities.
Northern California Partnership
CGP's newest California partnership is centered around the Cannabis Removal on Public Lands Project (CROP), a campaign seeking to remove illegal cannabis grows, known as "trespass grows", from California's federal public lands. These grow sites harbor copious amounts of EPA-banned and restricted pesticides, like Carbofuran, Sarin-based Malathion and Brodifacoum, that actively contaminate watersheds and soil, and poison various populations of wildlife, as well as unsuspecting users. Trespass grows divert egregious amounts of surface rivers, significantly reducing surface flows to communities and further imperiling native fish populations.
CROP is actively working to:
1. Secure and increase state and federal resources for trespass grow reclamation
2. Increase Forest Service law enforcement and overall presence in National Forests to prevent new grows from activating
3. Increase criminal penalties for those bringing toxicants onto public lands
CROP seeks to make the environmental and public health impacts of trespass grows widely understood by educating regional, state, and federal decision makers and communities, and in doing so unite the left and right interests to cooperatively tackle this multi-faceted issue. CROP is anchored by our two-day community organizer trainings in our initial project geography of Humboldt Mendocino, and Trinity Counties. These trainings teach strategic organizing for social and environmental justice interests. We completed our first training in Humboldt in 2018, Mendocino in January of 2020, and our third training will be held in late Spring 2020. To learn more about our trainings, please click here.