Healthy Communities

Our Healthy Communities program works at the intersection of human health, the environment and justice, focusing on eliminating the pollution – in air, water, soil and food – that jeopardizes the health of all our families and communities.

Adults dance happily at a Democracy For All community event in a park

Communities of color and low-wealth communities habitually face environmental injustices, bearing the greatest burdens of toxic pollution.

As a member of the Equitable & Just National Climate Forum, LCVEF partners with the environmental justice community to fight for equitable policy solutions.
We successfully advocated for the Biden administration to repeal Trump’s dangerous Dirty Water Rule.
We will continue to push the administration to prioritize environmental justice, protections for communities, and to hold polluters accountable.

Clean Water

We work to ensure that everyone, no matter their race or zip code, has access to clean, safe, affordable water. To do so, we:

  • Urge the Biden administration to use all their authority to protect the waterways that our families and communities depend on and protect our drinking water from contaminants like lead, PFAS, mercury, and other heavy metals.
  • Educate policymakers in Congress about the need to safeguard our water by supporting and strengthening the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and other federal laws and regulations.
  • Work with our environmental justice partners to guarantee access to clean water by ensuring federal investments in water infrastructure are directed to low-wealth communities and communities of color who have been unfairly excluded from federal and state investments.

Chemicals/Toxics

We fight to reduce harmful chemical exposure. To do so we:

  • Educate federal policymakers on the need to ban PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment or human body, which can lead to health problems like certain cancers, weakened immune response, developmental impacts, hormonal issues, and decreased fertility.
  • Work with our allies in the labor and environmental justice movements to educate policymakers on the need for protections for workers and frontline communities that face the brunt of the pollution from fossil fuel and chemical production.

Environmental Justice

Due to systemic racism and unjust policies, low-wealth communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color often experience the highest pollution burdens and are disproportionately impacted by environmental health issues.

These communities are often forced to live with lead poisoning from paint and drinking water, failing water infrastructure, unaffordable water rates, and proximity to highly polluted Superfund sites, toxic landfills and dangerous industrial facilities.

As a member of the  Equitable & Just National Climate Forum, LCVEF is working with our partners in the environmental justice community to:

  • Address the legacy of industrial pollution that contaminates our air and water, and ensure that every community can live in a healthy, safe environment.
  • Ensure that federal investments in infrastructure and environmental health prioritize and reach the communities most impacted.
  • Prioritize community input in the legislative and federal planning process to ensure that projects reflect the preferences of the surrounding community.

Latest on Healthy Communities


People Power
May 15, 2024
Storytelling Lessons from the Civil Rights and Environmental Justice Movements – and How to Apply Them Today

As a part of Black Girl Environmentalist’s Reclaiming Our Time Campaign, LCV Education Fund partnered with Cameron Oglesby, project lead for the Environmental Justice Oral History Project, to delve into the power of storytelling.

May 15, 2024
A large group, diverse in age, gender and race, march down a tree-lined road holding a sign reading "We Birthed the Movement: 40 Years of Environmental Justice."
People Power
May 14, 2024
Fostering Future Environmental Leaders: South Carolina’s Boards and Commissions Fellowship Program Launch

Many leaders get their start by serving on a local board or commission. Learn how one state fellowship program helps prepare future leaders to serve their communities.

May 14, 2024
A group of 16 people, diverse in gender, race and age, pose together on a staircase.
People Power
Jan 30, 2024
More Than an Address: Mapping Utah’s Navajo Nation

Many Indigenous communities across the country do not have addresses for their homes, making it difficult for emergency services to find them, to receive home care or social services – or to register to vote. The Rural Utah Project, a state affiliate of the LCV Education Fund, made it their mission to identify addresses for thousands of homes in Utah's Navajo Nation.

Jan 30, 2024
Wide shot of a lone house by a desert road with a butte in the distance.
Nov 1, 2023
“It Is Your Space and You Have a Right to Be Here.” Service is for Everyone, Says Boards and Commissions Fellowship Alumna Shari Baber

Shari Baber never felt that City Hall was a place for her, until she became the first Black woman to serve on the Boise Parks and Recreations Commission. A 2021 graduate of the Conservation Voters Movement’s Boards and Commissions Fellowship, Shari reflects on how the program prepared her to serve on the commission and to understand how government policy can drive social justice.

Nov 1, 2023
Shari Baber, LCVEF Boards & Commissions alumna
Oct 4, 2023
Why LCV Education Fund is Investing in Local Boards and Commissions

The Fellowship program aims to ensure that the people influencing environmental policy are reflective of their communities, and that we are increasing the share of environmental leaders serving on boards and commissions.

Oct 4, 2023
Colorado Boards & Commissions Fellows on a bus headed to an event smile and wave at the camera.