CGCC and Glynn Environmental Coalition Co-Sponsor Environmental Leadership Conference with Lois Gibbs

P. O. Box 2443
Brunswick, Georgia 31521
Phone: 912-466-0934
Email: gec@glynnenvironmental.org Search this site:

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Mariners Log February 2006

CGCC and Glynn Environmental Coalition Co-Sponsor Environmental Leadership Conference
with Lois Gibbs

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Noon to 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Southeast Georgia Conference Center, CGCC

Long-time environmental activist Lois Gibbs, who became famous in the late 1970's for her fight to rescue her Love Canal, NY, neighborhood from toxic contamination, is bringing the organizational expertise of her 24-year-old Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), to southeast Georgia for an Environmental Leadership Conference at the Coastal Georgia Community College Conference Center on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006. The event is being co-sponsored by the College and the Glynn Environmental Coalition (GEC).

Lois Gibbs was raising her family in Love Canal, near Niagara Falls in upstate New York, when, in 1978, she discovered that her home and those of her neighbors were sitting next to 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals. That shocking discovery spurred Gibbs to lead her neighbors in a three-year struggle to protect their families from the hazardous waste buried in their backyards.

Her leadership led to the relocation of 833 Love Canal households. Gibbs’ experiences with Love Canal inspired her to found in 1981 the CHEJ, which works to empower local communities in their struggles for clean and healthy environments.

Ms. Gibbs and CHEJ staff will be providing training in key strategies, including organization and group structure, how to set up your organization to involve more people, to get people to take on responsibilities, to avoid burn-out, and have a democratically run organization in which everyone will have a say without hindering the advancement of the organization. They will also cover how to keep people active, to organize your community, to get more people involved, to map out recruitment plans, and generally to help to identify who should be involved, why they should be involved, and how to keep them involved.

The full conference schedule is as follows:

Noon to 1:00 p.m. Registration

1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Organization and Group Structure

2:30 to 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 to 4:30 p.m. Organizing for the Long Haul

4:30 to 6:00 p.m. Dinner Break

6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Lois Gibbs speaks about her experiences in Love Canal, NY

The evening event is free to the general public. The registration fee for the daytime workshops is $15. To register, contact the Glynn Environmental Coalition, P.O. Box 2443, Brunswick, GA 31521-2443; 912-466-0934; e-mail info@glynnenvironmental.org.

You can also register online at http://www.glynnenvironmental.org/OD2-06reg.htm.