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Write a brief (no more than one-page, double-spaced) reaction paper, 3 readings in total.Follow this Paper Topic: Community- Based- Strategies and Transformative Futures
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Reading Response Requirements
Write a brief (no more than one-page, double-spaced) reac�on paper, 3 readings
in total.
Follow this Paper Topic:Community-Based-Strategies and Transforma�ve Futures
The Paper Must Include:
1. Statement of what you believe are the cri�cal themes of the ar�cles.
2. Your reac�on to these arguments.
3. Two discussion ques�ons you would like to pose to the class based on the topic.
(NO general ques�ons)
• Ques�ons may be points in support or cri�que of the main claims made in
the readings, ques�ons that come to mind as you are reading, or more!
Reac�on papers will be graded based on their comple�on of the described three
components.
Readings: Focus on the required readings
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Volume 6, Number 1, 2013
ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/env.2012.0016
THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project:
A Community-Based Participatory Research
Environmental Justice Case Study
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Analilia P. Garcia, Nina Wallerstein, Andrea Hricko, Jesse N. Marquez, Angelo Logan,
Elina Green Nasser, and Meredith Minkler1
ABSTRACT
For decades, goods movement (the transportation of imported goods) in California has had detrimental
consequences for the predominantly low income and minority residents living close to the marine ports,
rail yards, and connecting highways. Although the California Air Resources Board estimates that goods
movement in the state is responsible for an estimated 2,400 premature deaths annually, the impacts of this
sector were not widely recognized until after 2000. In 2001, several key events drew attention to impacts
from the country’s two largest ports, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and started them on a path
to reduce emissions. Based on a multi-method case study analysis, this article describes the informal
collaborative work which culminated in THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project (‘‘THE Impact
Project’’), a regional community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership between the University
of Southern California (USC), Occidental College, and four community-based advocacy groups to address
air pollution and other health impacts associated with goods movement through the massive Los Angeles
and Long Beach Ports complex. Following an overview of our case study methods, we describe the
collaborative and its use of both data and community organizing to promote policy change over the past
decade. We then discuss several outcomes to which THE Impact Project contributed, key among them
passage of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan in 2006, the integration of health language in
official port and transportation documents, and the delaying of a major freeway so that health considerations could be more fully integrated into planning and decision making. The project’s role in helping to
broaden the policy debate and increase the inclusion of community members in relevant decision-making
bodies also is discussed. We conclude with an exploration of challenges, lessons learned, and implications
of this work for other CBPR partnerships.
INTRODUCTION
O
ne of the key entry portals to global trade
and goods movement can be found in Southern
California, at the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports, the
two largest ports in the U.S. With the rapid increase in
global trade in the 1990s and early 2000s, the twin ports
now receive more than 40% of all imports into the U.S.
(Calif. Air Resources Board, 2006).
For decades, goods movement in Southern California
has had detrimental effects and consequences for neighborhood residents living close to the marine terminals, rail
yards, and along the connecting highways who have been
Dr. Garcia is project director at the School of Public Health at
the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Wallerstein is a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at
the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Ms. Hricko is a
professor of clinical preventive medicine at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles. Mr. Marquez is the executive
director of Coalition for a Safe Environment (CFASE) in Wilmington, California. Mr. Logan is the co-executive director of
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice in Commerce,
California. Ms. Nasser is formerly with the Long Beach Alliance
for Children with Asthma in Long Beach, California. Dr. Minkler
is a professor of health and social behavior at the School of Public
Health at the University of California, Berkeley.
17
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18
disproportionally exposed to diesel exhaust, other vehicle
pollutants, and noise from congested roadways. Residents in the late 1990s argued that while goods were
being transported through the Southern California region
to communities across the United States, those who lived
near the ports were left to bear the burden of the enormous negative impacts of ship, truck, and rail emissions
on their communities, their families’ lives, and their
health. Local residents had little success in getting the
ports to listen to their concerns. In fact, the first major
story in the Los Angeles Times on port pollution was not
published until 2002. It called the ports ‘‘L.A.’s worst air
polluter’’ and pointed out that the ports had gone largely
unregulated for a variety of reasons including ‘‘lack of
jurisdiction over foreign-flagged ships to fears of losing
trade to other cities’’ (Polokavic, 2002).
The year before that Times story, two important events
occurred in the Southern California policy environment,
creating a window of opportunity to raise the public’s
concern about air pollution from activities related to international trade. First, the National Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), together with two other advocacy
groups and two homeowner associations, sued the Port of
Los Angeles for insufficient emission mitigation strategies
for a planned large shipping terminal, winning a $50
million settlement two years later. Their lawsuit prompted then mayor of L.A., James Hahn, to set up a ‘‘no-net
increase [of pollution] port task force.’’ Second, the University of Southern California (USC) hosted a Town Hall
meeting to share scientific research on air pollution’s
health effects. The 350 attendees learned about new research findings and shared their concerns about rapid
expansion of the ports and the fact that shipping emissions were virtually unregulated. The lawsuit’s settlement
was a critical event because it created recognition by the
City of Los Angeles (which owns the Port of Los Angeles)
and its mayor that it could no longer ignore air pollution
issues and concerns of the surrounding community if it
expected to grow larger. The Town Hall meeting also 1)
engaged scientists at USC’s environmental health sciences
center and its community outreach and engagement
program in investigating port-related pollution, and 2)
allowed scientists, community-based organizations, environmental advocacy groups, and environmental justice
(EJ) advocates the opportunity to meet each other and
share concerns about goods movement and research
findings about air pollution. As an academic partner noted, that 2001 meeting was ‘‘the original impetus for
building a future community/academic collaborative to
address the health and community impacts of goods
movement.’’
At the time that USC hosted the 2001 Town Hall
meeting, it was already working with two community
partners, the Long Beach Alliance for Children with
Asthma (LBACA) and the Center for Community Action
and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), through the community outreach and engagement program set up under a
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS)/Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Children’s Center grant. The Town Hall meeting and smaller
GARCIA ET AL.
meetings held thereafter offered a chance for USC to meet
with two new environmental justice advocacy groups
(Coalition for a Safe Environment, based in Wilmington,
home to the Port of Los Angeles, and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, based in the City of
Commerce, adjacent to several rail yards and the truckcongested I-710 freeway). The Town Hall meeting further
enabled the new partners to be introduced to LBACA and
CCAEJ and to all then come together around the issue of
goods movement.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimated
in 2006 that regional health effects of goods movement in
this area accounted for 2,400 premature heart-related
deaths, and 62,000 cases of asthma symptoms, among a
million more cases of respiratory distress (CARB, 2006).
Recent epidemiologic studies have documented health
effects from living in close proximity to high levels of
diesel traffic exposures. For example, a 10-year USC
prospective study of children ages 10–18, from 12 different
communities in Southern California, found a significant
association between traffic exposure and lung-function
development (Gauderman, Vora, McConnell, Berhane,
Gilliland, et al., 2007). Children who lived in close proximity to highways (less than 500 meters) had substantial
adverse effects in lung functioning when compared to
their peers living 1,500 meters away (Gauderman et al,
2007). Additional studies by Wilhelm and Ritz (2003,
2005), documented the increased risk of premature and
low birth weight babies associated to diesel exposure.
Recent research has shown a high burden of preventable
asthma in communities that are impacted by traffic
emissions from goods movement activities (Perez, Kunzli,
Avol, Hricko, et al., 2009; Avol, 2007).
To address such concerns, and with initial funding
from The California Endowment, THE (Trade, Health and
Environment) Impact Project was founded in 2006 as a
regional community-based participatory research partnership (partnership and collaborative will be used interchangebly in reference to THE Impact Project) between
a community outreach and engagement program at the
environmental health sciences center at USC, the Urban
and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College,
and a coalition of four community-based advocacy
groups working to address air pollution and other community health impacts associated with the movement of
goods through the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports
(Table 1). The advocacy groups—East Yard Communities
for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) in LA; the Center for
Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) in
Riverside; the Coalition for a Safe Environment (CFASE)
in Wilmington; and the Long Beach Alliance for Children
with Asthma (LBACA)—each brought critical community
voices to the partnership. Each of the partners was able to
build on a history of environmental justice activism in
Southern California in which they had been involved individually and collectively. The creation of THE Impact
Project formalized relationships established over the
previous five years, combining the partners’ strengths,
resources and local expertise to create a collective vision
and magnify their effectiveness in efforts to help change
19
CASE STUDY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COLLABORATIVE
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Table 1. THE Impact Collaborative, Formalized in 2006
Collaborative Partner
Partner Acronym
Community Outreach and Engagement
Program, Southern California
Environmental Health Sciences Center and
Children’s Environmental Health Center,
University of Southern California
COEP
East Yard Communities for Environmental
Justice
EYCEJ
Environmental justice organization and
community organizing group, with
community base near the major freeways
and rail yards serving the ports.
Center for Community Action and
Environmental Justice
CCAEJ
Environmental justice and community
organizing group, with one of two original
A-Teams. Members in close proximity to
warehousing and rail operations.
Coalition for a Safe Environment
CFASE
Environmental justice organization with
members living near the harbor.
Long Beach Alliance for Children
with Asthma
LBACA
A partnership to improve the lives of children
with asthma in Long Beach, with one of the
first A-teams.
Urban and Environmental Policy Institute,
Occidental College
UEPI
Policy research and writing on international
trade, ports and freight transport, also
engaging students.
several key policies and the broader environment. Key
among these changes were shifting the policy debate to
consider health as well as economic concerns in port and
infrastructure expansion, infusing health language into
official port and transportation documents, building a
community-driven movement, delaying the expansion of
the I-710 freeway so that health considerations were appropriately considered, and the adoption of a Ports’ Clean
Air Action Plan.
The above-mentioned scientific data on the negative
impact of goods movement paints a grim picture for
communities affected, but has also armed community
residents with a powerful tool in the fight for environmental health and justice, generating momentum and a
movement, grounded in community organizing and advocacy strategies, with strong alliances between university and community partners.
Critical to this work has been community-based participatory research (CBPR), defined as a ‘‘collaborative
approach to research that equitably involves all partners
in the research process and recognizes the unique
strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a topic of
importance to the community with the aim of combining
knowledge and action for social change to improve
community health and eliminate health disparities.’’
(Kellogg Health Scholars Program, 2001; Israel et al.,
1998). THE Impact Project well illustrates CBPR by successfully marrying evidence-based science and grassroots
community organizing for health and environmental
justice. The partnership is grounded in the nine guiding
principles of CBPR developed by Israel et al. (1998) to
inform and guide the CBPR process. Key principles include: recognizing community as a unit of identity; extending the definition of community beyond geography,
as illustrated by THE Impact Project’s regional approach;
promoting co-learning and capacity building among all
partners; integrating a balance between research and action; moving beyond study findings to action-oriented
solutions; facilitating an equitable partnership, as illustrated by THE Impact Project’s sharing of grant funding
among partners; and committing to long-term engagement and sustainable change (Israel et al., 1998, 2005).
The value of CBPR in improving research quality has
been well documented (Cargo and Mercer, 2008; O’Fallon
and Dearry 2002; Minkler and Wallerstein, 2008; MorelloFrosh et al., 2005). At its core is trust between community
and researchers and a commitment to both sound research and its use for data-informed action (O’Fallon and
Dearry, 2002). In recent years, CBPR partnerships, such as
THE Impact Project, have seized opportunities to fill the
gaps of traditional scientific approaches that often do not
take the lay knowledge of communities into account, and
may, as a result, miss critical data and/or community
insights in data interpretation that could benefit disadvantaged communities (Corburn, 2007; Gonzalez et al.,
2011; Minkler et al., 2010). The linkage of science to policy
(through research combined with community organizing)
is a powerful tool that has the potential of legitimizing the
hybrid role of community knowledge and scientific researcher, thus contextualizing the issues, improving the
USC
Partner Role
Translation of scientific research findings;
bridge between scientists and the
community; training of A-Team members.
USC and all partners below also testify at
public hearings on the health and
community impacts of ports and freight
transport.
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20
GARCIA ET AL.
science and procedural democracy, and impacting on
new or existing policies, with the goal of addressing
and reducing health disparities (Wallerstein and CacariStone, 2007).
This article aims to elucidate the CBPR process and
outcomes of a policy-focused project grounded in the
environmental justice movement in Southern California
and focused on the negative health impacts of the ports,
rail yards and related goods movement activity. Following a review of the methods employed in our case study
approach, we illustrate the case study in four sections.
The first, An Informal Collaborative Is Born, describes the
years preceding the formalization of the CBPR partnership known as THE Impact Project, and its efforts to
study and address air pollution and other health impacts
associated with the transportation of imported goods
through the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports. In the
second section, THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact
Collaborative, we discuss the formal creation of THE Impact Project and its use of both data and community organizing to promote policy change. Getting to Policy
Outcomes offers a description of several outcomes to
which THE Impact Project contributed, key among them
passage of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan
in 2006, broadening of the policy debate and increasing
the inclusion of community members in decision-making
bodies overseeing the ports and related goods movement
activity. We conclude with Challenges and Implications, an
exploration of challenges, lessons learned, and implications of this work for other partnerships interested in
using CBPR to study and address both distributive justice
(equitable sharing of both resources and environmental
burdens) and procedural justice, or equitable processes
through which normally disenfranchised groups get ‘‘a
seat at the table’’ and a real voice in decision making that
effects their lives and communities (Minkler, 2010;
Kuehn, 2000).
METHODS
The case study described and analyzed in this article
was conducted in 2008–2010 as part of a larger research
project in California designed to explore the role of CBPR
as a strategy for linking place-based work and policy to
promote healthier communities. A statewide scan uncovered 36 current or recent policy-focused CBPR efforts
in the state. Six of these, from diverse parts of California
were selected for in-depth case study analysis based largely on their fidelity to the principles of CBPR (Israel
et al., 1998, 2005), and the extent to which they appeared
to have contributed to policy change or changes in the
policy environment. THE Impact Project Collaborative
was one of these six, and will be the focus of this article
(summaries of all six case studies can be found in a
booklet for The California Endowment (Minkler, et al.,
2012: < http://www.policylink.org > ), with two others
published in peer-reviewed journals (Gonzalez et al.,
2011; Minkler et al., 2010).
Following Yin’s (2003) case study protocol, two members of the research team visited THE Impact Project
Collaborative, conducting in-person key source interviews with several lead community and academic partners, focus groups with community members, and phone
interviews with local policymakers. Archival review and
analysis of relevant internal documents and media coverage also was undertaken to further triangulate the data.
Audiotapes of the four interviews and two focus
groups were transcribed and coded independently by two
to three members of the research team using a 16 item
coding template, with sub-codes, whose code categories
related to each major domain of interest (e.g., partnership
creation and evolution; partner involvement in conducting the research; policy goals, stages, activities, and outcomes; facilitating factors and obstacles faced; and
sustainability indicators). We conducted inter-rater reliability checks, reconciling discrepancies. Next, we employed the qualitative software package, ATLAS.ti
(version 5.5) to group all key domains by site, and generate reports, facilitating an additional layer of coding.
Finally, we shared preliminary case study reports based
on the reconciled findings with community and/or academic partners at each site to facilitate member checking
as an added means of helping to ensure the accuracy of
data interpretation.
AN INFORMAL COLLABORATIVE IS BORN
Several critical years of informal collaboration between
a growing number of partners preceded the formalization
of THE Impact Project, which brought together key
players in environmental health, urban environmental
policy, and the environmental justice movement along the
ports and rail routes. Although we focus here on the recent contributions of THE Impact Project, key contributors to its birth and evolution are important to discuss, as
they set the foundation for the subsequent collaborative
research and related policy advocacy and outcomes.
In the late 1990s, informal relationships were forged
between the USC community outreach and engagement
program (COEP) of an NIEHS-funded environmental
health sciences center and community-based organizations (CBOs) that were seeking the use of scientific studies
in policymaking. As noted above, these community
groups included the CCAEJ, which is a leader in raising
EJ concerns about large warehouses in Riverside and San
Bernardino Counties serving the ports, even though they
are 50 miles away from the port complex. USC scientists
had conducted the Children’s Health Study, a longitudinal health study looking at children’s respiratory health in
relationship to the types and levels of pollution in the
communities where the children lived. A key community
in the study was Mira Loma, home to millions of square
feet of warehouses which attracted diesel trucks that often
drove through residential communities. The USC study
showed that Mira Loma had high levels of particulate
matter (PM) and elemental carbon (EC)—a marker for
diesel exhaust—and that such elevated levels were associated with reduced lung function in children in that
community and others with high PM and EC levels.
CCAEJ invited USC to present its scientific results at
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CASE STUDY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COLLABORATIVE
community meetings, assisting CCAEJ members in better
understanding the science, and at public hearings related
to the growth of affected counties in Southern California.
Another city in the Children’s Health Study was Long
Beach, a harbor community, and USC developed a relationship with the Long Beach Alliance for Children with
Asthma (LBACA), presenting its research findings at
LBACA coalition meetings. In 1999, these two groups
became community partners and collaborators in an
NIEHS/EPA Children’s Environmental Health Center
based at USC.
By 2003, USC had received another NIEHS/EPA
Children’s Center grant, again in partnership with
LBACA and CCAEJ. As part of the grant’s outreach, USC
and its partners formed Neighborhood Assessment
Teams, or ‘‘A’’ Teams in Riverside and Long Beach, ‘‘as a
way of exchanging scientific information with community
members,’’ teaching lay health workers (promotoras) and
other community members to count traffic and measure
ultrafine particles. This ‘‘street science’’ approach (Corburn, 2005), coupled with new USC epidemiologic studies
linking traffic-related pollution to higher rates of health
impacts helped grow the scientific basis for the work
(THE Impact, 2009), and empowered community residents with a new skill set and confidence. In 2005, USC
with 25 community partners hosted its second Town Hall
meeting, with more than 400 people in attendance and
many community organizations. By this time, USC’s environmental health sciences center outreach program
faculty and staff and the community groups CCAEJ,
EYCEJ, and CFASE had become prominent figures in
hearing rooms providing testimonials and sharing the
science, corroborating resident concerns with scientific
evidence on the community health impacts of pollution
from goods movement activities. Meanwhile, LBACA
also began to shift its focus towards policy because of a
proposed highway expansion that would increase diesel
emissions in close proximity to homes and schools in that
community. Also during this time, three of the EJ groups
realized that they shared similar concerns around rail
yard emissions and joined together as the Modesto Avila
Coalition, expanding the reach of their work so that it
spanned from the harbor area (where there are rail yards),
up the I-710 freeway 20 miles directly north to the rail
yards in the City of Commerce that serve the ports, and
on to the rail yards in Colton and San Bernardino, some
50 miles east. Thus a place-based partnership was formed
with a geographic base along the route of cargo container
movement in Southern California. With the formation of
the Modesto Avila Coalition, USC’s community outreach
program and CCAEJ saw an opportunity to capture the
regional work of the community partners and the scientific and policy expertise of university faculty. They
spearheaded the development of a community/academic
collaborative that would attempt to shift the nature of the
debate about ports and freight movement to elevate
community voices in the policy arena, while also using
the science and policy work of the academic partners to
strengthen those voices. In 2005, the collaborative successfully applied for funding from The California Endow-
21
ment. Receipt of this support formalized the marriage of
all six community and academic partners into THE
(Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project. A seventh
partner with which USC and CCAEJ had worked closely
was also added at this time: the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College.
THE (TRADE, HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT)
IMPACT COLLABORATIVE
With funding, and the formalization of THE Impact
project in 2006, the collaborative grant objectives moved
towards informing policy, with public health action to
‘‘reduce ports and good movements emissions’’ at the
forefront. From its inception, the goal of THE Impact
Project has remained the same: to shift the policy debate
and make the goods movement industry accountable for
its decision making by taking under consideration the
health and environmental impacts from multiple sources
of air pollution. In the words of an academic partner, the
project aimed to achieve its goal ‘‘by testifying at hearings, getting appointed to committees, and by trying to
get the need to reduce environmental health problems
from port-related activities written into city general plans
and policies.’’ The critical and timely convergence of data
and community organizing laid the groundwork for a
movement that began prior to the THE Impact Project,
and continues today with its original policy goals.
The funding from The Endowment brought the partners together in a unique way, working collaboratively
from a regional lens with an awareness and keen understanding of the necessity of developing port policies that
would not negatively impact nearby neighborhoods, i.e.,
by bringing more traffic or trains through these other
communities. In the words of one community partner,
‘‘the collaborative and THE Impact Project brought us
together to understand our common links, problems and
situations.’’ Through community organizing efforts, such
as the use of town hall meetings, the Project shifted from a
local to a regional focus. As another partner noted, ‘‘I feel
our Impact Project has been very instrumental in making
the public understand that this is a regional issue, and
that it is not just a local port issue.’’
Working towards policy change
Policy change is the result of multiple actors ‘‘hitting’’
different leverage points (Sterman, 2006). Similarly, contextual factors have a major role to play. However, our
multi-method data collection suggested that the partnership’s efforts, including community engagement and
leadership development, substantially contributed to
several policy victories, as summarized below.
Data and organizing
Consistent with CBPR principles, THE Impact Project
extended the ‘‘relevance and rearch’’ of its research
(Morello-Frosch et al., 2005) by actively engaging concerned community residents in the environmental justice
movement. It did this through involving them in
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22
GARCIA ET AL.
education, research and advocacy as prominent community leaders in the project’s Neighborhood Assessment
Teams (‘‘A’’ teams) which all Project community partners
eventually developed. Through a mutually respectful
collaboration, community partners recruited residents
from Long Beach, Riverside, Wilmington, and Commerce
who were then trained by the USC community outreach
and engagement team—and USC scientists—using participatory education training modules such as ‘‘Diesel
Particulate Matter 101’’ and ‘‘Goods Movement 101.’’ The
community partners hosted leadership development and
public speaking trainings for the ‘‘A’’ Team members,
who began to see a scientific basis for their suspicions
about the connection between health problems that had
long afflicted their children and families, such as coughing and asthma, and their proximity to truck-congested
highways, rail yard, and port pollution (THE Impact
Project, 2009). By on-the-ground work measuring air
pollution in their community and counting traffic, including trucks, that transit through their neighborhood,
the ‘‘A’’ Team participants offered a unique perspective
grounded in their lived experience and expert knowledge
of their community (THE Impact, 2009). The ‘‘A’’ Team
findings were analyzed and disseminated accordingly,
prompting action at a community, research and policy
level, with subsequent outcomes at each level. First, university research findings and ‘‘A’’ Team results were
translated to accessible language and presented to residents through organized community forums, generating
public discussion on the implications of the findings,
possible solutions, and next steps. Second, the scientific
evidence gathered by ‘‘A’’ Team members and sometimes
anecdotal information on the Team’s observations were
presented at hearings of government agencies, such as the
Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), San Bernardino
County Board of Supervisors, and others. Testimony by
trained community leaders was powerful in helping build
the case for the adverse health impacts associated with
goods movement in low-income communities in Southern
California. Finally, the ‘‘A’’ Team data informed USC
scientists about ‘‘local community hot spots,’’ long suspected of environmental hazards, but that had been previously undocumented, providing the USC scientists with
new areas of possible investigation. As one community
partner noted,
The importance of the ‘‘A’’ Team work is not just the activities, but the data gathered because Caltrans does not
count or track how many trucks transit throughout the
city on smaller highways; that data does not exist elsewhere. We are the only group in Long Beach collecting
this data.
The success of the ‘‘A’’ Teams is credited to the long term
investment in and exchange of experience, knowledge and
expertise they provided. As noted by a community partner,
‘‘the residents want to learn the science and the scientists
want to learn from the residents,’’ filling, in the process, an
important scientific gap on the detrimental environmental
health impacts on families and communities.
GETTING TO POLICY OUTCOMES
Outcome # 1: Clean Air Action Plan
As noted above, a core principle of CBPR is balancing
research and action (Israel et al., 2005). Key policymakers
have suggested that partners of THE Impact Project
played a major role in the successful passage of the Clean
Air Action Plan (CAAP) of 2006. That measure created a
five-year plan to reduce pollution from the ports by 45%.
In addition, the CAAP recognized the valued contributions of The Impact Project partners, inviting five of the
six partners to serve on the new mayor’s CAAP implementation task force. The core strategies and factors
that resulted in the CAAP adoption included community
organizing, community engagement, leadership development, and a change in the political climate. Public
hearings to discuss the ports’ Clean Air Action Plan dated
back to the early 2000s, initially convening as a ‘‘no net
increase’’ task force by Mayor of Los Angeles James
Hahn. But the new political environment of 20
