Environmental Justice and Social Change

Understanding Your Community and Capacity Building

It is important to take an assets approach to community engagement to make meaningful change. Capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive. You will be more effective when you work together rather than trying to impose your ideas onto others practicing effective collaboration. Students will be demonstrating these practices in their own communities.

Identifying Participants and Leaders

Students will be challenged with getting to know the “players on the ground” who will be largely carrying out the tasks in order to achieve the mission. They will learn to develop non profit leadership skills. Connecting directly with people will allow students to understand each persons strengths and weaknesses in their roles and how to best implement the team members to achieve their goal.

Exploring Ways to Fill the Need

Once the students have a full understanding of who is in the community and how it operates, they can begin to put together proposals that will identify where there is need and come up with creative ways to fill the void.

Dr. Katera Moore

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Dr. Katera Moore is passionate about place-based change. She believes that small local changes can make a big cumulative difference. She is committed to teaching her students the value of authentic community engagement.

Dr. Moore has had a wide range of experience in leadership roles to diligently work to create a stronger, healthier community. She recently served as the Director of the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania for 5 years where she built collaborative partnerships to address community public health, a symptom of broader environmental injustice. During her time at Penn, Katera created research opportunities for students to engage in community action research.

Dr. Moore also worked at the Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia where she worked to integrate a partnership with Earth Force, an organization whose mission is to engage young people as active citizens who improve the environment and their communities now and in the future.

Dr. Moore’s ample experience with community involvement and leadership provides great value for the students. Katera always keeps how she can engage students in mind as she builds within her community organization’s structures. With Dr. Moore’s wealth of knowledge and experience, she continues to be invited as a speaker and panelist on topics of environmental justice, food security, youth engagement, and career and college readiness.