BLOG / BLOG POST
Join us at Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2021
By Kris Sarri, President and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Kris Sarri, President and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation writes a guest blog on this year’s Capitol Hill Ocean Week’s focus on racial equity and how you can participate on June 8-10.
Sustaining the health of our ocean and Great Lakes and the communities that depend on them requires the experience, perspectives and values of many. For the past 20 years, Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) has brought people together to discuss pressing issues facing our blue planet and how we can all work together to protect them. This year, CHOW will focus on the work to ensure a more racially equitable and just ocean and Great Lakes movement
The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is not a leader in this space, though we see our role as a convener and in time, an active ally. As an organization, we are at the beginning of our own organization’s internal work. We are learning and taking accountability for the work we haven’t done to date in this important space.
Our national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments belong to all who call this nation home. The Foundation’s work is to connect people to the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes through our national marine sanctuaries and monuments. We cannot achieve that mission as an organization or as a part of this ocean conservation community unless we take the time to learn and listen together.
CHOW 2021 is an opportunity for people who are passionate about the environment to gather and discuss how to deepen justice and equity in all of our work. And we will learn from many of the leaders who have been at the helm of this work and others who are just getting started. To offer a conference to address the most relevant topics, the CHOW advisory committee has been focused on its development. The result is a program that will examine how racism impacts laws, policies, and institutions and perpetuates inequitable outcomes for communities across this nation and even around the world.
Ultimately, we hope the conversations from CHOW 2021 will reveal a set of priorities for more inclusive and equitable ocean and Great Lakes conservation.
We invite you to join these critical conversations with the community on June 8-10 by registering for free for this virtual conference.
To learn more about the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, visit marinesanctuary.org and follow on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Register for Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) 2021 at CapitolHillOceanWeek.org.