The Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC) is a non-profit whose aim is to make communities cleaner, healthier, safer, and more climate resilient through equity and environmental justice. It performs its mission primarily through the use of science, technology, engineering, and scientific research to provide effective solutions to mitigate a wide variety of environmental, climate, and social justice issues in our most underserved and under-resourced communities.
CSC’s goal is to build a legacy of equity, resilience, sustainability, and justice programs. One of these programs include Breaking Barriers Workforce Development.
Building Strong Communities Through JUST Science
CSC utilizes an approach to migrate emerging and ongoing issues through applications of various disciplines of science, engineering, data analysis, interdisciplinary research, innovation, computer science, and technology including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Notable JUST Science projects that we have worked on include:
- Whitehouse Climate and Economic Screening Tool (Community Burden and Prioritization Tool)
- Energy Equity Tool (Energy Burden Reduction)
- EJ Strong Tool (Community Risk Reduction, Hazards and Vulnerability )
- Transit Resilient Essential Commuter Tool (Transportation Climate and Severe Weather Tool)
- Mitigating Environmental Justice Using NASA DATA
- Building EJ Tool (Advancing Design and Construction through Community Engagement and Environmental Justice)
- Georgia Drawdown Project (Equity Solutions Research)
And our portfolio continues to grow.
Meaningful Community Engagement and Outreach
Moving communities through a spectrum of engagement including informational exchange, consulting, and empowerment. The Center for Sustainable Communities has developed and deployed a wide range of community engagement techniques and approaches to ensure capacity building, expert and knowledge exchange, and intentional and meaningful engagement. CSC uses a variety of effective techniques and approaches to maximize benefits to communities. These include neighborhood-level surveys, evaluations and assessments, convenings, and specialized events.
Moreover, CSC has partnered and developed mass media capabilities that allow important messaging to reach hundreds of thousands of low-income households with important messaging on climate, energy burden, and related matters. In 2017, the Center for Sustainable Communities won the FEMA Individual and Community Outreach and Engagement Award for the development of the “Rally for Resilience” outreach methodology.
Advancing Sustainable Development Globally
We work to advance sustainable and equitable development globally through the Greater Atlanta Regional Center for Expertise and Education in Sustainable Development. The Greater Atlanta RCE mission supports the implementation of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals at the regional level through education and training. We bring together universities and colleges from across the Greater Atlanta region with nonprofit, community, government, and business partners.
Ensuring All Are A Part of The Thriving Computer Science Driven Workforce of Tomorrow: The Tech Academy
The Tech Academy is a technology-driven workforce development entity within the Center for Sustainable Communities. It provides project management and technical development for residents residing in underserved and economically challenged communities. Through Tech Academy, residents have access to training, job creation, and workforce development in technology-abundant fields.
Growing the National Environmental Justice Institute (NEJI)
The National Environmental Justice Institute was created in collaboration with Atlanta Metropolitan State College. Its goals include providing technical assistance, research, outreach, engagement, collaborative problem-solving, training, and workforce development for the community.
Reducing Gender Inequalities: Inspire and Empower Global Webcasts for Women
Gender equality is a very high priority for CSC. In 2018, CSC created Inspire and Empower Global Webcasts for Women to help uplift the stories of women globally and to entice other women and young girls to enter STEM fields. By partnering with IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, we have reached women on almost every continent with an exchange of hope, knowledge, and resources to advance career pathways into STEM fields.
Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC), visit csc-atl.org and follow CSC on Twitter and Facebook.