Mission

SciCAN advances environmental justice advocacy by connecting grassroots leaders and issue area experts in environmental and public health science and policy to collaborate respectfully and intentionally, share ideas and resources, and disrupt traditional approaches by placing community lived expertise at the forefront of research and policy.

Purpose

Community members in neighborhoods most impacted by environmental racism are repeatedly approached by extractive environmental public health focused institutions. The work academics and their institutions seek to do is often driven by initiatives that serve their interests – competition for funding, government programs, publications – rather than serving the priorities of EJ communities and their advocacy campaigns. Community expertise including observations, questions, and solutions, are often ignored or seen as less important to the research and policy development process.