The First Local Environmental Action conference

Later that first year, Community Action Works held our first-ever annual conference to build community power and leadership skills across city, town, and state lines.

In the early days, Community Action Works’s first staff sat in the office answering call after call from neighbors who were concerned about environmental threats. We spent hours coaching these neighbors through organizing a community group, putting together a winning action plan, finding the data and information to back up their case, and working with the media.

A photo from our first annual conference in 1987. Pictured left to right: Sen. Bill Golden, Irene Gillis, Lois Gibbs, Mindy Lubber and Barry Commoner.

Our annual conference became the one day a year to bring everyone together for a full day of leadership skills and to show neighbors that they were not alone.

Today, our conference continues to build leadership skills and plug community groups into the broader movement for environmental and social change, because we know lasting change takes root when the people with the most at stake lead the way.