Introduction

The People’s Collective for Environmental Justice (PCEJ) fights pollution, exploitation and existential threats to life in California’s Inland Empire and surrounding regions. 

In 2024, PCEJ garnered increased attention on its work to clean up California’s trucking and railway sectors, and fought multiple ongoing battles to curb the spread of warehousing that displaces residents from their homes, communities and cultures.

As a community partner of The California Endowment, PCEJ teamed up with Mixte to amplify its advocacy. 

Our Objectives

We set out to:

  • Build the communications capacity of The People’s Collective for Environmental Justice through training, materials and resources.
  • Uplift the organization’s impact with media coverage and press coordination.

Here’s how we did it:

  • We listened — We approached our partnership with the intention to learn from and about PCEJ and its community’s needs, responding to what the team knew it needed rather than solely prescribing our own solutions. After an initial listening session with staff and board members, we developed a campaign brief. That outlined where we would focus our time and energy, to ensure our efforts were always grounded in shared goals and in what the organization deemed the most important ways we could spend our time together.
  • We offered hands-on tools for continued learning — PCEJ staff already excelled in many areas of communications and marketing. They were eager to deepen their skills internally and expand learning opportunities to the community. Interactive workshops and in-person sessions provided spaces to practice the communications and marketing tips we shared.
  • We filled in the gaps during an extra busy time — During our time together, PCEJ responded to the conclusion of a lawsuit against San Bernardino County as well as the passage of a significant State Assembly bill. With its focus drawn toward mobilizing community members to show up to in-person hearings and speak at rallies, we prepared media materials and emails to ensure that PCEJ could rapidly issue its statements over digital channels as well.

The Outcome

  • Led a workshop with 30 community members from PCEJ and other regional organizations on effectively engaging with journalists and telling their stories through the media
  • Led a workshop to help PCEJ define its key audiences and the calls to action for each
  • Gave PCEJ the tools and skills to simply yet powerfully describe its multifaceted work, with a core messaging framework and led a training with PCEJ staff, board and community members
  • PCEJ won its lawsuit against San Bernardino County for failing to properly evaluate the impact of a new warehouse plan on community health. Mixte secured news coverage of this judicial win, as well as of a major community event.