Stories From Our Communities
Environmental justice happens all around us. Meet some neighbors and community members and hear their stories.
Kyle
"Beyond Toxics made a program available to get us free air purifiers. It was nice to see an immediate impact... You can really sense the unity and passion they bring into their work."
Jessi & James
"I feel so much support from the organization and the people involved... It gives me hope."
Andrea
"Beyond Toxics has the knowledge and the capacity to deal with other agencies... They have a good reputation and a lot of history helping and doing good work."
More Stories From Our Community
Mira & Matt
In 2018, Mira and Matt purchased their first home together in West Eugene. They love the neighborhood and their neighbors, and said it’s the best part of Eugene they’ve lived in so far.
“It’s just the pollution part that we don’t love,” Mira said. “We’re surrounded by a variety of different industries.”
Between the multitude of factories, trains, and semi trucks frequenting the factories just across the expressway from their home, the noise and air pollution is noticeable here.
"I think that it's really important to invest in the things that you value and you find important. And Beyond Toxics and environmental justice and climate justice are those things for me."
“We didn’t experience this in the other parts of Eugene that we lived in so getting used to it has been a process,” she said. “And it’s unfortunate because we shouldn’t have to get used to pollution.”
While working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple began to notice just how bad the toxic smells coming from the area’s industrial polluters. They began to wonder what they could do to change the situation. They joined Beyond Toxics’ community workgroup to take action and have since spoken with city council members and effectively promoted public health policies.
Eva
For Eva, the 2019 wildfires in her California hometown were the catalyst for her interest in environmental justice work. She, and many of her friends and neighbors had to leave their homes, scared and with limited access to resources.
Now a high school student in Eugene, Eva joined Beyond Toxics’ Resilient Leaders in Action fall cohort to connect with other like-minded students who want to make a difference in their communities.
"I started to think more about our Earth and how it needs to be protected because there are generations to come that are going to live here and it needs to be safe and healthy for them."
Eva is one of nearly 50 students who have completed our resilient youth leadership trainings. “I want to play a role in activism in the future, it’s not like the need is going to go away, if anything it’s going to keep getting worse,” she said.
Beyond Toxics empowers young BIPOC students to become leaders in the environmental justice movement and provides a network and tools to get started. Eva said Resilient Leaders has shown her that there is an opportunity to continue this work as an organizer or active community member in her future.
Lin
Lin is a longtime Bethel resident and community activist and has lived in the area for over 25 years. She is co-chair of the Active Bethel Citizens organization that partnered with Beyond Toxics and other community members which teamed up to find solutions to the pollution problems plaguing their neighborhood.
"I think it's critical that everyone support Beyond Toxics. They help our community to be safe and to be able to do the research we need to make us safe."
Together, with Beyond Toxics, Lin is working with local agencies to bring about change. The agencies, “listened to what the people feel, what we smell and how we’re living and what dangers there are to us. Lin said the agencies finally realized that “Bethel neighbors are people, and not just data points.”
Jim & Ali
Jeremy and Ali have lived in their Bethel neighborhood home for four and a half years. The large backyard opens up to Peterson Barn Park, has plenty of gardening space and room for fetch with their pup. They, too, noticed the stench of industrial pollution shortly after moving in.
"Beyond Toxics helped us when we didn't know who to turn to. Without Beyond Toxics, I don't know where we'd be... Because of them we're involved in trying to change zoning in the city to prevent this from happening again."
“Initially it was something we’d notice almost daily, any time we’d go outside there was like a really strong toxic odor,” Jeremy said. “Our dog would smell it, we would smell it, so if we were trying to run outside or walk outside we’d have to immediately come back inside. The longer that we were exposed to it, the more it would irritate your lungs and eyes.”
Stories From Our Communities is a series that explores the real ways Beyond Toxics is making in a difference in the lives of our fellow community members.
This series is written by Emily Matlock, Beyond Toxics Communications Manager and former journalist.
Contact Emily at [email protected].
