By Cassandra West

A key part of the overall One Earth Film Festival experience is connecting audiences to organizations doing important environmental work. Since the festival began in 2012, it has developed partnerships with a cross section of local environmental advocates that support its efforts and vice versa.

Festival audiences expect to leave screenings with information that will guide them in taking the next steps on their sustainability journey. That is the Power of We. When people feel connected to others by a common passion or commitment, much gets done. Problems are solved. Communities become healthier. The Earth gets healed.

Chicago is fortunate to have many advocates on the front lines of climate action and environmental and social justice.

Here are some you should know:

Collective Resource works to reduce greenhouse gases by diverting food scraps from landfills. They offer door-to-door collection services for homes, offices and restaurants throughout Chicagoland.

Environmentalists of Color is a Facebook-based interdisciplinary network of leaders of color who are passionate about critical environmental issues ranging from habitat conservation to environmental justice. The network cultivates opportunities for community, support and professional development so that environmentalists of color can thrive in the environmental field.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization works to achieve environmental justice in the Little Village area of Chicago. Its organizers waged tireless grassroots campaigns to close down the Crawford and Fisk coal power plants in the South Side neighborhood. LVEJO also developed a campaign to remediate a superfund site and has a strong youth leadership development program.

My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhood through their Explorers Program.

Slow Roll Chicago is a community-based organization that utilizes bicycling to connect a diverse group of people and improve the condition of communities by organizing community bicycle rides and other bicycling-related programs throughout the greater Chicago area. Slow Roll Chicago works to achieve equity in bicycle access, bicycle usage, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle safety, bicycle culture, and other bicycle-related resources in Chicago. They focus on South and West side communities, striving to make them healthier, more empowered, more economically viable, more socially cohesive, more bikeable, and ultimately more liveable.

Photo courtesy of My Block, My Hood, My City.