The POWHR Coalition and the Coalition for Environmentally Safe Communities are preparing for SWVa’s first Environmental Justice Mini Conference. We are excited to bring together Organizers, Community Members, Electeds and Academia to discuss the ongoing challenges we face in SWVA. Sacrifice Zones, Data Centers, Flooding, Mutual Aid, Coal Impacts and Dirty Gas build outs are topics we hear so much about and hope to make space for meaningful conversations around each topic that impacts us.

Our goal is to have a panel discussion to uplift the topics mentioned above. We at the POWHR Coalition have invited panelists that we believe can share their lived experience and knowledge on each topic. We would love to invite you to join us in this conversation around SWVA and hear how you and your communities are also impacted, the work being done to protect neighbors, and what concerns you have for the area. SWVA has long been left out of the conversation and isolated from each other, we at POWHR want to change that narrative. Our hope is for this to be a space for folks to network and come together around these issues.

We hope you can join us August 22, from 11-4pm at Salem Public Library in Salem, VA (28 E Main St, Salem, VA 24153). Please RSVP by August 17. We only have limited seating and we are preparing a wait list as we expect this will fill quickly. More details to follow!