The EHJC, started in September 2005, is funded for four years by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.  The three primary organizational partners are the Alton Park Development Corporation, Southside/Dodson Avenue Community Health Center, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

The long-term objective of the EHJC is to facilitate and strengthen neighborhood empowerment and leadership, ongoing information exchange, health promotion, and policy improvements in regard to environmental health and justice – with a focus on industrial and commercial chemical contamination -- in the AP/PW neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Click here to see a pdf of the EHJC's annual report to the NIEHS for 2008. Appendices are located here (5 megabytes).

The Environmental Health and Justice Collaborative will be holding another course in the Neighborhood Environmental College. This course will be offered to youth participating in the Bethlehem Center's V-Team Literacy and Leadership Academy's summer program to be held at Howard School of Academics and Technology.

The camp will begin Monday through July 18 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Neighborhood Environmental College will hold classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:15 - 3:00 p.m. The Youth Health & Wellness course will concentrate on better nutrition and youth fitness as it relates to environmental influences on their health.

Alton Park/Piney Woods residents participated in a theater workshop that was held May 2 -4, 2008. The purpose of the workshop was to help community members talk about social and environmental justice issues that are important and to use theater to express these concerns to others in Chattanooga and beyond. The workshop was led by Mr. John Sullivan from the Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

On Monday, March 17, the EHJC hosted 19 Winthrop University students (Rock Hill, SC), on their "Alternative Spring Break," where they visited several different sites around Chattanooga to do volunteer work. One of their activities was to help the Calvin Donaldson Environmental Academy to assemble a greenhouse. The greenhouse will be used to support the elementary school's commitment to environmental education. Read more here.

Read the Chattanooga Times Free Press's weekly update by EHJC Community Correspondent, Falice Haire.