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Project Summary / Description:

Mothers Out Front works to build the power of mothers as an organized constituency to push for transformational change on climate and energy policy in the US. We are building a multi-racial, cross-class movement of mothers, grandmothers and others who bring their passion for children‚ well-being to advance solutions that will yield a livable climate for all. We engage in local and state-level strategic campaigns that mobilize moms and advance real policy change. We have built a movement of 35,000+ people, with members organizing across multiple states, including five deep organizing states: Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Colorado and California.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Some examples of how our organized constituency of mothers and allies have reduced GHG emissions include the following successes: 
- Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP): Mothers Out Front community teams in Virginia have worked in coalition to oppose the ACP since 2018. Researchers estimated that the ACP would have led to annual emissions of up to 68 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Mothers Out Front led a group of allies (CCAN, NAACP, Interfaith Power and Light, Poor People‚ Campaign, Energy Foundation, and the Sierra Club) to mobilize Hampton Roads members to contact their HRPDC (Hampton Roads Planning District Commission) representatives and to attend HRPDC meetings and make public comments. We generated approximately 200 emails and turned out 50+ people to a key meeting in 2019, which led to the HRPDC to table their vote. Additionally, residents of Berkley and Georgetown hosted an Environmental Justice Forum with people who would be impacted by ACP, sharing information and offering a platform for individual stories. Once the COVID 19 pandemic arrived in the US, our teams began advocating for virtual public hearings. We held public narrative trainings to prepare our members. In May of 2020, galvanized by our community organizing efforts, hundreds of Virginians submitted public comments against the pipeline. In June of 2020, the ACP pipeline was canceled. 
- San Jose (CA) ban on natural gas in commercial buildings: Late in 2020, San Jos became the nation‚ largest city to ban fossil gas infrastructure in virtually all new buildings. This expansion of the city‚ previous gas ban was hastened by the advocacy of Mothers Out Front and other allies in the Campaign for Fossil Free Buildings in Silicon Valley (FFBSV), who had been working together since 2018. The coalition helped generate over 100 letters to the City Council, with support pouring in from mothers, grandmothers, youth, faith leaders, environmentalists, labor unions, architects, engineers and others. Based on calculations from the San Jose‚ Environmental Services department, the projected GHG offset by this new ordinance is approximately 600 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

As an organization focused on building a livable climate for ALL children, our work for climate justice has never been more meaningful. The outsized impact on communities of color of COVID-19, fossil fuel industry activity, and climate change, intensified by long-standing government-sanctioned racial oppression, has highlighted the urgency of grappling with the challenges of systemic racism, both as it should inform our movement building work, and our internal policies and systems at Mothers Out Front. 

We are increasing our organizing work in frontline communities, centering the leadership of women of color and low-income women. In the age of COVID-19 especially, this requires us to be intentional and proactive about overcoming the digital divide. We are testing and evaluating strategies to ensure that our modalities, materials, and messages reach and resonate with the diverse communities of moms in this country, and that they are available in multiple relevant languages. Additionally, we are offering our membership an ongoing series of trainings and webinars on systemic racism, climate justice, and organizing in frontline communities. 

Mothers Out Front is also committed to the hard but important work of applying a racial equity lens to our own internal development‚ work needed to ensure that our own systems and values do not further perpetuate the inequalities ingrained in our larger societal institutions. Our Equity Team works to ensure that racial equity is centered in all our work, and staff affinity groups meet regularly to grapple with the impacts of racism in our work and our organization. We are committed to expanding the diversity of our Board of Directors and National Leadership Team (volunteer roles). Our staff currently includes 50% people of color, and we include anti-oppression training in our staff onboarding process, as well as ongoing equity training and professional development opportunities.

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