At Metropolitan Group and our sister company Impacto Social Metropolitan Group (MG/ISMG), we are privileged to support and collaborate with leaders in the public, nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sectors who are working to address these global challenges. We are working with leaders and communities in over 20 countries, strengthening civic space and the people’s voice on issues that impact them, advancing responsive government, bolstering public health and well-being, accelerating biodiversity conservation, addressing climate impacts, countering misinformation, fighting corruption, standing for human rights, and fostering inclusive economies. We see the potential power and opportunity to increase social change by supporting connections at the intersections of issues and facilitating learning from different countries and cultures.

We are excited to share tools, models, learnings and stories from this work and to invite conversation and collaboration. We invite you to visit and access the resources on our Addressing Global Challenges page.

We look forward to learning, collaborating and working with you in 2025 and beyond to address global challenges.

The post Addressing Global Challenges in 2025 appeared first on Metgroup.

The post Vernice Miller-Travis speaks at the first ever White House Summit on Environmental Justice in Action event appeared first on Metgroup.

Across sectors and across geographies the need to create proactive narratives, social expectations, and systemic changes that center fairness, freedom, equity, justice, and peace is profound. We all need solutions we can work toward while we also work to effectively counter rising authoritarianism, hyperpolarization, the use of fear and othering, and attacks on information integrity. We see this combined work of building up just solutions while robustly pushing back on injustice in the work of our clients and the communities they serve every day.

We see the power of voice and its ability to activate change in the work of advocates, civil society organizations, dedicated public servants, artists, and advocates.

This 35th annual letter to stakeholders shares updates on our team and stories of our clients’ work and impact. As we begin our 36th year of social impact work, we are focused and committed to the shared mission of advancing public health, environmental sustainability, and social justice. We are excited to collaborate with you on this journey.

The post Our 35th Annual Letter to Stakeholders appeared first on Metgroup.

“Environmental justice has become a buzzword and a shimmering pearl at the heart of the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to mitigating climate change. My introduction to environmental justice (EJ) began when I started working at Metropolitan Group. Though my passion for the environment was ignited more than a decade ago, I wasn’t aware that there was a term to describe the necessary work of demanding equity for communities that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental toxicity and the consequences of industrial growth and governmental negligence. I’ve since learned that for more than 40 years, a dedicated group of advocates has been building a movement that has finally gained federal support from the current administration.”

The post Consent-Based Siting and the Biden Approach to Environmental Justice appeared first on Metgroup.

As we begin our 35th year, we are inspired by the innovative, passionate and impactful work of change agents working to make structural improvements to advance a more just and sustainable world. We have seen the resilience and the impact of people standing for democratic values, doing the hard work of power building and movement building, and championing freedom and human rights for people in Mexico, the United States and around the world. We have supported community leaders, coalitions and organizations invested in authentic engagement, to shift the dynamics of who is seen and centered, whose voices are amplified, and who has agency to drive change. 

MG/ISMG is privileged to work with change agents and the communities they serve. This year, we partnered with our clients to: advance just solutions to climate change, strengthen democracy, counter structural racism, address gender-based violence, advocate for families of the disappeared, center environmental justice, accelerate biodiversity conservation, increase health equity and build currency for equitable well-being, support organizational transformation based on equity and inclusion, and so much more. 

2022 was also a time for continued work on strengthening our own organizational culture and capacity. Our capacity and resources have increased to meet the needs of our clients, and in 2022 we added 15 incredible new MG/ISMGers to our team—many of whom we met in person for the first time at our staff retreat at The Public Will Building.

This 34th annual letter to stakeholders shares updates on our team, thought leadership and stories of our clients’ work and impact. As we embark on our 35th year, we are deeply committed to advancing the shared imperatives of public health, environmental sustainability and social justice—we are excited to collaborate with you in this work. On behalf of the entire MG/ISMG team, we look forward to partnering with you to advance collective impact, creativity and the power of voice.

The post Our 34th annual letter to stakeholders appeared first on Metgroup.

To see more photos visit our Facebook page.

The post MG/ISMG 2022 Retreat at the public will building in portland, oregon appeared first on Metgroup.

The discussion was informed by the participation of about 85 thought leaders spanning disciplines, sectors and organizations. If you would like to view the full conversation, click here or watch the video below. We have also recapped highlights from our panelists in this Medium blog—we encourage your comments and shares.

If, after reviewing the above links, you have questions or reflections related to infrastructure and its connection to environmental justice, climate or health equity, we’d be happy to set up some time to continue the conversation. We welcome the opportunity to shape ideas together.

The post Harnessing Infrastructure to Advance Racial Equity and Climate Justice appeared first on Metgroup.

The solutions to curb climate change effects on our health can also be solutions to dismantle structural, institutional and environmental racism. Often, the narrative around climate change is perceived to be a boutique problem observed by the upper and middle classes. However, the truth remains that those contributing least to our growing climate problem are often the ones who suffer the most. This dominant narrative has reinforced who has a seat at the decision-making table, which has led to the design and implementation of racist policies and practices that disproportionately target communities of color.

In September 2021, Metropolitan Group convened an expert panel of leaders, over Zoom, for a conversation on restoring the balance in the climate change, racial justice and health equity storyline. Joined by 160 people across disciplines, sectors and countries, the panel created a lively, yet vulnerable conversation on how to achieve environmental justice and health equity by advancing racial justice during a time of climate crisis. (Click here to watch a recording of the conversation.)

Moderated by Surili Sutaria Patel, vice president at Metropolitan Group, the panelists shared their struggles and triumphs with regards to what it takes to dismantle systemic racism inherent in White supremacist culture and how oppressive laws and policies, have both impacted and catalyzed environmental and social justice movements. Each panelist emphasized actions that we can take now to hear from the voices of those most impacted in ways that also shift the narrative and center their lived realities in climate policies.

The conversation featured personal anecdotes and insights from our panelists.

Vernice Miller-Travis, executive vice president at Metropolitan Group opened the conversation by making the connection between how racial bias has affected the dominant narrative around climate change and how this issue has ravaged the health and livelihood of people. Vernice clarified that when storms, floods, wildfires, hurricanes — any climate disaster — descend on a population, it is always vulnerable people who suffer the most. Many of these folks, specifically Indigenous and other communities of color, were often forced, due to residential segregation, to live in ecologically vulnerable areas (e.g., floodplains and flood zones, low-lying areas, coastal plains, unprotected waterfronts) and often lacked the infrastructural, economic or political support to be protected from devastation. The lived reality of climate change is intrinsically tied to race, which is why we must interrogate and dismantle racist policies and practices, and begin to reimagine them so that they can start to protect everyone.

Dr. Adrienne Hollis, president at Hollis Environmental Consulting Services, talked about how her community, Prince George’s County, Maryland — a county that has one of the highest and most affluent African American populations in the country — bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in that state because of a lack of data. Racial inequities have always translated into health disparities, and we know that Black and Brown people are three times more likely to contract and die of COVID-19 than their White counterparts. The higher infection and death rate is tied to pre-existing health conditions as well as living and working conditions, such as being “essential” or frontline workers, that made this population more at risk. Adrienne also highlighted that in the case of Prince George’s County, the lack of reported data and data analysis derailed the vaccine rollout strategy, which led to higher infection rates, more sickness and ultimately more deaths. Health equity is necessary to protect all of us in a public health crisis. And since climate change is a public health crisis, we need better data on communities most impacted.

Jacqui Patterson, founder and executive director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, enlightened our audience about what happens to a community when they, and their surviving generations, face constant abuse, trauma and neglect. She acknowledges that, as Americans, we are on stolen, unceded land of Indigenous peoples and that our nation was founded on practices of scarcity, greed, exploitation and dehumanization. Jacqui also reflects on the time colonizers brought Sub-Saharan Africans to the Americas — by means of theft, displacement, genocide and enslavement — that their labor was considered essential, but they were considered disposable. This is a common theme that we see play out with people, land and the planet, where the extraction of resources is deemed valuable, but the custodians of that land are seen as worthless. As a result of the reckless, imperialist drive for wealth and power, generations of people, communities and environments are suffering from enormous trauma. We must acknowledge our collective trauma before any healing can begin.

Dr. Shadiin Garcia, executive vice president at Metropolitan Group, connected the erasure of Indigenous people to the environmental justice movement. Indigenous communities, in particular native women, have been and continue to be erased, raped and violently impacted at unprecedented levels by genocidal policies at local, state and national levels. Shadiin explains that decoupling people from land and water leads to practices of dehumanization. The historic, systematic abuse that White America has inflicted on Tribal communities has manifested in the form of assimilation and the disruption of matrilineal societies. Shadiin reminds us that the path to our collective liberation includes centering the rights and ecological knowledge of these peoples. By learning from their stewardship and being in right relationship to land, air, water and earth, we will begin to feel that we are not just part of nature, we are nature.

…

This was just the beginning of the conversation. Check out the full recording to watch this exciting discussion unfold. If you’d like to connect with us, please email publichealth@metgroup.com.

The post Restoring Balance in the Climate, Racial Justice and Health Equity Storyline appeared first on Metgroup.