Chicago NGO Hopes For Racial Justice Through Solar Panels
By Amber FisherChicago NGO Hopes For Racial Justice Through Solar Panels
By Amber FisherMany Black communities continue to face problems that often seem insurmountable: high incarceration rates, poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, underemployment and many other barriers.
Blacks in Green is a Chicago-based organization that aims to solve many of those problems through creating green, self-sustaining, mixed-income, walkable-neighborhoods for the communities that are most affected by environmental degradation.
The group is working with a solar design company to recruit and train people who struggle with employment. Founder and President Naomi Davis hopes that solar panel installation and other green projects will give a new lease on life to those who’ve been to prison, haven’t finished school or live in low-income areas.
We discuss one of the organization’s latest projects to install solar panels in black communities to ease electric bills.
GUEST:
Naomi Davis, founder and president of Blacks in Green