By Trimmel Gomes Florida News Connection
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A pilot project called “Fighter League” is arming women of color with the tools
they need to fight climate change.
Two national groups, the Movement Strategy Center and the Solutions Project,
founded by celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo, are making a concerted effort to
fund and support women such as Mary Gutierrez. She is the co-founder of Another Gulf is Possible, a
collaborative that uses a variety of strategies to fight for environmental
justice in underserved communities.
Gutierrez is among six women who will each receive $10,000 to participate in
climate leadership development training to help boost their efforts in the Gulf
South.
“It’s certainly grateful to be receiving funding, because it’s not often
that we women of color that are doing this type of work receive any sort of
funding,” Gutierrez said.
Studies show areas in the U.S. that will be hit hardest by climate change are
those along the Gulf South, a region activists say receives the smallest amount
of climate funding.
Rudi Navarra, director of investments with The Solutions Project, said they’ve
found the people and talent are already on the ground working on solutions. So
the partnership will fund $60,000 in total grants to women leaders in the
year-long fellowship program designed to help foster more collaboration and
promote clean energy solutions.
“So our effort is to, through the Fighter League, to begin to at least
highlight and deal with some of the racial and gender inequities and, by doing
so, also get to be better and get to better solutions,” Navarra said.
Gulf South Rising is
a five-state grassroots initiative anchored by the Gulf Coast Center for Law and
Policy. It’s also receiving funding through the Fighter League. Navarra
said he hopes other organizations will follow suit and start funding similar
projects.