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In 1997, IU Northwest was one of 10 univer-sities to receive a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish an environmental justice partnership and resource center. From its inception, the mission of the Northwest Indiana Environmental Justice partnership and Resource Center (EJRC) was to address three broadly defined goals: to research evidence of “disproportionate impact” of environmental problems on citizens of the urban core populations in Northwest Indiana; to create a partnership between IUN and community organizations concerned about environmental issues in the urban core area of northwestern Indiana; and to provide citizens with information and data pertaining to environmental issues in the urban areas of the region.

While not a legal clinic, the EJRC has helped municipalities such as East Chicago, Gary and Hammond educate residents about the pollution and environmental hazards in their communities and learn about such issues as the air and water quality in their neighborhoods compared with other areas locally and throughout the country. In addition to making federal information resources available, the center has helped connect local groups with national agencies that are investigating environmental concerns similar to their own.

Since its inception, Tim Sutherland has been director of the EJRC, which is based within the IUN Library. Earl Jones of the Department of Minority Studies, has been director of the partnership project, with the strong involvement of a third faculty member, Richard Hug of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. In addition to directing the EJRC, Sutherland manages the government publications area of the library, which includes the Northwest Indiana Center for Data and Analysis, an externally supported unit that provides demographic data related services to community professionals and citizens, and provides oversight for a GIS software lab located in the library. The EJRC staff under Suther-land’s direction is comprised of four part-time staff persons.

The EJRC’s reach and efficacy has been greatly enhanced by the involvement of its partners. “Our partners are a group of 11 community organizations that the EJ partnership group has worked with over the grant to bring collaboration between the university and external organizations located primarily in Gary, East Chicago and Hammond,” Sutherland said. “These included staff from a labor organization, the Gary environmental planning office, a Hispanic nonprofit group, several grassroots environmental organizations, a social services agency interested in environmental issues and a regional planning transportation office interested in having more public involvement in creating a 2030 transportation plan for northwest Indiana.”

The EPA grant that created the EJRC ended in 2003, and since then, the center has continued with funding primarily from the Library Data Center. Sutherland reported that although the center has had to cut back on some activities since the grant ended, it remains a catalyst and facilitator for environmental justice in the region.

“The EJ partnership has continued to have an annual EJ-related conference at IUN each April, and we continue to work with our partner organizations to provide assistance in finding local environmental studies, publications on environmental justice issues, local news media articles on environmental topics, creating GIS maps for a particular projects, etc.,” he said.

To learn more about the EJRC and future activities, visit their Web site:

http://www.iun.edu/~lib/justice.htm