Neighborhood with an environmental justice issue* reaches out for help.
We enable effective advocacy by collecting data using air pollution monitoring devices, providing advice on specific permit or advocacy opportunity, showing up and testifying on pollution and health issues
*Environmental justice issue is an environmental problem that disproportionately impacts low income, BIPOC or other protected classes of people.
Downwinders staff assesses the situation and makes a recommendation to the Board based on if there is:
*Systemic change is not an isolated problem, but part of a deeper societal issue that a campaign could expose and uproot.
**Build people power is an increase democratic governance and civic engagement in under- organized neighborhoods.
The Neighborhood becomes a DAR Community Partner.
This comes with expectations from the community partner and from DAR.
See “membership” descriptions for more details.
DAR Board, Staff and Volunteers provide money, resources, staff time and strategy to the cause.
Grant writing, fundraising, expertise like land use, zoning, public health, environmental education, political connections, coalition building, media relations and more.
Community Partner and DAR build community power, win campaign and address systemic injustices.
Leave the neighborhood more politically and civically involved than before
Resolve the discreet pollution problem (relocate the plant, decrease emissions, better protect people etc)
Address the root cause of the discreet pollution issue through policy change
Our theory of change that has guided our work since 2017 is demonstrated through our partnership with the Floral Farms community. From 2018 to 2025, we organized, and advocated to address their acute problem (the Shingle Mountain illegal dump), and for a systemic resolution to future environmental injustices (zoning change).
Marsha Jackson met Downwinders representatives at a community meeting and sought support to close down and clean up Shingle Mountain in December 2018.
Downwinders staff assessed the situation and determined there was:
Floral Farms became a Community Partner. In 2019, we helped organize a new neighborhood association “Neighbors United/Vecinos Unidos” in Floral Farms, and mobilized a city-wide coalition under the title “Southern Sector Rising”.
DAR Board, Staff and Volunteers sought grants and donations to fuel the fight with resources, staff time and strategy.
Shingle Mountain was closed down in 2019 and cleaned up by 2021. The neighborhood was rezoned away from industrial in 2025.
Low income and communities of color were designed as sacrifice zones where pollution, poor infrastructure and We lead grassroots campaigns and organize alongside frontline communities to build political power and enact social change to fight bad polluters and policies. By advocating for environmental justice solutions, we seek to reduce pollution exposure and the harms of climate change by participating in land use permitting processes.
CommUniversity is a community environmental justice education outreach program designed to bridge the gap between concerned residents and effective advocacy. We don’t just teach you the problems; we give you the toolkit to fix them.
This program transforms everyday residents into skilled community organizers capable of navigating city hall, understanding complex permits, and winning fights for environmental justice.
We co-launched the SharedAirDFW Network, the first regional, calibrated hyperlocal air monitoring network in Texas. This network democratized air quality data, providing real-time, open-access air quality data in collaboration with frontline communities impacted by air pollution in North Texas.
