“The grant is to help continue educating minority and underserved communities on the importance of environmental justice issues and social justice issues ... create awareness to the community and let them know what’s going on,” said GEO president Gerald Moore Jr. “This is just going to help facilitate more education outwardly into the community pertaining to those issues.”
Moore said they are doing this by hosting three upcoming events. The first “listen, lead and learn” event will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today at Central State University. Anyone can attend, but it will mainly be for the younger generation to get them more involved in the process, share with them the opportunities in industries related to environmental justices, and educate them on food deserts and how they impact overall health and wellbeing. The two other events are still being planned, but one will be held in Springfield and the other will be virtually.
GEO, based on the southside of Springfield but mostly operating out of COhatch, started at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The group has different programs to help the community, such as a community garden on South Plum and Fair streets, in which they have taken three parcels of land to create the beatification space with fresh produce, community events and more.
“The goal is to educate the community on environmental and social justice issues pertaining to underserved communities,” Moore said. “We use the garden to educate community members while also feeding the community directly from the garden.”
The organization partners with other nonprofits. Recently, they partnered with the Conscious Connect and groups of other local nonprofits to create the Unified Collective, which is a group of organizations bringing awareness for parks and green spaces within the southside of Springfield such as policy changes and resources to help change them. They have also done Health Now the last three years, which is a free health clinic for the community.
Moore said it feels great to receive this grant, which is the largest they’ve received since they started when the Springfield Foundation gave them $8,000 that helped them put in a water pump at the community garden.
“Every bit helps. We’re not really funded by any large organizations or any silent partners, so really everything that we’re doing is fundraising and (working) to get funds for this initiative,” he said. “It kind of validates what we’re doing.”
For more information and to RSVP for the first event, visit www.geononprofit.org or www.facebook.com/nonprofitgeo.
About the Author
