The Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation (MCHF) is dedicated to the conservation and appreciation of forest, fisheries and wildlife resources. To this end, they have implemented a range of initiatives to address environmental issues in Western Missouri. These initiatives include providing financial resources for conservation efforts, promoting environmental protection through sustainable development programs, examining how various audiences are represented in decision-making on heritage matters, implementing lead prevention practices with EPA's collaborative problem-solving model for change, addressing climate change through heritage conservation efforts, understanding heritage as a social construction, recording tangible and intangible heritage of past generations, and helping Friends of Rail Park plan design commercialize Reading Viaduct. Environmental justice is an important part of the MCHF's mission.
It consists of real people facing real problems and designing practical solutions to address challenging environmental problems. The environmental justice movement advocates for programs that promote environmental protection in the context of sustainable development. The Environmental Justice program administers EJ's small grants and the EJ Collaborative Problem Resolution (CPS) Cooperative Agreement Program. The symposium examined how various audiences are or are not represented in decision-making on heritage, geographies and political structures. The project is based on effective lead prevention practices and the EPA's collaborative problem-solving model for change, which includes meaningful participation and direction provided by members of the local community who are already in leadership roles and a multi-stakeholder group with pre-established relationships, trust, mutual objectives and responsibilities. ERICA AVRAMI As program director of the Office of Relevance, Diversity and Inclusion of the National Park Service (NPS), you are deeply committed to issues of cultural heritage and social inclusion.
Therefore, one perspective that is often lost in these conversations is that of social class, whose results are amplified by the disparities in health care, education, the environment, community services and the political voice that are related to it. In strategies to disempower or oppress groups, the oppressor hinders the ability to find meaning, affirm and control one's own narrative and, by extension, to freely transmit heritage to the next generation. More recently, for example, the William Penn Foundation joined more than half a dozen community and corporate foundations to help Friends of the Rail Park in Philadelphia plan, design and commercialize the Reading Viaduct. Personally, I now spend a lot of time making sure that a significant part of the time I spend on heritage conservation and public history addresses climate change. Since the passage of the New York City Historic Monuments Act in 1965, government agents and citizen advocates for historic preservation have traditionally refrained from addressing the complex social justice issues faced by many historic neighborhoods. While notions of the “inherent value” of heritage had long underpinned the practice of preservation, a step was taken in the 1980s towards understanding heritage as a social construction. In Brownsville, BlackSpace members found value not only in recording the tangible and intangible heritage of the past, but also in taking into account the stories of the past.
The Hungarian narrative continued to dominate these efforts, and BADC leaders argued that Buckeye was “the center of Hungarian culture and heritage in the Cleveland area”.The Heritage Foundation has been successful in empowering local communities by providing them with meaningful participation in decision-making processes related to heritage matters. They have also helped preserve cultural heritage for future generations while promoting environmental protection through sustainable development programs. These initiatives have been instrumental in addressing environmental issues within its local community. By providing financial resources for conservation efforts, promoting environmental protection through sustainable development programs, examining how various audiences are represented in decision-making on heritage matters, implementing lead prevention practices with EPA's collaborative problem-solving model for change, addressing climate change through heritage conservation efforts, understanding heritage as a social construction, recording tangible and intangible heritage of past generations, and helping Friends of Rail Park plan design commercialize Reading Viaduct - The Heritage Foundation has taken several initiatives to ensure that Western Missouri remains a safe place for future generations.
