Climate Justice

The freedom to be the steward of my land and water

Building on 10 years of working in coastal communities, FFL launched the Coastal Resilience Leverage Fund to catalyze innovative and multi-sector responses to Louisiana’s climate crisis. Understanding the disproportionate impacts that climate change has on Black, Indigenous, communities of color, and low-income communities the fund expanded to become the Climate Justice portfolio. The Climate Justice program addresses the complex array of issues and opportunities through a Louisiana-based movement for climate action.

Our work understands both the urgency of reducing the emissions warming our planet and the importance of planning for future generations. The program has helped train a green infrastructure workforce, created a citizen-led policy framework to complement the state’s Coastal Master Plan, graduated 125 empowered advocates from the LEAD the Coast initiative (Leadership Education Advocacy Development), and invested nearly $6 million towards climate justice in the state. We plan to deepen our efforts through three parallel and interrelated goals: Build people power, advance just climate policy, and cultivate a new narrative.

The Climate Justice program invests in frontline leadership and climate action builds generational capacity to achieve long-term positive change and transforms Louisiana’s relationship with civic power and governance in the face of coastal and climate change.

INVEST BUILD TRANSFORM

INVEST

Mitigating climate impacts is urgent work. Through grantmaking, we prioritize funding for environmental justice, equitable development, and economic opportunity. Our approach, which centers frontline community expertise and encourages policy advocates and organizers to problem-solve together, works towards a future where Louisianans are no longer reliant on extractive economies and are key designers and decision-makers for the future of our state. We aim to distribute resources to those most vulnerable to climate impacts, create sustainable jobs and opportunities to reduce disparities, and build wealth for Louisianans. In the next three years, we intend to attract and invest $10 million in the fight for climate justice.

BUILD

Louisiana residents must be key designers and decision-makers for the future of our built environment. To ensure this, we strengthen civic infrastructure and capacity by building people power. Our LEAD the Coast initiative is a shared learning and policy advocacy training designed to connect resident leaders across the state and provide actionable tactics to advance change in their communities. Graduates have utilized new skills and built relationships through LEAD the Coast in order to offer strategic testimony before Congressional committees, form their own nonprofits, and advance local and state-level policy changes.

To read more about LEAD the Coast, see our impact report here.

TRANSFORM

Our future must center those who are historically most impacted by environmental injustice. To this end, we have supported the research, analysis, and assessment of multiple coastal and climate trends affecting Louisiana that resulted in the preparation of more than 20 reports to influence policy recommendations; co-hosted more than 70 public meetings to understand how coastal change impacts Louisiana communities, which resulted in the establishment of projects, programs, and policy recommendations to mitigate risk through the LA SAFE process; launched the Bayou Region Incubator to support Louisiana entrepreneurs seeking economic opportunity in the water sector, and more.