River Rally 2003 Program.

Recognizing the disproportionate impacts faced by low income and disadvantaged communities related to water pollution, River Network initiated the Healthy Waters, Healthy Communities Program. Led by Steve Dickens and other staff, the program was designed to help communities with health concerns determine whether there was a link between pollution and health problems they were experiencing, and if so, what to do. It was also designed to empower grassroots organizations to effect meaningful environmental change through technical and organizational assistance. To this end, River Rally 2003 included a new workshop track: Human Health & Environmental Justice. 

“I was amazed to see what Steve was doing in these communities… teaching them how, through community science, to tell that their water was polluted and what to do about it.”

-Wendy Wilson, then River Network Organizational Development Director

This program led to a continued focus on public health and its impacts for racial and environmental equity, as well as River Network publications like Cancer Downstream, published in 2007.