To Our Community, Last week, our members claimed some incredible victories in the fight for transit justice. Earlier this year, bus riders spotted the fare hike in TriMet’s budget projections, and we made it known: fare hikes are the wrong direction. Our transit system […]
We’re excited to introduce to the community our new Youth Environmental Justice Alliance Organizer, Alejandra Gallegos-Chacón. Alejandra was born in Quito, Ecuador. “I was born two weeks later than planned,” she says, “because even back then I wasn’t about to let a man tell […]
By Shanice Clarke In early November, Black people in the environmental justice movement organized together to co-create solutions for liberation in Detroit, MI for the Black 2 Just Transition Training & Assembly. Within environmental justice movements, Black people often experience erasure and invisibility, while […]
OPAL is proud to present our 2017 Annual Report! This year, we decided to create a consolidated publication to share our many victories from the past year with our community. OPAL tackles many different issues around Environmental Justice, but in this one place you […]
Organizers in Training is now the BRU Fellowship! This new, six-month cohort program will enable OPAL to have a more consistent presence organizing on Portland’s buses, while we deepen our investment in developing leadership in our communities. Last Saturday, we onboarded the five leaders […]
We are so proud of 2017 Organizer-in-Training Alex Mijares, who is now advocating in our community and across the country for a safer, healthier environment. In this national PBS Newshour special on Oregon’s diesel exhaust problem, he talks about living in low-income housing in […]
For the past seven years OPAL has conducted Organizers In Training (OIT). This program has produced a number of organizers who have gone on to do amazing work in the Social Justice movement. We are proud of the work we have accomplished through OIT. In […]
We’re excited to announce a major shift in how OPAL builds power for transit riders through our Bus Riders Unite membership program! In previous years, OPAL and BRU brought together a cohort each summer in the Organizers-in-Training program, a ten-week intensive that gave new […]
Hello, my name is Alex Mario Mijares. I grew up in a rough environment in San Fernando Valley, California. My neighborhoods were diverse in race & class. Communities there were, and still are today, experiencing issues with affordable housing, illnesses, jobs, drugs, and gang […]
My name is Tristan and I am a member of OPAL’s Organizers-in-Training cohort this summer. I’ve always been perplexed by the question, “Where are you from?” My family were wanderers. My parents were both in the military. Strictly speaking I was born in North […]