At the BRISA Center for the Environment, we prioritize the voices of our community. Our evaluation team helps us understand community needs by creating spaces where community members can share their perspectives and eliciting continuous feedback on our services. This information helps us tailor and adapt our assistance to best support communities in their most pressing environmental and energy justice needs.
What is the BRISA Center hearing from communities?
In 2024, we talked with 79 individuals in 11 listening sessions in Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawai`i and Guam about their perspectives, experiences and ideas related to environmental justice, community engagement, capacity and needs.
We heard many common needs from across our service area, including:
- Communities are confronting diverse environmental justice challenges, and local knowledge is essential to addressing them.
- The federal grant process is confusing and complex and requires extensive organizational administrative capacity.
- A lack of trust in federal agencies as well as narrow funding requirements complicates the ability of organizations to access funding.
- Organizations are seeking to build their administrative capacity to apply for and manage federal grants, and there is less interest in scientific technical support.
- Organizations want to build connections and partnerships with others to amplify their impact.
- Community engagement efforts should focus on understanding local history and context, showing up in both in-person and virtual spaces, and building relationships with trusted local leaders.
For more details, please download our Year 1 Listening Session Report.
In January 2025, we compiled a needs assessment report for Arizona that incorporates data from the listening session with other data sources to better understand the strengths, challenges and needs of communities in Arizona. The Arizona Needs Assessment Report can be found here. (Here is the PDF in Box: https://arizona.box.com/s/a5zv5bvds3pgs3k97r7wi2fpw0oqs944).