For Immediate Release: January 22, 2021
Contact: Ellen Lu, Program Coordinator, contacts@vayla-no.org

New Orleans, Louisiana – It is with great excitement that we at VAYLA announce our signing on to the Gulf South for a Green New Deal, spearheaded by the Gulf South Center for Law and Policy.

The Gulf South for a Green New Deal encompasses Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. This environmental policy platform highlights many key environmental and equity issues that will need to be addressed moving forward. As Gulf South residents, many of whom are frontline workers, our community is the first to be affected by climate change and its subsequent impacts. The policy that is put forth reiterates the importance of tapping frontline workers and indigenous community leaders’ experiences and knowledge to tackle the complexities of climate change. The Gulf South for a Green New Deal is tailored to the unique lived realities and challenges present among Gulf Coast communities such as our region’s economy, coastal geography, social movement history, and cultural context. “Developing symbiosis with the environment is anchored in our cultural roots. Historically and presently, BIPOC are our most vulnerable climate refugees. We must work together for equitable futures,” says Jacqueline Thanh, Executive Director of VAYLA New Orleans. The Gulf South for a Green New Deal is an opportunity to tackle current inequity and addresses the reality that it is our most under-resourced, and often BIPOC, communities who receive the brunt of environmental harm.

VAYLA strongly identifies with the values presented in the Gulf South for a Green New Deal and is committed to working towards this greener and more equitable future.

For more information, visit The Gulf South Center for Law & Policy.

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VAYLA is an intersectional AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) nonprofit organization based in New Orleans focused on advocacy through providing climate and reproductive justice education, community organizing education, and comprehensive civic engagement.