Citizen Organizing for the Eighth Biennial Meeting of the IJC

Great Lakes United

To communicate with citizens about Great Lakes protection issues and to organize citizen participation in the International Joint Commission meeting.

Demonstration of citizen support is essential to achieving public policy objectives related to protection of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Citizen participation in meetings of the International Joint Commission has been useful in advancing the Great Lakes policy agenda. In October 1995, the commission will hold its eighth biennial meeting, and environmental groups will need to make special efforts to encourage citizens to attend. This grant will allow the organization, working in concert with other environmental groups, to coordinate an outreach campaign designed to educate, organize and reinvigorate citizen action for environmental stewardship in the Great Lakes basin. The October commission meeting will be a focal point of the campaign, but broad Great Lakes issues also will be addressed. Project activities will include organizing a series of meetings and workshops to discuss the status of Great Lakes protection efforts and the importance of providing input to the commission meeting; serving on an advisory committee to the commission in planning and organizing the logistics of bringing citizen representatives to the meeting; developing effective messages concerning Great Lakes protection; and coordinating the work of groups involved in the campaign. Great Lakes United is a coalition of community-based and regional organizations from the United States, Native American, Canada and First Nations communities. Its mission is to work together to maintain and develop a healthy ecosystem in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin. It is the only multinational environmental organization focused on the Great Lakes.

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