Climate Colectiva: Quarter 4

After several months of planning, SWU hosted some of our national partners under the Climate Justice Alliance umbrella for the Our Power Summit. The summit took place from October 12th through the 15th. Over the course of several days we discussed environmental issues on a national and regional level, attempt to find common ground in regards to various solutions & narratives that were starting to arise within the movement and had some discussions on how to build on the work the organizations in the alliance were already doing.

In true SWU fashion, there were moments for joy and healing as we also gave folks a look at the real San Antonio via our toxic tour. In community, there is elation, laughter and hope in spite of our pain & struggle and that's something we feel should not be overlooked.

On October 15th, we held our Climate Justice Fair to cap off the Our Power Summit. The event was held at Garcia St Farm and we offered workshops, sound healing, massages and had dinner provided via Sweet Yams. We had our monthly food distribution here as well so that our members could come interact and attend our workshops.

Due to the generation power planning CPS Energy is doing, we decided to partner with them to put on our People Powered Town Hall. It was held on November 15th at Woodlawn Pointe. CPS was offering information on their customer assistance programs prior to the panel discussion and Q&A. The panel featured CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza, a representative from Public Citizen, a presentation on the dangers of fracked gas as well as our very own, Anacua Garcia. There were over 30 attendees in spite of the extreme weather conditions and they had plenty of questions to ask. We were delighted to have provided enough of a safe space that folks felt comfortable with speaking up and demanding answers.

We also developed an energy generation primer to help inform the community on the sources being considered a bit more. You can find the primer here.