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Slingshot: Mobilizing Communities Against Environmental Health Threats
ADVOCACY AND MOVEMENT BUILDING
Photo credit: Slingshot
In a time when political divisions are widening and discord is as heightened as ever, fighting for the safety and wellbeing of a community can be a remarkably difficult thing to do. Fear of conflict — real or perceived — poses a barrier that keeps people out of grassroots activism.
But organizing group Slingshot isn’t afraid to get involved — and to equip others to do the same.
Spanning six states across New England, Slingshot is deeply knowledgeable about environmental health risks such as contaminants, unregulated development projects, and pollution that threaten communities throughout the region.
Healthy communities rely on healthy environments, and Slingshot empowers everyday people to take on challenging environmental advocacy work with confidence.
Protecting the Environment and the People Who Love It
We work alongside communities on the front lines of these threats to take aim at polluters and build community power.”
— Dana Colihan, Co-Executive Director
At its core, Slingshot provides people with tools, resources, and training to organize and mobilize their community against development projects poised to do significant environmental damage. That could look like many things: drinking water contaminated with dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances; landfills expanding into residential areas; or pipelines designed to fill corporate pockets while laying waste to communities.
“Most people want to take action to protect the health of their community, but they often don’t know what to do,” says Dana Colihan, Co-Executive Director. “We come in as a resource to help figure out what they want and how to get it.”
Colihan has been working with the Don’t Waste Maine initiative, for example, to protect vital ecosystems from a landfill expansion led by a for-profit trash corporation. The expansion is projected to bring more than 11.9 million cubic yards of waste — the equivalent of 8.6 Empire State Buildings — to the area.
By helping Don’t Waste Maine build grassroots campaign plans, messaging, and mobilization strategies, Colihan has supported the initiative’s team to identify and address dangerous legislation and share better waste management practices with the broader community.
Photo credit: Sunlight Media Collective
Why Community Organizing?
Groups of people who are organized and collectively demanding what they need — that’s how we build the world we deserve to live in.”
— Dana Colihan, Co-Executive Director
When it comes to advocating for change, there are many ways to get involved, from putting up flyers on street corners to donating money to support lobbying at city hall. For Slingshot, though, community organizing is the most effective vehicle for long-term transformation.
“Local people know best what they want for their community, and they also know the best visionary solutions to key issues,” says Colihan. “We’re trying to equip people with the skills they need to survive and thrive.”
How does Slingshot help communities capture and use that local knowledge? The “guide don’t decide” approach. Through one-on-one coaching calls, workshops, and campaign development, the Slingshot team enables local organizers to make key decisions that lead to change within their own communities. One teenager got involved in an environmental community group, for example, and used the skills he learned to eventually become a city councilor, making decisions to help his area thrive.
In advocacy, Colihan notes, one person is easy to write off. But when hundreds of community members come together around one north-star vision, it’s much harder for governments and corporations to ignore. In a moment of intense federal-level rollbacks, grassroots organizing is an effective pathway to defend against current and future threats.
Overcoming Fear as a Community
It feels scary to go up against big polluters or your local government. We’re supporting people in owning their power.”
— Dana Colihan, Co-Executive Director
Community organizing isn’t without its challenges, however. Feeling like the underdog can cause many to feel powerless and afraid in the face of large corporations.
But this is where Slingshot’s approach shines: Colihan and her team help local communities find and seize their power. Rather than feeling isolated and helpless, communities that partner with Slingshot recognize that they’re part of a larger whole with immense power to drive change. Coaching helps people see what they’re capable of and find tangible pathways to advocate for or against policies that impact the environment.
Similarly, community members are able to draw on the power of Slingshot’s New England network to share information, skills, and advocacy tactics. “When community leaders plug into these networks, they feel less alone,” says Colihan.
Turning Concern Into Activism in Wiscasset
In Wiscasset, for example, Brady Winn was worried when she discovered that an unknown corporation was considering setting up a massive 300-acre AI data center in the community. She quickly reached out to Colihan for help, and the two went to work. Colihan helped her learn about organizing and create a plan that eventually brought more than 40 community members together to discuss their concerns.
“These big AI companies can disenfranchise local decision-making and undercut democracy,” says Colihan. “Once they have set up shop, they don’t need to ask for permission before taking action.”
At the initial gathering, community members expressed similar concerns: Many were worried about how the data center would impact electricity rates. Some were concerned about light pollution and water usage. Richard Davis, a retired Berklee College music professor was troubled about noise pollution.
That community listening session sparked mobilization across the area, leading Winn, Davis, and others to start the activist organization Protect Wiscasset. “It’s been so powerful,” says Colihan. “It’s organizing the community to figure out the political lay of the land and how it could pass an ordinance to ban a data center of this scale.”
Embracing the Heart Work
Community organizing is all about getting to the root of core environmental health threats. And for Colihan and the Slingshot team, organizing the organizers is true “heart work”: “I’m being transformed by being in relationship,” she says. “When people win, it feels like the best thing ever. When folks lose, I’m gutted.”
That emotional response to community work is evidence of the personal investment that mobilization efforts engender. When people come together and rely on their neighbors and networks, they’re more invested in collective power. For communities across New England, Slingshot helps community leaders see something they tend to otherwise overlook: Their power to drive change has always existed — they just needed to tap into it.