For Immediate Release

MEDIA CONTACT

Daniel Wein – [email protected]

Green For All Joins with Activists, Artists to Announce the SUPPORT FOR FLINT’S FUTURE Bus Tour

Mark Ruffalo, Van Jones, Vien Truong, Tom Steyer & others join for a bus tour to highlight community organizations and individuals leading crisis response in Flint

March 2, 2016 – Oakland, CA – The morning after the Democratic Presidential Debate will draw the nation’s attention to Flint, Green For All will assemble a diverse group of activists and artists to join the Support For Flint’s Future Bus Tour. The tour will begin on Monday, March 7th at 9 a.m. EST, making several site visits across Flint to call attention, bear witness and share solutions to the ongoing Flint Water Crisis.

Participants of the Support For Flint’s Future Bus Tour will include actor and founder of Water Defense Mark Ruffalo; author, activist and founder of Green For All Van Jones; environmental justice activist and Director of Green For All Vien Truong; and businessman, philanthropist and founder of NextGen Climate Tom Steyer.

The tour will touch on three interrelated issues at the heart of the crisis: Children; Environment; and Jobs & Economy. This will include conversations with the individuals and organizations that have been on the forefront of addressing and responding to the crisis: a visit to Hurley Medical Center with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who first sounded the alarm to dangerously high lead levels in local children and founded FlintKids.org; Mission of Hope with Pastor Bobby Jackson, who has been dubbed “Flint's water guy" for his efforts to ensure all residents' access to clean water; and St. Michael’s Church with community organizer Art Reyes, who has been coordinating a volunteer canvas program to educate vulnerable Flint residents on the crisis. 

Additional site visits and bus tour participants will be announced in the coming days.

More than 100,000 residents of Flint have been exposed to toxic levels of lead in their drinking water for more than two years. As local, state and federal officials have mobilized to provide short-term assistance to address the water crisis, local residents have been saddled with addressing the immeasurable long-term damage to Flint’s public health, economy and infrastructure. As a disproportionately poor community of color with one of the nation’s highest poverty rates, residents have been calling for the resources and expertise to implement sustainable solutions for their city’s long-term health.

“The United Nations has already declared access to clean water indispensable for leading a life in human dignity, but the problems in Flint go far beyond a poisoned water supply,” said Mark Ruffalo, Actor and Founder of Water Defense. “It’s incumbent upon all of us to bear witness to the damage done in Flint and communities like it from environmental racism. This means addressing the underlying issues that allowed for the Flint Water Crisis to take place in the first place, and empowering the groups trying to build a long-term future for their city.”

“It goes against the very nature of American democracy to subject citizens to the mistreatment that the residents of Flint have borne the brunt of for years,” said Van Jones, former green jobs advisor to President Obama and founder of Green For All. “Situations like Flint don’t develop overnight; they are the result of long-standing neglect from all parts of our society. Addressing these issues starts with lifting up local community leaders.”

"The fight for clean, safe water in Flint – and in my home state of California and communities across the country – is a fight for social justice,” said Tom Steyer, founder and president of NextGen Climate. “Communities of color too often are the most vulnerable to the impacts of polluted air and water, and our leaders have a moral obligation to protect our communities and make sure this never happens again."

“The mission behind this bus tour, and Green For All, is to provide a megaphone for the community leaders and organizations working to address the crisis in Flint. We now need to turn the focus to the future of Flint, and what the community needs to sustainably and equitably rebuild itself into a prosperous city,” said Vien Truong, Director of Green For All. “Residents have gone through some of the worst years in recent history and now deserve the best the country has to offer – in expertise, support and resources to help Flint make a comeback.”

There will be both limited and open press opportunities during the Support For Flint’s Future Bus Tour announced in the coming days. For more information on media access, and to be included on the open press media advisory, please email [email protected].

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About Green For All

Green For All is a national initiative that puts communities of color at the forefront of the climate movement and equity at the center of environmental solutions. By creating and implementing equitable solutions to some our most pressing issues today – poverty and pollution – Green For All works to ensure that every American citizen has access to strong, resilient, and healthy communities. From environmental allies like 350.org, the Sierra Club and NextGen Climate; business leaders like Tom Steyer and Volt Energy; and pop culture icons like Prince, Drake, and Wiz Khalifa; Green For All bring together leaders from different backgrounds and issues to give resources, voice and jobs to the communities of color who need them most.

Green for All is a project of Dream Corps, an organization that supports campaigns and initiatives that empower the most vulnerable in our society. Dream Corps sits at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, ecology and social uplift.