A tour of two local communities leads to insights and collaborations

Have you ever walked or driven by an idling bus and encountered the distinct smell of the exhaust fumes? Imagine having to experience it every day because you live near a bus terminal. 

For years, that was the reality for people who lived near the large Nubian Square MBTA station in Roxbury. Many believed that was the cause of the high rate of asthma in people who lived there, so they started grassroot efforts to bring attention to the problem and implement changes that would address the issue. 

Environmental Justice in the Community

A group of MGH Institute students, staff, and faculty learned about that reality as well as other examples of environmental justice while taking part in two recent walking tours. Organized through a collaboration between the MGH Institute’s JEDI Office and Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, the tours explained some of the environmental health challenges that people living in Roxbury and Chinatown face, and what local organizations are doing to overcome them. 

In Roxbury, Alternative for Community and Environment (ACE) was one of the community organizations that advocated for moving the bus hub further away from the center of Roxbury and spearheaded efforts to reduce the harmful effects of vehicles with diesel engines like the buses that go through Nubian Square, which resulted in the signing of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Ordinance by Mayor Marty Walsh in 2015. The ordinance enforces restrictions on idling, mandated the retrofitting of diesel-engine vehicles with air pollution control equipment, and replaced the majority of Boston Public School buses with vehicles that run on alternative fuel sources. 

Air quality monitors in the area have shown that these changes have made a difference.

“It was very impactful to feel the actual difference in air quality between when I used to regularly take the bus to Nubian Station decades ago and now,” said Callie Watkins Liu, director of JEDI education and programs. “It was wonderful to spend time learning about all of the environmental justice interventions that ACE and community members have been implementing during that time.”

In Chinatown, the tour participants were able to learn about the history of the area and talk to residents and business owners about how rent increases and other issues affect their daily lives. 

“As a nurse whose area of expertise is in community health, it was great to learn about a neighborhood in Boston from the individuals who live there,” said Kathy Sabo, director at the Ruth Sleeper Nursing Center for Clinical Education and Wellness. “There is still a lot of work to do as health disparities are clearly present in the Chinatown community.” 

They heard from the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) about their advocacy efforts, including current work related to a proposal to build a large hotel that would have a significant impact on air quality, wind, traffic, and safety. As with ACE in Roxbury, the impressive array of civic engagement and efforts to empower those in the community made an impression on the IHP group. 

“I came away from both tours in awe of the power of community voices and advocacy,” said Gayun Chan-Smutko, associate department chair of the Genetic Counseling Department. “It takes patience, resistance, protest, power, resilience, and strength in numbers to demand change in environmental justice communities. I think it’s important that all healthcare providers understand the impact of environmental injustice on the total health of our patients.”

Environmental Justice and the MGH Institute

That ability to appreciate the real-life environment of patients resonated with many of the tour participants, particularly those who focus on JEDI, climate justice, and social determinants of health. 

“It was really eye-opening,” said Suellen Breakey, the director of the Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health. “Our scholarship is around this issue but to be walking through the community was really compelling.”

To help students at the MGH Institute gain that perspective on environmental justice, the JEDI Office focused the 2024 Power, Privilege, and Positionality course on, “Health at the Intersection of Race and Environmental Justice” which gave the JEDI Office and the Climate Justice Center an opportunity to work together. 

“We wanted to focus on additional ways that we could meaningfully collaborate with the Climate Justice Center,” said Watkins Liu. “This included having Dr. Breakey and members of the Climate Justice Committee as moderators for PPP and co-sponsoring these tours.”

As a result of working together to organize the tours, the JEDI Office is now a part of the Climate Justice Steering Committee, and both are exploring deeper collaborations with ACE and CPA to benefit those in the local communities and MGH Institute students.

“I think it’s important that we engage our students with the community and help them see first-hand the complexities in promoting health and the inequities that exist,” said Sabo.

Breakey agrees. “We are here in the Navy Yard and right outside, in the surrounding communities, there are real social issues that people have to contend with that are impacting their health,” she explained. “I have been mulling that over in my head because the more we can illustrate that to the students, the better. Because it is not an issue that is happening over there, it is happening in our educational backyard.”

Do you have a story the Office of Strategic Communications should know about? If so, let us know.