C-RAC leaders’ clean river ‘movement’ thriving

An environmental movement centered on inclusiveness and justice has taken root in the Quad Cities thanks in part to the commitment of the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) to fund the Clean River Advisory Council for three more years. That latest investment in C-RAC will bring to $1.7 million the total amount of money the WFF’s […]

An environmental movement centered on inclusiveness and justice has taken root in the Quad Cities thanks in part to the commitment of the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) to fund the Clean River Advisory Council for three more years.

That latest investment in C-RAC will bring to $1.7 million the total amount of money the WFF’s Mississippi River Initiative expects to commit to the advisory council’s work from 2023 to 2027.  The seeds for C-RAC were first planted in 2023 through a partnership between the WFF and the Quad Cities Community Foundation with the support of Iman Consulting.  They have been fertilized by a diverse, committed group of community leaders whose work has developed to the point that C-RAC now has a dedicated program manager. Angelica Villarreal joined Iman Consulting in January to work in part with C-RAC. The panel had been managed since its inception primarily by Iman founder and CEO LaDrina Wilson. Ms. Villarreal –  a bilingual educator who has worked for nonprofits – is new to that post and to Iman, but not to C-RAC having served on its Communications and Community Engagement Subcommittee. Though she grew up in Mexico and Arizona, Ms. Villarreal said “I have lived in Moline alongside the Mississippi River now for more than 18 years.” That river “touches every aspect of our life,” she added. “It really shapes our region, our environment, our economy, our way of life and really it is the rock and what is behind it is the development of the Mississippi River equity vision.”  In C-RAC’s inaugural year, members put together an ambitious, thoughtful, well-researched Mississippi River Equity Vision and designed and implemented a QC River Connection grant program through the QC Community Foundation using WFF funding. It initially awarded $250,000 to local nonprofits.  “The beauty is that not only did these folks decide who gets funding, they developed the grant program and they’d never done that before,” Ms. Wilson said of the council. Demand for grants was so overwhelming, WFF added another $118,000 to the pool. In all, C-RAC provided $368,000 in river community funding to 12 organizations.  Those new WFF dollars will help fund another round of grants this year. The QC Community Foundation was both pleased and excited when the WFF committed to investing even more in C-RAC and river communities, said Kaleigh Trammell, the foundation’s director of grantmaking and community initiatives. She also lauded C-RAC members for their input and their commitment to that work. “Not only are they coming to the meetings, but they're doing work outside the meetings,” she said. “They’re continuing to advance their knowledge, they’re continuing to advance forward the vision that they cast for an inclusive environmental movement around the Mississippi River.” It’s not “just that hour and half every month, but it’s all of the time in between and all of the relationships that they’re making in between that really make this something bigger than any of us could have just accomplished on our own,” Ms. Trammell added. Supporters see the council as a "transformative movement.” “We’re looking at not just what C-RAC is going to be doing now but what its impact is going to be in 2025 and 2026 and 2027 and beyond that,” Ms. Villarreal said. “In the future, where are we going to be 10 years, 20 years and 50 years from now? What is that legacy and what are we leaving our community and future generations?” Ms. Wilson added “What I'm most excited about is that we've done this work over the past two years largely not knowing what would come the following year or if anything would come the following year. Now we’re in a position where the Walton Family Foundation has made a commitment of up to the next three years and so how do you plan and what do you do when you think ‘Oh, I've got one year to do this?’ That looks a lot different than how you plan when you know you have a few years of work ahead of you.” She said this new investment also tells C-RAC members “Hey, we can continue to do this work if there are additional grant dollars or organizations can choose to apply for these funds because there is sustainability funding and it's not just going to be a one-off project.”

Locals lead the way

C-RAC has grown to include 17 members. About 60% of them are what Ms. Wilson called “enthusiasts.” They don’t have an environmental sciences background but are eager to foster change. Their work is boosted by environmental professionals who have the know-how to help inform C-RAC’s vision and execution. “Together they fill each other's gaps and work together to create a vision for this region that independent of one another they would not have been able to create,” Ms. Wilson. “We’re not the experts but do we have the voices, the drumbeat of the communities, that may not be as closely connected to the environmental sector to help people execute their plans in a more inclusive way,” she added. One of those voices belongs to Avery Pearl.  “I joined C-RAC because I believe in the core principles of the Mississippi River Environmental Vision – Mississippi REV – that we are stewards of this vital ecosystem,” Mr. Pearl, who also is a West End Revitalization coordinator for the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Rock Island, told the QCBJ.

“Growing up in the Watertown neighborhood of East Moline, I witnessed the environmental injustices faced by underserved communities, often disconnected from the river,” he said. “C-RAC embodies the Mississippi REV's call for community engagement, connecting residents with experts to build a sustainable and equitable future.” As a result, Mr. Pearl said, “C-RAC has significantly improved collaboration among Quad Cities nonprofits, focusing on nature-based solutions. By breaking down silos, we've amplified our collective impact. We're also addressing critical disparities like tree equity, educating underserved communities on the importance of environmental health.” Olivia Dorothy is one of C-RAC’s two co-chairs. The certified floodplain manager and wildland firefighter is an East Moline alderwoman and a consultant to nonprofits including American Rivers, the Izaak Walton League, Prairie Rivers Network and Mississippi One. “I have been involved in environmental advocacy focused on the Mississippi River for two decades,” Ms. Dorothy told the QCBJ. “Much of my work has supported river-oriented environmental initiatives in other communities, such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Therefore, I was understandably excited to contribute to a Mississippi River initiative in my own community.” “I have really enjoyed building relationships with other community members from diverse backgrounds and learning about their histories and visions for our area,” she added. C-RAC’s vision for the region is ambitious. “We’d love to be the place where pollution stops,” Ms. Wilson said. “Whatever we decide here has an effect downstream. So what if we were the community where we were world-renowned for a zero-pollution mindset and make that actionable by including what it could look like.” That includes demonstrating tangible ways to do that. “If each one of us just did one thing – and it sounds simple enough – it makes a huge difference,” she said. To be clear, Ms. Wilson said of that vision, “It’s not like a river plan that you might see the City of Moline have or the City of Davenport have. This is more aspirational. It’s a living and breathing document and is not intended to be something that, now, we’re done with that.” Historical inclusion also is critical. “If you walk up and down the river, and I’ll use Davenport as an example, there are so many nods to Colonel Davenport and the legacy of the settlers when I'm pretty sure anyone who lives here will know that there were Indigenous folks that were here before – so it’s also a cultural piece,” Ms. Wilson said.

How can you help?

C-RAC also is focused on collaborating with other groups at work in river communities.  And individuals who want to support C-RAC's ambitious mission can do so in several ways. For example, they can take part in an equity tree planting event being planned for later this month. It will be similar to one held last October. It attracted some 45 volunteers to plant trees at Rock Island County’s Loud Thunder Forest Preserve and in the West End of Rock Island in partnership with the MLK Center, Living Lands & Waters and the Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District. The goal of such events “is to get the trees planted but also to educate people that trees are a natural resource,” Ms. Wilson said. “The roots of the trees act as a sponge if there is flooding, but also obviously they purify the air.” They also are natural air conditioners. To find out about those and other upcoming opportunities such as river community cleanups, supporters are urged to visit the Clean River Advisory Council Instagram, look for C-RAC’s newsletter and watch for the launch of C-RAC’s new Facebook page and outward-facing website.  Quad Citians also can support C-RAC with financial contributions through the QC Community Foundation.  “By sharing more about the work they‘re doing, hopefully the community will want to come around and join the movement as well and be part of this work that we’re trying to do together,” Ms. Trammell said. “Our hope is that individuals, businesses and other folks in our community would be interested in continuing to support his effort and making sure that engagement and commitment to nature-based solutions and the community continues on certainly for the next three years but even beyond that as well.” Ms. Wilson added “I like to think of the Mississippi River equity vision as more of a movement. You don't have to be part of something organized to participate in it. You may have one priority or two priorities that really resonate with you can want to be part of something or you can do it on a personal level.” For example, she said think about how rainwater runoff impacts our communities and wash your car at the carwash not in your driveway, or make your own rain garden. It also could be as simple as “picking up your dog poo every day.” She invited Quad Citians to consider how they, too, can engage in making C-RAC’s vision a reality. “I don’t know that there’s anything else that we've done in the region that centers culture and community and that threads the line between all these other areas,” Ms Wilson said. “I would want people to feel or think, ‘I probably could be a part of this movement. This is my home. I should be invested.’”