Water Hub Blog

Water Hub Blog

Rising Voices: Pacoima Beautiful, water and heat in the San Fernando Valley

Rising Voices is a column the Water Hub pens for Maven’s Notebook listening to advocates and organizers in California talk about water issues impacting local communities. This month, as we’ve seen as extreme heat radiates across the West, we checked in with Pacoima Beautiful’s policy director, Andres Ramirez, and lead project planner, Dora Frietze-Armenta, to talk about what’s going on in Los [...]
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Reflecting on digital comms and nonprofit grantmaking

Last year, our team set out to pilot a small digital grants program for groups working in the Los Angeles area. The goal of the program was to help groups ramp up digital organizing at a time when the COVID-19 crisis had constrained traditional tactics like canvassing, rallies, lobby days, and more. We hoped this funding would be a useful complement to the hands-on, [...]
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Navigating the media as a BIPOC-focused organization

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) community organizers, movement leaders, grassroots staff–– have you ever felt like you weren't being heard in interviews, or wondered how to approach a reporter who misrepresented your issues? Whether the media has ever made you feel tone policed, erased, or that your community’s experience wasn’t being authentically reflected, you are not alone.  Coverage of [...]
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Staff spotlight: Jessica Jewell

Hi there. Jessica here, the Water Hub’s new digital director. I’m incredibly humbled to introduce myself and to have the opportunity to be of service to folks fighting for water justice in the West and to support them to tell their stories. I’ve always been deeply passionate about the protection of the Earth and other living things whom we share our wild [...]
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How to craft soundbites that stick

More people than ever before are turning to social media and TV for news, scrolling and channel surfing to get the gist of the day’s top stories. In this short attention span world, we have to draw people in with bite-sized content that packs a punch.  That’s where soundbites come in: they’re short and striking, designed to catch people’s attention and connect to [...]
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How to look good on video

The pandemic has changed the way many nonprofits are doing communications and outreach. Meeting on Zoom and video has become more the norm as we increasingly rely on social media to get our message out. But comms folks aren't the only ones on camera. People on the frontlines, including community members and program staff, are increasingly being asked to share their experiences [...]
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The opportunity on water

In my 10+ years of work on water, I've seen a steady increase in the amount of attention this vital resource receives in the press and in politics. This is partly driven by crises like Flint and Winter Storm Uri, but we wouldn't see the current level of awareness without organizing from every corner of the country. Advocates have been pushing relentlessly [...]
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Voters want U.S. to invest in water

More than 9 in 10 voters (93%) believe fixing America’s outdated and unsafe drinking water systems should be a top priority for President Biden’s economic recovery plan, according to our new national poll. The American Rescue Plan, passed earlier this month, is sending billions to Tribes, cities, and states to fund critical drinking and wastewater upgrades and provide lower-income families help paying their [...]
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Tracking water news in the West

Following up on last summer's analysis of water news in COVID times, the Water Hub team just completed a February 2021 Western water media scan to see how coverage of our issues has been impacted by recent events like the election, administration change, etc.  We found that political news had indeed crowded out many water stories in the period from November to February, but that the [...]
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Reflecting on our first year

Last winter, the Water Hub team met with our Advisory Group* for the first time. We ate arepas and discussed our Western water landscape assessment and the theory of change we created to guide our work in service of the water movement. Our advisors counseled us to focus on a few key issues — we chose drinking water, climate change, and the cultural significance of waterways — [...]
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The future of water infrastructure

With Congress considering billions of dollars in infrastructure funding to help rebuild the economy, we worked with WaterNow Alliance on a video making the case that the next wave of water investments should focus on green and localized infrastructure.  From green streets to stormwater parks and on-site water recycling systems, we are seeing communities across the country embrace solutions designed to make wiser use [...]
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Wildfires and water in the West

This year’s catastrophic Western wildfires made headlines across the country. With rains returning to much of the region, we invited four experts to talk with us about the intersection of fire and western watersheds in the age of climate change. The panel discussed wildfire impacts on water ranging from drinking water safety to stream health and flood risks, while also digging into [...]
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Water justice in a warming world

I joined the Water Hub team a few weeks ago and am excited to introduce myself to our community of western water communicators, advocates and partners. Hello! ? While I now call Denver, Colorado home, my love of water and the outdoors goes back to growing up on the east coast in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In elementary school, I spray-painted “Chesapeake [...]
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