About Us

SJEJA is based in Camden City, and several of its members are Camden residents, SJEJA
intends to make Camden a significant focus of its activities because of the severity of the
city's environmental problems.
The general focus of SJEJA's work is in the eight counties that make up South Jersey.
These counties include; Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Mercer,
Ocean & Salem.
SJEJA formed in October of 2002 as the southern regional chapter of the state-wide New
Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA) & was incorporated as a separate entity on
December 18, 2003. Though SJEJA is a fairly new organization, our individual members &
organizational leaders who are represented have made substantial strides in furthering
environmental justice in the City of Camden, regionally & with the state-wide
organization. In fact, SJEJA's leadership experience represents over 110 yrs. combined.
Since the formation of SJEJA, the organization has provided technical & capacity building
assistance to neighborhood groups, organized & participated in numerous public hearings &
events, submitted public comments on facility permits & other environmental-related
matters, conducted research on local environmental issues, and most recently, was one of
several groups to successfully protect the integrity of the Waterfront South community by
preventing enactment of a redevelopment plan which would have caused forced
governmental relocation & further environmental degradation.

Our Mission Statement:
We believe that everyone is entitled to a clean & safe environment, meaning that they
have clean & unpolluted air, water, soil & food in their homes, schools, workplaces &
neighborhoods. We recognize that people of a minority are disproportionately affected by
environmental hazards. The purpose of forming SJEJA is to provide a way for minorities
living in such affected communities in South Jersey to organize themselves & take back
control of their communities.