ELP's Diversity Mission
The Environmental Leadership Program was founded on the premise that the environmental movement must expand its constituency and develop innovative solutions in order to increase its effectiveness in the coming years. Embracing diversity fully helps ELP contribute to meeting both these challenges. Diversity helps us broaden the definition of what it means to be an "environmentalist" and connect the environmental movement to groups in United States society that historically have been under-represented in environmental politics, in particular, people of color, various ethnic groups, and lower income communities, as well as leaders from religious and professional sectors. Diversity also can foster the sharing of differing perspectives and stimulate creative problem-solving, critical reflection, and humility, which are valuable to the personal growth the ELP Fellowship aims to foster.

ELP is particularly committed to furthering a transition in the racial, ethnic and class makeup of environmental leadership in the United States. ELP believes that a multicultural environmental movement will have a greater capacity to develop broad-based, effective solutions that will meet our societal needs, expand environmental constituencies, and achieve political success.

ELP recognizes that diversity is not simply an outcome, but a process and is thus committed to regular evaluation of progress in achieving its goals in order to ensure continual progress and improvement within ELP and the environmental movement as a whole. To this end, ELP is committed to being a learning organization with ever-evolving programs and activities to support its diversity mission.

Definitions
ELP defines diversity as "difference and variation in a wide range of aspects: race and ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, professional background and expertise, geography, ideology, power and other categories." In particular, through the ELP Fellowship we aim to create a community that fosters dialogue and relationships across boundaries of race, ethnicity, class, gender, professional background, environmental expertise, and geography. ELP is aware that, in the U.S. environmental movement, race, class, and ethnicity are arguably the most provocative facets of diversity and therefore require significant attention in the context of the organization's diversity initiatives.

Diversity Curriculum
The ELP Fellowship brings together emerging environmental leaders at an unprecedented level of diversity. Our fellows' work encompasses virtually every sector, geographic region in the country, and field of environmental endeavor and they bring backgrounds and experience across the spectrum of U.S. society. The ELP Fellowship implements a core curriculum that includes an emphasis on diversity awareness and skills to build community among fellows and enable them to work more effectively with diverse constituencies in their environmental work. Our diversity curriculum aims to help fellows learn about the specific impact and importance of diversity for future success of the environmental movement and prepare them to lead efforts to promote diversity within the field.

Boston Environmental Diversity Collaborative
In 2004-2005, ELP launched the Boston Environmental Diversity Collaborative, a 2 year projet to convene Boston-based environmental organizations to explore opportunities for learning and action on diversity, particularly within our institutions. Click here for more information.

In 2001, ELP created a new network of organizations working to build the capacity of the environmental movement. Through the Environmental Leadership Collaborative, ELP works with other environmental leadership organizations to learn from one another to strengthen the work of each group and build momentum for leadership development in the environmental field. In 2003, the ELC will publish The State of Environmental Leadership report focusing on the need for strong environmental leadership, lessons learned about leadership development, and recommendations for next steps for nurturing effective environmental leaders for the future. The ELC recently launched its web site, www.elcleaders.org, to provide information about ELC activities, participating organizations, and environmental leadership news and resources.

In addition to our fellowship, ELP offers retreats and special events geared toward specific constituencies within our target audience of emerging leaders in the environmental field. To learn about future ELP initiatives, please join our mailing list.