Our 2025 Restoration fund supports teams or organizations in creating space for joy, growth, rest, and healing. This year, grants of up to $10,000 were distributed to 3 core members to support a variety of activities, including staff wellness retreats, staff and paid time off, and leadership trainings. See below for a list of grant recipients to learn more about their work:

Appalachian Citizens Law Center: This funding will be used to support a week-long listening and leadership exchange between ACLC, Martin County Concerned Citizens, and We the People of Detroit. The exchange will focus on listening and sharing stories and strategies among the communities fighting for affordable water, as well as building relationships to foster ongoing collaborative work that will build power for all organizations participating. ACLC will also hold a retreat in the Appalachian mountains to allow staff to work through joint visioning and collectively process the ongoing turmoils that our work confronts.

Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples: Funding will be allocated towards staff self-care funds, and a winter solstice wellness retreat for staff, advisory board, and partners. These funds will allow SPI to invest in resilience through the care, stability, and capacity of their staff and partners, ensuring Indigenous leadership continues to guide the path forward for environmental and climate justice.

Title Track: Title Track will bring its board and staff together in one place for a retreat including facilitated leadership development, strategic planning and board training sessions, as well as scheduled time for art and music. Each day staff will build with and learn from community leaders.

In 2025, we distributed Alignment and Movement Building Grants of up to $25,000 each to 4 core members. This initiative is designed to aid the development of programs, advocacy, campaigns, and federal policy engagement that advance shared Caucus goals. Learn more about our 2025 recipients and their work:

Appalachian Citizens Law Center: Funding will support staff capacity to complete a research report on drinking water disconnections. Insights from the report will 1) illuminate water systems where affordability is an issue and 2) provide information that will help inform policy recommendations related to disconnection protections. Funding will also support capacity to participate in the Caucus’ generation of policy priorities related to natural disasters and climate resilience. Last, funds will be used to support staff members’ participation in DC Water Week in 2026 where ACLC can contribute our voice to that of the collective advocacy of the Caucus.

Oregon Water Futures: These funds will support OWF collaborative members (Verde, Coalition of Communities of Color, and Willamette Partnership) capacity to travel to and lead water justice events and the development of the Movement Building StoryMap which will include 4 community conversations with community leaders sharing stories about their current work at the intersection of water and energy, housing, health, immigration, and transportation justice.

Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples: Funds will be used to cover personnel expenses for their Indigenous Waters, Indigenous Just Transitions & Indigenous Climate Justice programs staff. Funds will also support staff in participating in 2025 New York Climate Week. By applying Indigenous knowledge and worldviews to environmental and climate justice work, SPI serves as a nexus for knowledge-sharing among Native Nations, Indigenous Peoples, and allies on key environmental and cultural issues.

Rio Grande International Study Center: RGISC will grow their “OneWater, OneLove” initiative as a community-driven effort to safeguard the Rio Grande and advance water equity and climate resilience along the US/Mexico border. They will work to advance a nature-based wastewater reclamation initiative that recycles water and community-led river-centric solutions that directly counter harmful privatization schemes threatening to restrict water access and threaten water security for Laredo’s vulnerable communities. 

Harpeth Conservancy: Harpeth Conservancy will develop and implement narrative- and-values-based grassroots organizing and advocacy efforts in order to 1) rebuild nonpartisan/bipartisan water movement infrastructure in Tennessee 2) produce case study/story-based training materials on Clean Water Act interventions in Tennessee and contributions to a Southern version of the Narrative Change Toolkit, and 3) advance water equity and climate justice in the Southern region.

To ensure our WECR Caucus Core Members–many of whom have limited resources–are able to sustain their critical work for the long term and engagement with the WECR Caucus, in 2023, we distributed Alignment and Movement Building Grants of up to $25,000 each. This initiative is designed to support Core Members advancing direct impact for frontline communities and empowering communities from the ground up. Learn more about our 2023 changemakers and their work:

Giniw Collective: Giniw Collective will be welcoming their first cohort of advocates seeking to internalize and implement Indigenous-based values inside systems, outside systems and all of the in-between. Advocates will gain first-hand skills within federal policy spaces and bring a much-needed perspective from their communities.

Green Latinos: Green Latinos is developing story maps that help connect personal stories with federal policies with the aim of providing examples of systems and efforts already occurring in Latine communities that address issues of water equity and shortcomings. Included will be a call to action relevant to the local community and highlighting tangible steps to advocate for water equity and climate resilience nationally. 

Nuestra Casa: Along with student researchers, Nuestra Casa is creating a community education campaign for the Romic cleanup and groundwater education in East Palo Alto which will work with the community, as well as sharing any advocacy opportunities out to community members. Nuestra Casa will build out their existing relationship with EPA and use information gained to educate and inform the community on the state of the Romic clean up site.

Rio Grande International Study Center: Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC) is launching the groundbreaking “Laredo Riverfront Neighborhood Alliance,” a community-centered program targeting eight historic neighborhoods along the Rio Grande. The Laredo Riverfront Neighborhood Alliance aims to empower residents and uplift marginalized neighborhoods historically burdened by heavy militarization, environmental, and socioeconomic hardships to combat the false border narrative at both the state and federal levels.

We the People of Detroit: In addition to deepening their involvement in the WECR Caucus, We the People of Detroit (WPD) will continue to develop their Water Policy Education & Engagement Program (Water PEEPs). Water PEEPs will be able to deepen their work around water, climate, and justice priorities while also building community capacity to understand/engage in opportunities. 

West Street Recovery: West Street Recovery (WSR) is organizing for equitable drainage, sewer provision, and flood control for low income BIPOC residents living in Northeast Houston and Harris County. They will work with the city to identify problem areas, co-create solutions, and support applications for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to make these projects happen as quickly as possible.