Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services has provided assistance to communities experiencing lead exposure for over seven years. While the mission of Fair Shake is to foster equal access to environmental justice in the Appalachian Region, the variation of laws governing lead between state and local jurisdictions have been a barrier to the expansion of services for lead exposure. That is why Fair Shake is excited to announce that Brooke Christy, a recent Pitt Law graduate, has joined Fair Shake’s staff as an Equal Justice Works Fellow dedicated to specializing in lead exposure. Brooke will be responsible for a wide variety of tasks, including direct representation of tenants with lead exposure, collaborating with community organizations to better support their existing efforts, and promoting increased capacity of pro-bono lead litigation.
This fellowship was intentionally designed to have broad programming opportunities because we understand that the needs of our community partners vary significantly across regions. Brooke will be leaning on her ten years of community organizing experience and legal education to bring attorneys and organizers closer together in the fight to prevent lead poisoning. She also looks forward to building upon relationships that Fair Shake has established in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to identify how we can best serve local communities and build sustainable programming for us to continue this work for years to come.
We recognize that while the rates of lead poisoning have significantly dropped in recent decades, the eradication of lead poisoning will require creative approaches on how to best serve our most vulnerable communities. Lead exposure continues to have disproportionate impacts on historically marginalized communities, including communities of color and residents with low-income. Tenants and their families are also uniquely vulnerable to lead exposure due to barriers to access preventative and remediation resources. Compounding this, the aging infrastructure of the Appalachian Basin puts local communities at higher risk than the national average.
Since joining Fair Shake at the end of September, Brooke has started reaching out to community partners to discuss potential collaborations. Such collaboration can include helping draft model municipal ordinances, assisting with community education programing, creating “Know Your Rights” guides tailored to localities, providing technical support for organizations receiving federal funds for lead remediation, and accepting referrals for tenants seeking legal counsel.
If you or an organization that you work with are interested in similar services, please reach out to Brooke at bchristy@fairshake-els.org or (267) 817-5917.
We also plan to be in attendance at several Lead Poisoning Prevention Week events, including Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing (CLASH) resource fair at East Cleveland Public Library on October 28. We hope you will join us in celebrating Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by finding an event near you or clicking here to learn more about lead.
Finally, we would like to give a special thanks to Fenwick & West LLP for sponsoring this fellowship.
