Non-Profit CFROG Enriches Community with CARB Grant Projects, Including Environmental Academy for High Schoolers

In June of 2022, the non-profit Climate First: Replacing Oil and Gas (CFROG) successfully completed four projects that were supported by a CARB grant, awarded to them in 2019. The non-profit, based in Ventura County, strived to educate community members and measure air quality with their projects. 

CFROG was started in 2013 in response to a proposed oil drilling operation in Ventura County. A group of neighbors got together and advocated against the effort and acted as community watchdogs from then on. CFROG gained tax-exempt status in 2014. In 2018, the organization’s focus shifted from not only monitoring oil and gas proposals but advocating for a green transition and clean solutions as well.

Figure 1: Dr. Steven Colome, CFROG Advisor, Dr. Mary Woo, CSUCI faculty, and Same Michie, Ventura County Air Pollution Control District working together to calibrate Aeroqual air monitoring devices.

            In a spin on the non-profit’s acronym, their motto is “your climate watchfrog on the Central Coast,” and their two technical projects fulfill this goal. The first project involved the installment of PurpleAir monitors around Ventura County, so that community members themselves could keep track of the quality of air they were breathing. The second project, using their distributed system of Aeroqual and PurpleAir Monitors, involved a partnership with California State University Channel Islands, and involved drones flying over the scarred land of the Thomas Fire, to observe the oil and gas seeps started from the burn. 

            

            CFROG recognizes the importance of education when it comes to strengthening the fight for clean air, which were the focus of their educational projects. Their project My People, My Air was built to educate community members, and involved several meetings, tabling, canvassing, and even demonstrating outside a Southern California Gas Company’s (SoCalGas) meeting.

CFROG also had a project focused on educating youth, and one of its main tenets was the Environmental Voices Academy (EVA), which was a 16-week extracurricular program for junior and senior high school students to learn about environmental advocacy in their own communities. Because of the coronavirus safety concerns at the time, EVA was conducted through Zoom. After an application process, twelve students from around the county were selected to participate.

Figure 2: 2022 Environmental Voices Academy graduates at final presentation events, with mentors, guest speakers, and Ventura County Supervisor Carmen Ramirez.

The EVA syllabus covered climate history, including society’s shift from an agricultural to industrial civilization, and a lesson on more recent history featuring Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. Other lessons focused on environmental justice, storytelling, climate science, and climate solutions. CFROG brought in climate advocates, including documentary film makers and a youth activist to introduce EVA participants to real-world examples of change makers. CFROG kept the students engaged by including different forms of media as homework, including books, movies, and even a bonus option to explore “environmental justice” on TikTok. 

After an 8-week educational program, students selected individualized projects to pursue for another eight weeks. Alexandra Masci, a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley studying environmental sciences, was involved in an email campaign which demanded that the Ventura City Council publish an environmental impact report on the SoCalGas compressor station. She collected over 100 emails and spoke on behalf of EVA at a City Council meeting. 

Avrey Tokuyama is rising senior at Westlake High School and cited a microplastics demonstration as being particularly impactful, commenting on the power of seeing “evidence of harmful microplastics in the samples from local tap water and creeks.” 

Molly McCoy, who is focusing on environmental justice at UC Davis, felt indebted to the program for broadening her view of environmental racism, and said that “it single-handedly transformed me into the intersectional environmentalist I am today.”

Haley Ehlers, the Associate Executive Director of CFROG, commented on how proud she was of the students who participated in EVA. “These young people impress me so much,” she said, speaking highly of their passion and professionalism. “Listening to the questions they had for our guest speakers and our experts, you could tell they were really thinking about the issues and how they could use this knowledge to make a difference.” 

CFROG has exciting projects to come; as a part of their latest CARB grant, awarded in 2022, they will be initiating a partnership with local labor to certify and educate people in Ventura County about green jobs. “This is a major social and economic change that will happen here. Environmental groups and labor groups want the same thing – a thriving and healthy future. It’s exciting to be a part of this realization on a local level,” Ehlers said. 

Fortunately, the Environmental Voices Academy is also a part of the newest grant cycle. After such a successful first run, CFROG is excited to continue educating the future climate activists of Ventura County.