The All Phase Foundation (APF) is dedicated to promoting social and environmental justice, advancing community learning, transforming workplaces, and adopting electrification – all in service of a healthy, thriving community. Disadvantaged communities, like those APF serves in Cleveland, OH, disproportionately face indoor air pollution, caused by “natural gas” used for heating and cooking. Despite the name, natural gas is a fossil fuel, like coal, oil, and gasoline, emitting harmful pollutants when burned. Since 2022, APF has worked to convert their low-income black and brown communities – whose asthma and heart disease rates are among the nation’s highest – from unnatural gas to electric appliances. Essential to APF’s programming is education and outreach through community listening sessions explaining the positive health outcomes of this switch. APF strives to move its community towards a more just and sustainable future by first addressing the environmental injustice in its residents’ own homes.
For All Phase Foundation, a Black-led grassroots organization on Cleveland’s East Side, community education is crucial. With two full staff and two contract staff members, they are creating a workforce development program particularly focused on those between the ages of 16 and 45, people who have been previously incarcerated, and veterans. The goal – which would enhance economic and environmental justice – is to train people to build/install EV charging stations and solar panel arrays; repair and maintain EV vehicles; install HVAC systems; retrofit home electrical infrastructures; and become master electricians. Grounded in its community and bolstered by support from organizations like Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition and the Ohio Climate Justice Fund, APF leverages a robust online presence and connections with local churches to amplify their mission of educating, training, and enlightening.