Creating the Conditions for Environmental Justice

Building capacity with vulnerable communities and Tribes for over 20 years.

We stay until our job is done.

Protecting, Building, Catalyzing

Through training, workshops, and mentorship, the Capacity Collaborative (formerly EFCWest) protects environments and builds capacity for Tribes and communities to catalyze the skills, resources, and funding necessary to realize their goals.

The Capacity Collaborative, in partnership with Kingdom Pathways and community stakeholders, has released a June 2025 update on the Wastewater, Cesspool, and Septic Conversations Report in Hawaiʻi.

Getting Grant Ready: Workshop Series for Tribal Solid Waste Managers

Watch this series of videos from our funding webinar series to help Tribal Solid Waste and Environmental Managers and Staff fund their projects.

Our Current Projects

  • Huliau o Wai'anae

    Huliau o Wai'anae: Turning Points for a Sustainable Future is intended to address the historically systemic barriers that have prevented indigenous participation in government decision-making through an Advisory Hui, Citizen Science Program, Fellowships and a Community Health Assessment.

  • YES4EJ

    The West Anniston Youth Empowerment Strategies for Environmental Justice (YES4EJ) Project will prepare the community for a sustainable, resilient future through a sequence of integrated activities designed to empower local, young adults with knowledge and skills to engage decision makers in effecting better outcomes for community health and prosperity.

  • Hoopa Valley Tribe

    The CC is working with the Hoopa Valley Tribe to develop their climate adaptation plan. Local Tribal knowledge is critical to the vulnerability analysis as is an understanding of climate impacts on traditional practices, foods and resources.

  • Puerto Rico

    Water and wastewater management are challenges for rural Puerto Rican communities. The CC is working with small water systems and offering wastewater workshops to residents of the mainland and Vieques.

  • San Carlos Apache

    With almost 2 million acres on their reservation, managing solid waste is a challenge. The CC is working with the San Carlos Apache Nation to identify community needs, explore better communication and develop a strategic plan.

  • Thriving Earth Exchange

    The CC is a parter with the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange program to bring community science to pressing environmental problems.

  • Hawaii Cesspool Conversion

    How will Hawaii convert almost 90,000 cesspools to sewer or septic when many of the homeowners are living below the poverty line? The CC is working with community members and the Department of Health to explore this issue through our community outreach training and tools. Read and download our most recent report here.

  • Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians

    Located in Southern California along the Mexican border, the Collaborative is helping Campo develop their Solid Waste Management Plan to address illegal dumping and the need for a transfer station on this remote reservation.

  • East Africa

    The CC helped create Women’s Climate Centers International to support climate smart agriculture, economic development and drought resistance for rural East African women. We continue to serve as the US backbone for this organization.