FACES is an intergenerational organization working for environmental justice for communities in the United States and in the Philippines. Through partnerships, advocacy, education, service, and organizing FACES addresses environmental justice issues that impact Filipino communities in both the United States and the Philippines.
Climate justice and nature-based education
Through intergenerational learning and mentorship across all ages, FACES supports the next generation of environmental justice leaders grounded in cultural identity and political analysis.
Strengthening relationships, fighting for justice
Through campaigns, solidarity with local and international allies, community education, and advocacy we are building a movement for ecological justice.
Cultural care and Indigenous solidarity
Rooted in cultural wisdom and allyship with Indigenous communities, we work with youth, elders, and knowledge-bearers to restore our Filipinx ancestral traditions and revitalize the practices we need to heal our communities and be in sacred relationship with the earth.
We remain grounded in the personal stories, lives, and struggles of those affected worldwide.
Climate justice and nature-based education.
FACES Garden and Food Justice
Restoring just relationships to land and healthy foodways are core to a just transition to a regenerative future. In 2017 FACES established a community garden in Union City, CA in collaboration with Filipino Advocates for Justice. The community garden has served as a site of gathering, environmental education, and leadership development for youth leaders of FAJ and the local community.
Youth Internships
Ecological justice requires intergenerational knowledge-sharing and building the leadership of the next generation. FACES offers seasonal or semester-long internships for high school and college-aged youth to develop their environmental justice knowledge and practice. We have stipended annual summer garden internships available for youth who are committed to growing our garden in Union City, CA with the leaders of the Filipino Advocates for Justice. We host research, campaigns and advocacy, outreach and education, and social media internships for skilled young people. Please contact us if you are interested in interning with FACES.
Environmental Justice Education
Environmental justice means centering the voices and experiences of those at the frontlines of the climate crisis and pollution. As a transnational solidarity organization, FACES brings a global to local view to the environmental and climate crises we face. Through workshops, mentorship, and educational programming, FACES supports the development of environmental justice leaders.
Strengthening relationships, fighting for justice.
Climate Justice Campaign
The world is at the grip of overlapping crises. From the U.S. to the Philippines, wildfires and storms barrage communities, with communities of color, the poor, and those at the greatest risk bearing the brunt of climate chaos. Since our inception in 2000, FACES has worked in solidarity with organizations based in the Philippines fighting to protect their communities from pollution and climate crisis. Spurred to act by the devastation of Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in 2013, we partnered with the Philippines Movement for Climate Justice and its members to fight for a people-powered vision away from fossil fuels and for investments to protect climate-impacted communities. FACES contributes Filipinx and Asian voices to the global movement for climate justice.
Cultural care and Indigenous solidarity.
Ancestral wisdom
Building environmental justice also means returning to and restoring our ancestral wisdom traditions in harmony with Mother Earth. FACES is rooted in our traditions and relationships to land, food, place, and ecological knowledge taught by our lolas and lolos, as well as remembered in what is embedded in our spiritual wisdom. Our histories and culture inform our work, and the ways we build community. Through a spirit of kapwa, we build community through our shared traditions, and political awareness of our shared histories.
Indigenous solidarity
Around the world, Indigenous peoples steward over 80% of the world’s biodiversity, despite being only 5% of the global population. This is no accident. The wisdom and knowledge of our Indigenous traditions and those of our Indigenous allies in the United States, the Philippines, are living traditions that carry the wealth of ecological knowledge to inform our right relationship with the Earth and one another. FACES cultivates relationships with and works with our Indigenous members and allies to uplift the voices of Indigenous peoples at the forefront of ecological justice.