Sierra Club:
In 1892, the Sierra Club was established and has grown to become the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organizational (sierraclub.org, 2014). John Muir the founding father wanted to help preserve Yosemite so he invited President Roosevelt to go camping with him to convince him to turn it into a national park (sierraclub.org, 2014). Today the organization is still an advocate for protecting millions of acres of wilderness, but also for clean air, water, endangered species, developing greener energy sources and environmental justice (sierraclub.org, 2014). To date there are 2.4 million members and supporters with 64 local chapters nationwide (sierraclub.org, 2014). The members of these chapters all share the same passion of serving the community (McKenzie, PingerKotecki, 2012). Currently, most of the funding for this organization is received through contributions, gifts and grants (charitynavigator.org, 2014).
Even though the Sierra Club is a grassroots organization they still adhere to the core public health functions and essential services. Most notably the Sierra Club informs, educates and empowers people about important environmental health issues. Their activism helped solve health hazards within the community by pushing to get the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act passed (sierraclub.org, 2014). The organization is also able to help assure the provision of care when needed. They played a valuable role in the restoration of gulf communities after hurricane Katrina and Rita (sierraclub.org, 2014).
The Sierra Club is an organization that is not directly involved with Healthy People 2020, but they do share similar goals and objectives for protecting and improving the environment. A goal for Healthy People 2020 was to increase the number of people who receive drinking water that meets regulations for the Safe Drinking Water Act (healthpeople.gov, 2014). The Sierra Club wants to continue to expose clean water enforcement failures to protect the public (sierraclub.org, 2014). Globally the 2020 goals would like to reduce disease due to poor hygiene, poor sanitation and poor water quality (healthpeople.gov, 2014). The Sierra Club also shares this same passion, but would also like to see public awareness of wasteful consumption (sierrraclub.org, 2014). This organization has proved to be a success in promoting and protecting this nation’s environmental needs for decades, and will continue to do so in the future.
Reference:
Sierra Club. (2014).About the Sierra Club. Retrieved from
Sierra Club. (2014). Who Was John Muir. Retrieved from
Charity Navigator. (2014).The Sierra Club Foundation. Retrieved from
Health People 2020. (2014).Environmental Health. Retrieved from
McKenzie, J., Pinger, R., & Kotecki, J. (2012).An introduction to community health. (7 ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publisher, LLC