Environmental Justice Is Still Here: MWEJN Gathering Recap and 2025 Highlights
In the final months of 2025, our team was hard at work pulling together our first in-person Network gathering in over half a decade. During this time, we paused our monthly newsletters to devote our energy completely to bringing our partners together.
You’re probably coming back to your inboxes this week and powering up from being offline during the holiday season. In case you missed it—you can still check out our December newsletter to get caught up on the highlights and incredible work our partners continued to do in 2025.
Below a bite-sized taste of last month’s newsletter, featuring the powerful learning moments our partners shared with one another during our Gathering.
One thing was clear as we closed out 2025 and step into 2026—2025 was a year. And environmental justice is still here.
In solidarity,
The MWEJN Team
Notes from the 2025 MWEJN Gathering
We are so grateful to have hosted our 2025 MWEJN Gathering in Mni Sóta Makoce/Minnesota last month with our Midwest Frontline Fund grantee partners from all across the Midwest!
From the beginning, this was more than just a conference. It was a space to build deep relationships across our states, communities, issues, and stories--which are all too often intentionally siloed and silenced. We know that these relationships are the bedrock of creating transformative visions across the region, and that genuine, authentic, and accountable relationships are at the core of our work at MWEJN.
This was our first time getting together in over half a decade. And there were a lot of moments this year when we weren't sure if this was the right time to come together. But it became clear that no matter what, folks in our communities needed a place to connect, heal, strategize and share joy in order to continue their work.
In total, we hosted fifty five representatives from our sixty grantee partners across the Midwest for three days of deep connection and learning.
Throughout our event, we honored the intentions and efforts that went into everyone coming together through art, song, gift-giving, wellness practices, nourishing meals...and a bit of bingo! Our hearts and minds were filled by the words, music, and wisdom of speakers and artists who could join us:
Shelley Buck (Pte Wicota) of partner org Owámniyomni Okhódayapi
Bear Runner Drum Group
Ricardo Levins Morales,
Sun Yung Shin
Jayanthi Kyle
Ayo Clemons of Ayo's Somatics!
Other highlights included
all meals sourced from local BIPOC and women-owned businesses 🍽️
gift bags filled with goodies from partner orgs 🎁
union printers in the Twin Cities for all marketing materials 💪
Finally, we took this precious in-person time to host focused breakout sessions dedicated to organizing ourselves, including mapping the environmental justice movement in the Midwest, adapting our organizing tools to meet this moment, and understanding how we take care of our bodies in the midst of violence and crisis. We also got to host grantee partners in our first environmental justice storytelling booth, where partners could take time to interview each other about their work, share experiences and listen deeply to one another.
This incredible event grounded us in the collective power of our voices, and the expansiveness of what environmental justice in the Midwest is.
As our plenary speaker Ricardo Levins Morales put it, "our vision is big enough for you, it has room."
Check out our social media pages for more incredible highlights and recaps of the event!
