Sonora Environmental Research Institute

We are a community-based, non-profit, tax-exempt organization that has been extensively involved with environmental, health and safety issues in southern Arizona for over 30 years. Our mission is to preserve the environment and protect human health through the development of a sustainable future. We partner with neighborhoods that are under economic, environmental and health stress and help determine the risks to which the residents are exposed and actions to be taken to reduce those risks. We conduct risk reduction and healthy homes interventions, provide technical assistance, conduct community participatory research, offer educational opportunities, respond to community needs and implement programs to make immediate and long-term impacts. We work to create a sustainable world with environmental responsibility and opportunity for all people regardless of economic, ethnic, nationality or gender status. We work with communities to set priorities for risk-reduction activities and create self-sustaining, community-based partnerships that continue to improve the health and safety of the community.

Vision

The communities in which we live and work have been disproportionately affected by pollution in the past and present and will continue to be unless changes are made. These communities have the fewest resources to address the issues that affect their families and homes. We provide assistance and conduct research to create the capacity necessary to address these problems. Our strategies to accomplish this are:

• To provide communities with methods to mitigate the effects of exposure to pollutants and environmental threats to their health and livelihood
• To enhance society's ability to protect the environment and human health by implementing science and engineering solutions with local leaders
• To use science and technology to create solutions which respect the earth and understand our partnership with it