Building Power Across Lines: Climate Advocacy Training, SSEP Watch, and How You Can Help
Hello to all you fierce fossil fuel foes! I’m back with a full blog this week after spending some time in Seattle participating in Climate Advocacy Lab’s 2026 Blueprint Training Cohort.
This Cohort is a 5-month intensive peer learning and training experience designed for organizers and leaders that will provide a supportive, structured framework for individuals engaged in multiracial, cross-class climate coalitions, based on the Lab’s Blueprint for a Multiracial, Cross-Class Climate Movement.
I was incredibly lucky to be selected to be a part of the 2026 Cohort (the second of it’s kind!) and attend the Seattle in-person kick off with three other INCREDIBLE organizers from the Southeast that Haw River Assembly is in coalition with through our No Pipelines work (including most recently NC Pipeline Watch project SSEP Watch, more on this below.)
From left to right: Juhi Modi (Appalachain Voices), Lief Hurt, Dan Ideozu (POWHR), & Aidan Loretz (me! Haw River Assembly & 7 Directions of Service)
Now, more than ever, it is essential that we organize horizontally across lines of difference to be able to usher in the transition to an environmentally-just society that we all so desperately need. I look forward to committing the next 5 months to covering essential concepts around:
How to identify common goals,
How to establish internal decision-making processes,
How to maintain momentum and cohesion, and
How to navigate conflict while maintaining relationships.
As Haw River Assembly expands our Environmental Justice work through coalitions like No Pipelines, Communities Over Corporate Profits, and NC Data Center organizing, the skills and relationships that come from this amazing opportunity from Climate Advocacy Lab are deeply impactful!
We need volunteers to join our SSEP-Watch!
Haw River Assembly is providing essential support by aiding in and conducting initial water testing. This is necessary to have baseline data to compare potential construction violations to.
Interested in taking part in these efforts? Are you a landowner along the Right-of-Way (ROW) or near the route who can allow members of our SSEP-Watch to go on your property to take photos and samples? Please fill out this form to demonstrate your interest: https://forms.gle/s1Q36vp5MyT3xCmd7
It doesn’t take much to help, and you don’t need to be in the field! We need volunteers to submit data, amplify stories, and track violations. And if you do wanna be out in the field, it’s not as overwhelming as you think! We’ll equip you with the proper tools, a partner (monitoring never occurs alone), and you gotta snap a picture and take a quick pH test. We give you all the training and tools you need! Check out the SSEP Volunteer Monitoring Guide for a list of information, links to submit suspected issues, and contacts!
Want more info on how to get involved? Need a different way to voice your frustration and disappointment? Another essential area of our continued fight is to put pressure on NC state representatives and local elected officials. This focus will be great for those who are further away from the ROW/can't commit to on-the-ground monitoring. Email me at aidan@hawriver.org, and I can provide more information, help you with a letter to the editor, and/or send comments to local elected officials.
7 Directions of Service is going on a Toxic Tour and We’re supporting
7 Directions of Service is hitting the road and stopping in communities along the Southeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline route to raise awareness, share stories, and connect with neighbors. They’ll be providing dinner, raising awareness about SSEP pipeline impacts by centering frontline community voices, collecting stories, and building up local resiliency. Find a meeting near you and come learn, meet your community, and stand in solidarity. See a town near you? Plan to come on out! More event details by location at 7directionsofservice.com/events. Register for location information! Email aidan@7directionsofservice.com for volunteer interest, details, and questions
Stop #2 is in Reidsville! Kaitlyn and I will be at the meeting space from 5-6 to give a brief Construction Monitoring Training for Rockingham folks. Hope to see folks along the route! Check out future dates below and visit nossep.org for event registration links.
April 7 – Oak Ridge
April 14 - Greensboro
April 21 – Kernersville
April 28 – Winston-Salem
May 5 - Wallburg
May 12 - Midway & Welcome
May 19 – Lexington
Important Links
Stay up to date with NoSSEP efforts - nossep.org
contains map, printable resources, coalition statements, timeline, etc.
Learn how the Haw River is impacted by checking out Clean Water for NC's Maps on Methane-Gas Pipeline Projects' Impact on Statewide Drinking Water Sources
Survey 123 to submit monitoring data (photos, stream testing, etc.)
I greatly admire the strength and resilience of our community in the face of all these pressures. Thank you for being a part of the fight up to now.
We are facing immensely challenging times as a country. Together, in our corner of the world, we will fight to protect our Haw River and our Haw River community by standing in solidarity efforts for justice for the water and justice for the people. As always, this is Aidan wishing community care, light, and love.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
~ Aidan Loretz (she/her, they/them)