Mission and Goals

SCOPE's Training and Policy Education (TPE) Department contributes to building a more powerful social justice movement through the strategic development and management of SCOPE's research / analysis and training / technical assistance programs. A primary focus is on increasing the capacities and effectiveness of organizations and networks working with poor and disadvantaged communities. Launched in 2007, TPE merges the research / analysis of CIPHER and the training/capacity-building mission of the former Economic & Environmental Justice Project (EEJP) into one department.

Community Institute for Policy Heuristics Education and Research (CIPHER) was founded in 1997 to provide strategic research and analysis, training, and support to AGENDA's leadership development work with poor and disadvantaged community residents, and to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Alliance's efforts to develop proactive public policy solutions to regional conditions and trends. In addition, CIPHER develops training programs which both assist community-based organizations to develop their own strategic analysis, and incorporate the results into more strategically effective popular education and organizing strategies.

The Environmental Justice Project (EJP) began as an experimental program under the National Toxics Campaign Fund (NTCF) in 1990. The mission of the EJP was to develop a working model for building truly multi-racial organizations and alliances between national environmental organizations and local/regional environmental justice groups, and thereby strengthening the entire environmental movement. After the National Toxics Campaign Fund dissolved in May of 1993, the Environmental Justice Project Board voted to build on the successes of the project by establishing itself as an ongoing effort. As part of its expanded role, the EJP was renamed the Environmental & Economic Justice Project (EEJP) to reflect the inextricable link between environmental and economic justice.

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