At the NCCJS, we connect, heal, and grow everybody’s movement. With youth and adults from across our state, we dive deep into multi-racial and intergenerational dialogue about the threats facing us. We build relationships across differences of age, race, region and issue in order to find common cause. We dance, we sing, we listen, we learn…we lift each other up. Together, we explore grassroots solutions that make our communities more resilient, more equitable and more powerful as we work to avert climate chaos. We skill up, get creative and take strategic, collective action.
The NC Climate Justice Summit is the only statewide gathering in North Carolina led by and for frontline communities. Since our first Summit in 2014, we have been bringing together youth, elders, artists, organizers, and community leaders to build collective power, share strategies, and deepen our vision for a just future.
7th NC Climate Justice Summit
Just Recovery: The Pathway Toward a Just Transition
April 11-13, 2025
Haw River State Park | Brown Summit, NC
Save the date! This year’s Summit will unite leaders from across North Carolina, the Gulf South, and Puerto Rico to strengthen our movements and reimagine what’s possible. Together, we will explore the intersections of climate justice, civic engagement, and cooperative economic development, grounding our work in resilience and solidarity. Learn more here.
A Legacy of Movement Building
At our first Summit in 2014, we introduced NCCJC’s 4Rs framework and the concept of Resiliency Organizing Hubs—networks of frontline groups working at the intersection of climate justice and social transformation. Over the years, our Summits have engaged over 1,500 people in deep, intergenerational and multi-racial dialogue, hands-on skill-building, and creative action.
The power of culture is our taproot, and past Summits have featured transformative performances from artists like Taína Asili and Dasan Ahanu, as well as interactive experiences like Finding Our Balance, our multimedia journey through climate justice and community resilience.
Why We Gather
- Connect: Build relationships across race, age, region, and issue area.
- Skill Up: Learn grassroots solutions for resilience and equitable transition.
- Create: Engage in cultural work and collective action for systemic change.
- Strategize: Strengthen the movement for climate justice in North Carolina and beyond.
Climate Justice Summit Objectives
- Apply a climate justice framework for linking social, environmental and economic issues
- Provide an interactive, inclusive space for learning that enhances connection and understanding between groups with unequal power (e.g., youth and adults)
- Engage the head, hands and heart of each participant through experiential and popular education
- Promote opportunities for civic engagement, organizing and mobilization
- Provide skills development in resilient community strategies
- Develop and showcase cultural work
- Support the leadership development of youth and grassroots leaders
- Lay new groundwork for effective local organizing while seeding a trans-local network
We look forward to another powerful gathering in 2025. Stay tuned for registration details and ways to get involved!
Please save the date for our 7th statewide NC Climate Justice Summit! This year’s Summit will bring together community leaders from Western NC, eastern NC, the Gulf South and Puerto Rico to share strategies and build solidarity.
Just Recovery: The Pathway Toward a Just Transition
April 11-13, 2025
Haw River State Park | Brown Summit, NC
“Not only is another world possible, but we are making it right now.”
Download past summit programs:
Progam Downloads: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023
2019 Summit
“This weekend is about first, love. Maybe entirely about love. Building relationships, alliances, and coalitions. The spirit of community and cooperation. We came together to share our experiences, seek and receive a bit of solace for healing and eradicating our shared pain and scars inflicted in the struggle. We made new friends and partners. We shared victories and common goals. We honored those who’ve came before us, both here and those who’ve passed on, and we honor the future contributions of those being raised in the struggle and those who have yet to join us in this earthly plain. We come to regroup. We depart to fight. And we shall be victorious! One love! Eternal!” – Omari Wilson