About Us

WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES TO ACHIEVE ECONOMIC, ENVIRONEMNTAL & CLIMATE JUSTICE

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Our Story

About Us

The LEAP (Latino Equity, Advocacy & Policy) Institute is a not for profit 501(c)3 organization that works with communities to achieve economic, environmental and climate justice through leadership development, coalition building, community organizing, participatory action research and advocacy for racial justice.

Vision

We want to create a civil society infrastructure for a sustainable participatory democracy. Together, we can develop a culture of active civic participation, community accountability and social justice for a healthy, strong and vibrant California.

Mission

We engage communities to increase social justice awareness, strengthen grassroots leadership for the empowerment of Latinos, immigrants, farmworkers and youth to achieve environmentally sustainable justice while improving the economy and community health.

Goals “How we get there!”

COMMUNITY — Create locally focused community partnerships between workforce, social, mental health providing organizations, community residents, environmental justice leaders and other entities, including governmental agencies to mitigate or eliminate local pollution and the impacts thereof.

HEALTH — Collaborate with agencies, organizations, other grassroots groups, policy makers and industry to advance the environmental health of all through the adoption of enforceable measures, alternative technologies, renewable energy, and innovative approaches.

ADVOCACY — Prevent accumulation of pollution sources in and around Latino communities through community-based campaigns to avoid the perpetuation of disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable in society, the politically disenfranchised, the low-income and people of color.

LEADERSHIP — Develop leadership for a healthy popular participatory democracy in Latino communities. Build capacity from the individual to the regional via community action committees, networks and coalitions to effectively engage in land use, air quality & transportation planning and regional policy processes.

EMPOWERMENT — Build new leaders to become public representatives for their families, neighborhoods and communities at a local, regional and statewide level for economic, environmental and climate justice.

Our Leadership

Rey Leon

Chief Executive Officer

policy REY LEÓN Was born in Fresno and raised in the Huron area. Mr. León is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he obtained a BA in Chicano Studies with an emphasis in public health. He is the founder and Executive Director of The LEAP Institute (Latino Equity Advocacy & Policy, a Latino Valley based non-profit organization. Mr. León is based in Fresno County for the Valley and focuses on economic, environmental, transportation and climate justice, clean energy, green jobs and community development. Mr. León has been working to ensure that environmental justice principles are advanced in the region’s institutions and culture.

Rey was founder of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Green Jobs Coalition which counted on 300+ members and co-founder of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition. As Co-chair of CVAQ, Leon helped advance some of the greatest victories for air quality in the Valley including the ending of agriculture industry’s exemption from the clean air act and the placement of two public members, a doctor and a scientist, onto the region’s air pollution control district. Mr. León sits on various boards and committees including the Center on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT), Fresno County’s Economic Opportunities Commission and member of the California Air Resources Board Environmental Justice AB 32 Advisory Committee.

Mr. León has been organizing in the Valley since 1994 and since 2002 has been advocating and successfully building coalitions, community capacity, advancing public policy; placement of the first PM 2.5 air quality monitor on the West Side of the Valley, systems change; developing the first ever environmental justice strategy and committees for both the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and the Fresno County Council of Governments. In 2014, LEAP completed an Environmental Justice Planning Project and Report for the farmworker community of Huron where over 30 projects to improve mobility, access and safety were identified. Through LEAP, Rey continues to organize with the grassroots, grasstops, agencies and other partners to promote sustainable development, clean energy alternatives, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, EV ridesharing, green jobs, reduction of pollution & GHGs in concentrated clusters of poverty in the central San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Leon successfully works with Valley communities to achieve environmental and climate justice. León is also the mayor of his hometown where he will be serving his third term in 2021.

As Mayor, Mr. León sits on the Fresno County Council of Governments, San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority (as alternate) and other bodies to advance the quality of life for the region’s hard-working families. Mayor León has also accomplished the building of the much needed $31 million ‘Heart of the Valley’ bridge for the community’s economic advancement sorely needed for the past 100 years. As well as changed out street lighting to LED saving the city $60 thousand annually, initiated the communities first ever youth soccer league, institutionalized grey-water systems for new single-family and multi-family developments, planted over 300 trees, hire-local-first policy and during COVID, distributed 100,000’s masks, 10,000’s of sanitizers, food drives. Under the mayor’s leadership, Huron mandated masks in March, before California, and was the first city in the county to place mobile-hand-washing stations on mainstreet. Mayor Leon continues to be deligent supporting the completion of projects he championed in the city that will change the face of the community and provide amenities to all generations in the family! www.cityofhuron.com

Russel Teal

Senior Program Manager

RUSSELL TEALL is Senior Program Manager for the Regenerative Agriculture Programs at The LEAP Institute (LEAP). Mr. Teall has extensive experience in the alternative energy industry, research and development.

Background in the Bio-Energy Industry: Mr. Teall has over thirty years of experience in all aspects of the biofuel and bioenergy industry. He is the former Vice-Chairman of the National Biodiesel Board, the trade association for the biodiesel industry in the U.S., and former Chairman of NBB’s Legislative/Regulatory Committee, and is currently President of the California Advanced Biofuels Alliance.

Education: Teall is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He served as a US Congressional staff member during the Nixon-Watergate years and was also in office during the first Arab Oil Embargo.

Board

MARTIN M. FLORES

Mr. Flores has organized conferences in juvenile facilities, worked with gang intervention workers and is continuously involved in Los Angeles City and County wide efforts to address gang issues. He has testified as a gang expert in Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, and Orange Counties. Mr. Flores has consulted on over 200 Crip/Blood cases and over 300 Hispanic gang cases including those involving the Mexican Mafia. His cases have ranged from vandalism to multiple homicide cases. He has worked in hundreds of gang territories in order to understand their rivalries, graffiti, tattoos, territories, history, and signs.

Dollars Raised

In the past four years LEAP has been succesful in raising resources to focus on 9 innovative programs that have advanced equity, clean air and climate resiliency.

EV FLEET

The small fleet counts on a couple dozen professional operators to serve the south side of the San Joaquin Valley be healthy and strong!

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AVG. MILES PER MONTH

Garnering the support from numerous partners and contracts we have achieved a 300% increase in services in under 6 months!

Trees Planted

In collaboration with local partners and policymakers we will conitnue to plant trees until we’ve reached one per residents…and beyond!

Counties

Serving a population of over 2 million people in a heavily agricultural area of rural communities that are geographically and linguistically isolated.

Trained Farmworkers & Low-income Residents

With only a few years under our belt we have advanced skills with residents in renewable technology industries not provided before on the west side of the Valley and sometimes the region!

Years

The LEAP Institute began as the San Joaquin Valley Environemntal Advancement (LEAP) Project in 2008. As the LEAP Project, we advanced state policies to improve the states ability to focus on clean air and a 100% clean energy.