West Street Recovery (WSR) is a horizontally organized grassroots non-profit organization which aims to use efforts toward recovery after Hurricane Harvey to build community power and address histories of racial and environmental injustice. From rebuilding homes to community meetings, we are rooted in popular education and create a supportive and reflective network that helps develop skills, confidence, and understanding so everyone can lead and grow the work.

Northeast Action Collective / Noreste Accion Collectivo (NAC), a sister organization to West Street Recovery (WSR), is one year old and was formed by members of WSR and Hurricane Harvey survivors from NE Houston. It is a bilingual group focused on fostering bonds of friendship and solidarity between neighbors, building organizing skills and developing leadership capacity to transform their neighborhoods into the places they know they deserve to live in.

Mary Claire Neal grew up in Tyler, TX. She is a junior at Rice University studying anthropology and running on the cross country and track teams. She is co-organizing the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development without Displacement (HCEDD) alongside leaders, scholars, residents, and fellow students from Third Ward and across Houston. The goal of HCEDD is to secure a Community Benefits Agreement with Rice Management Company as they develop a transformative Innovation District on the edge of Third Ward.

Uyiosa Elegon is a co-founder of the Institute of Engagement, a collective that helps young people take responsible ownership of their Houston. Their past work includes a year longcivic fellowship for Greater Houston area high school students. An organizer, Uyiosa concerns himself with several projects that address the material realities of youth power, pleasure, and pain. He is pursing a marketing major and education minor as a senior at the University of Houston.

Cassandra D. Jones is a passionate organizer, strategist, writer, and digital storyteller. A graduate of the University of Houston, her career began as a Founding Educator at South Early College High School in Houston, Texas. Through her school’s partnership with Coalition of Essential Schools, she began her time in the classroom as an instructor that viewed education through a social justice lens. Her experience as a member of the SECHS Leadership Team, English Department Chair, and Title I Coordinator, prepared her to venture out of the classroom into important leadership roles with Citizen Schools, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, and Fort Bend ISD. Her roles have afforded her the opportunity to grow first year educators, coordinate fundraising events, and mobilize communities. Outside of the classroom, she addressed systemic inequities that impacted her students as a Regional Strategy Team member of Organizing Network for Education - Houston. As an organizer, she built teams across the state as the Director, Organizing Strategy - Texas for Leadership for Educational Equity. She currently offers free monthly organizing workshops that center racial equity for educators and people who want to support them at local libraries across the city. She believes that everyone should have access to the tools to change anything they desire in their communities.