Establishing the
Westmoreland County Chapter
of the
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network
Date: Wednesday, March 27
Time: 7pm
Place: Murrysville Community Center
(3091 Carson Ave, Murrysville)
What is the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network?
The Pennsylvania Community Rights Network (PCRN) has grown out of the local grassroots organizing that the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund has assisted Pennsylvania communities with for over 15 years. That work includes assisting communities to draft Community Bills of Rights - in effect, local constitutions - that assert new civil and political rights for the community, and then prohibit those activities
(such as fracking, factory farms, dumping sewage sludge on farmland, etc.) that would infringe on those rights.
PCRN is a non-partisan, statewide organization made up of a network of independent County-based chapters, each with their own distinct committees and attributes that attune them to the particular needs and issues within each County. The glue that binds these chapters together into a statewide organization is their common focus on asserting fundamental rights to achieve constitutional change that liberates local community self-government.
What would the Westmoreland County Chapter do?
With the establishment of a Westmoreland County Chapter of PCRN, those interested can work with folks in municipalities throughout Westmoreland County, and with counties across PA, to lay the foundation for statewide recognition of the rights of people to protect their communities and natural environment, free from
State preemption or claims of corporate "rights." And, people in municipalities in Westmoreland County will have a place to go for assistance, resources and consultation with PCRN, you, and CELDF for local ordinance and home rule campaigns.
For more information, please contact:
Chad Nicholson
A Project of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
chad@celdf.org P.O. Box 360, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 17236207.541.3649
