My Nonprofit Reviews
jackcaravanos
Review for Blacksmith Institute Inc, New York, NY, USA
I've been volunteering with Blacksmith Institute since 2006 when a former student recommended they contact me for some environmental advice. As Professor of Environmental Health at Hunter College School of Public Health, I'm contact often with these requests and freely offer my professional guidance to NGOs. My specific role as "science advisor" continues and I've been asked to provide technical assistance in the area of env sampling, assessment, biological monitoring and hazard evaluation. They are always receptive to following scientific protocol and implementing all my recommendations. Volunteering with Blacksmith, I've traveled to many countries assessing toxic waste sites and truly experiencing the dreadful conditions that exists worldwide. Ultimately the visions, stories and data from visiting toxic sites are integrated into my graduate courses where students are made aware. They are shocked when they see the conditions and motivated to pursue public health.
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
..in that BI produces results, i.e the interventions I suggested have lowered Blood Lead levels, have triggered remediation activities and more. They don't just talk about Toxic Sites, they do everything to fix them. That's why I still volunteer.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
..encourage BI to focus on a few specific areas of env concern. There are so many toxic sites worldwide and hundreds of toxins. They can't clean the world (nice goal though). With limited resources they may have to limit their activities.
What I've enjoyed the most about my experience with this nonprofit is...
they are outcome motivated. Not just talk or meetings, they want results.
The kinds of staff and volunteers that I met were...
Full time staff (several) and many very capable college interns.
If this organization had 10 million bucks, it could...
clean up thousands of toxic waste sites that they identified. There Global Inventory Project has identified sites worldwide that are impacting public health and need remediation. 10 Million Dollars would go a long way to reduce morbidity and mortality.
Ways to make it better...
They had the resources to purchase state-of-the-art environmental monitoring / sampling equipment.
In my opinion, the biggest challenges facing this organization are...
workload. There are thousands of toxic waste sites that needs action. Many are contaminating communities and impacting public health.
One thing I'd also say is that...
I absolutely love the collaborative approach BI has adopted. Yes, toxic sites were essentially created by human greed, but BIs philosophy is "lets get all the parties together and clean it up".
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2010
