The League of Women Voters addresses national, state, regional, and also local issues. Through a process referred to as Program Planning, Leagues at all levels select issues for member study, consensus building, community education, and advocacy consistent with League positions.
This article provides brief updates on our 2026-2027 LWVE Local Programs— and, where relevant, links to other articles in the issue. Overviews of our
Local Programs are on our website, and you can find reports from prior years there as well.
Climate Change
Our LWVE Climate Change group engages in education and advocacy to support climate change priorities consistent with League positions. This includes following activities related to the Evanston Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) and the Skokie Sustainability Plan, along with environmental legislation in the Illinois General Assembly, and advocating for relevant actions. We collaborate with other area organizations, including jointly planning educational events for the community. This issue of the
Intercom includes two articles by group members about their own adoption of more climate-friendly practices:
Leave the Leaves: Why I Do Less in My Garden Every Fall and
Why We Finally Went Electric– And Why You Should Too, about switching to an electric vehicle.
The group's next public education event will be a program on October 28, with panelists from the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and Illinois Environmental Council, focused on protecting Lake Michigan and Illinois groundwater in the age of data centers and other threats.
Learn more and register on our website.
Environmental Justice
Our Environmental Justice group collaborates with other area organizations to educate community members, advocate for remediation of environmental harms, and work toward environmental equity. Climate Action Evanston published its first Environmental Justice newsletter in July 2026; you can find it on the website for the
Evanston Environmental Justice Coalition, of which we are a part. The Coalition has been gathering reports from people living near the Church Street Waste Transfer Station on how the transfer station has negatively impacted their lives. (For some background on the
Waste Transfer Station, see our February 2025
Intercom article.)
A community conversation, part of the Evanston Environmental Justice Conversation Series, will take place at the Gibbs-Morrison Cultural Center from 2 to 4 pm on October 10. See our
calendar event for more details.
Envision Evanston
Through a project called Envision Evanston 2045, the City of Evanston developed a new Comprehensive Plan. After multiple drafts and opportunities for community input, the final version was approved in January 2026. Part two of the project is updating the zoning code. Our LWVE group has monitored the Envision Evanston process from the beginning– observing meetings, studying draft documents, submitting statements to government officials, and preparing updates for LWVE members. This issue of the
Intercom includes an
update on the zoning code revision, including a report on City Council’s selection of a consultant to work with the City on this effort.