Environmental Justice Grants Create Outdoor Opportunities for All

Shawanna Kendrick twisted her kayak paddle and smiled at the 35 women gathered on Chattanooga’s waterfront.

“When other boats go by, turn into the wave,” Kendrick, founder of hiking and paddling guide company The H2O Life, said.

“Into the wave,” a participant echoed quietly, adjusting her life jacket.

For some attending The H20 Life’s Black Women Paddle celebration, this would be their first time boating on the river.

For others, like Terri Roshell, it served as a celebration of finishing Women on Water, a TVA-funded program to ease water fears and welcome black women to paddling.

“I had never thought about kayaking,” Roshell said. “Now that I’ve tried it, I’m in love with it – the calmness of it, the sun, the wind. You’re out there and you’re getting your vibe on.”

TVA Environmental Justice grants funded life jackets, boat rentals and pool and lifeguard fees for the program, while Tennessee RiverLine, Outdoor Chattanooga, Atlanta Rowing Club, Tennessee River Gorge Trust and Ocoee Whitewater Center offered logistical support.

“Environmental Justice grants offer equitable access,” said Suzanne Fisher, TVA’s senior program manager of Special Projects and Land Use Initiatives in Natural Resources.

Across the Valley region, grant-funded organizations teach people to feel comfortable in the outdoors, inspiring a love for adventure.

“It's meeting people where they are, helping them become more secure and confident in their abilities and their knowledge,” Kendrick said. “It's been an amazing experience and it's just beautiful to watch.”

For Terri Roshell, The H20 Life’s Black Women Paddle celebration also marked the completion of the TVA-funded program Women on Water.

'I Need More of This’

The Tennessee River gleamed silver at sunset. On the bank, the women paddlers chatted as they waited on Chattanooga’s Coolidge Park boat ramp.

As each woman reached the water, volunteers helped ease the kayaks into the river.

This paddle – and the organization that made it possible – began after Kendrick took a trip to China, where she admired the community gardens and marveled at people’s dedication to being outdoors.

“I was so in awe and I just kept saying, ‘OK, I need more of this,’” Kendrick said. “I knew something was different when I came back home, and I was like, ‘Something's going to change.’”

She soon asked a friend to take her and a group of women on a hike.

“I'd never pursued hiking,” Kendrick said. “Some of that was because I really didn't know where to start and there was an inherent fear of being out in wooded areas, for many different reasons.”

Kendrick laughed as she described that first tough trek up Signal Mountain.

“It was hard – we didn’t know what we were doing,” Kendrick chuckled. “And we had the most amazing time.”

Amazing because she trusted the guide and realized she could do it, too.

In turn, she wanted to help others capture that feeling on land and water.

“When I saw how people were organically connecting with one another, how they were opening up, how they were allowing themselves to be vulnerable, I thought, ‘This is it. It's the outdoors,’” Kendrick said.

She founded The H2O Life – Hiking and Healing Outdoors – which, in addition to offering hiking and paddling programs, hosts the TVA-funded Women on Water program to connect black women to paddling opportunities on the region’s rivers.

She serves as a careful guide.

“Similar to hiking and being out in the woods, there were inherent fears that I had to overcome,” Kendrick said. “You know, what's underneath me? And what happens if I tip over?”

Women on Water builds confidence and provides safe equipment.

“I introduced the float sessions that we do during Women on Water,” Kendrick said. “TVA helped (fund) this part. We went to a company called Choo-Choo Dive and Aquatic Center here in Chattanooga.”

Women float with life jackets in a clear pool first, visit the Tennessee Aquarium to understand local waterways and life, paddle boats inside and, finally, slip kayaks into the Tennessee River.

Past the worry and fear, there’s joy on the water.

One of the last to ease into her kayak, executive principal Crystal Sorrells, Ed.D., reflected on her experience.

“The camaraderie,” she said. “The sisterhood. The connections. The water is amazing. Shawanna got me outdoors.”

Shawanna Kendrick, founder of The H20 Life, delivers instructions as the group of women prepares to head out on the water.

Paddling Partnerships

It's more than 500 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, through northern Alabama, all the way to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

And that’s how far TVA’s Environmental Justice grants reached this year.

Each grant helped people like Kendrick offer outdoor opportunities to others.

In Chattanooga and Memphis, people paddled. In northern Alabama, they learned how to bike and camp. And in Knoxville, families gained access to free seeds and community garden plots.

“A project has to support inclusivity and the outdoors,” Fisher said. “Organizations can use the expenses for equipment like rentals. They can transport people to the events, and we can provide them money for education and meals.”

These grants fit into TVA’s goals to improve life for all residents of the Valley region – and TVA’s broader Environmental Justice-focused programs aim to offer jobs, energy savings and community involvement across its seven-state service area.

Environmental justice has been part of TVA’s mission since its beginning in the 1930s – although it hasn’t always been called that.

“We've come a long way to bring people of the Valley out of poverty,” Janice Horn, TVA senior environment and energy policy program manager, said. “But we still have a way to go. We have to look at our neighbors and we have to see that there are still needs here.”

Fisher looks to neighbors across the Valley region to help meet those needs.

“We look for paddling, we look for biking, we look for camping, we look for climbing, we look for hiking,” Fisher said. “Any of the things that you can do on our public lands. My hope for the future is that I can move around the Valley and provide opportunities.”

Every grant, every connection, makes an outdoor experience such as paddling possible.

In Chattanooga, the last kayakers paddled toward the music booming across the river and disappeared into the dusk.

“Our rivers, our streams, our creeks – there's something so refreshing and rejuvenating about being out on these large bodies of water,” Kendrick said. “It's been a remarkable experience and a shift in the minds of those who were fearful.”

Photo Gallery

Crystal Sorrells, Ed.D., cherishes the connections she’s made with other participants in Women on Water.

Kendrick shows program participants how to make the “paddler’s box.”

Participants in the Black Women Paddle celebration are silhouetted by the setting sun as they gather near Chattanooga’s waterfront.

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: Black Women Paddle participants paddle across the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.

Recreation and Environmental Justice Grants

TVA recreation and Environmental Justice grants totaling $13,000 funded these programs this year:

• The H2O Life’s Women on Water, through RISE (Responsive Initiatives for Social Empowerment) Chattanooga, introduced black women to safe paddling.
• Bethany’s Kids at Camp McDowell offered a camp experience to kids with differing abilities.
• Beardsley Community Farm provided 1,000 families with seeds and plants, including heritage species important in cultural cooking, and community garden plots.
• The Bluff City Canoe Club helped people explore the Memphis area by canoe.
• Black Kids Adventures instilled confidence and joy in tent camping.
• Bridge Outdoors hosted hikes, bike rides and outdoor activities as part of a community-building "friendraiser."
• Girls Inc. provided bikes, helmets and group lessons in cycling greenways and trails.

Environmental Justice grants are open each fall to all registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits headquartered in the Tennessee River watershed or TVA’s seven-state service area. To apply, email the Public Land Information Center for Suzanne Fisher’s contact information.