Roisin Cavanagh is the Community Partnerships Lead at Friends of the Earth, working nationally to ensure marginalised communities are represented in environmental justice work. Based in West Yorkshire, her role focuses on bridging civil society organisations, ensuring that environmental activism and policy reflect the lived realities and rights of those often excluded from the environmental movement.
Roisin’s approach centres on anti-oppression and justice, informed by her own experience growing up in a working-class family in Wythenshawe, where she witnessed poverty and social stigma firsthand. She believes the environmental movement must democratise the social change it seeks, making environmental justice meaningful and accessible to all communities. She is particularly motivated to engage with networks that explore intersections between social and environmental justice, fostering learning and collaboration to strengthen inclusive practice.
She has led initiatives such as a UK-wide roadshow in 2025, delivering workshops on multiple environmental deprivation and its intersections with social inequality. Key learnings included the necessity of proactive outreach and the importance of helping non-environmental organisations see how environmental justice impacts the communities they serve. Her practice involves partnership, platform sharing, enabling access to decision-makers, solidarity actions, and co-celebration with diverse groups, including those representing disability rights, antiracism, Muslim communities, and working-class communities.
Roisin is driven by the need to challenge narratives that environmental issues are the domain of a “metropolitan elite,” particularly those weaponised by the far right. She seeks to amplify inclusive, intersectional approaches to climate and social justice, connecting communities, organisations, and policymakers to foster lasting, equitable change. Participation in the Practice-Builders Network offers her the opportunity to exchange learning, access tested sustainability solutions, and broaden collaboration across diverse sectors and communities.