Interest in promoting public health through eliminating toxics, stopping climate change, advancing sustainable policies and practices are upheld by groups who have historically struggled to create substantive partnerships with one another. One being grassroots groups/frontline communities, typically comprised of impacted individuals from low-income communities and communities of color, including indigenous communities, who are dedicated to relieving environmental health burdens in their communities and beyond. Then there are mainstream environmental organizations, typically predominantly comprised of white professionals and other volunteers, whose charge is to establish conservation and climate change mitigation strategies to protect and preserve the planet, inclusive of protecting communities, but not necessarily leading with focus on community wellbeing. Despite similar aims, there are several challenges to date in collaborating across these groups. The presentation will focus on an NAACP publication that: 1) outlines fundamental differences among grassroots/frontline communities and mainstream organizations in framing, analyzing, and defining real solutions to community problems; 2) illustrates both successful and ineffective efforts to address health, environmental, and social justice issues; and 3) provides means to build off of differences. The discussion will focus on the on-going community meetings hosted in Flint, MI by the NAACP to address the Flint Water Crisis and the 20 Point Plan that has been published as as a result. We will illustrate community health improvement planning models that adequately incorporates the needs of impacted communities, ensures frontline communities drive solutions, and mandates that people living in such communities are those employed to implement their identified solutions.