Population Connection

Population Connection
Formerly	Zero Population Growth (1968–2002)
Type	501(c)(3)
Founded	1968
Founders	Paul Ehrlich, Richard Bowers, and Charles Remington
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Key people	John Seager (President)
Revenue	11,546,324 United States dollar (2016)
Website	www.populationconnection.org

Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth or ZPG) is a non-profit organization in the United States that raises awareness of population challenges and advocates for improved global access to family planning and reproductive health care. The organization was founded in 1968 by Paul R. Ehrlich, Richard Bowers and Charles Remington in the wake of Ehrlich's best-selling book, The Population Bomb. The organization adopted its current name in 2002.

Mission

"Overpopulation threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources."[1]

Population Connection is the largest grassroots population organization in the United States, with more than 500,000 members, supporters, and participating educators. Population Connection works to ensure that every woman around the world who wants to delay or end childbearing has access to the health services and contraceptive supplies she needs.[2]

Issues and campaigns

Global access to contraception and reproductive health care
Population and the environment
Reproductive rights
Comprehensive sex education for teens
U.S. funding for international family planning
Support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Elimination of the Mexico City Policy

Initiatives

Education

Population Connection’s education program, known as Population Education or PopEd, develops K-12 curricula and conducts professional development workshops for teachers that focus on human population issues. Since 1975, the program has developed age-appropriate curricula to complement students’ science and social science instruction about human population trends and their impacts on natural resources, environmental quality, and human well-being. The program staff and their network of regional volunteers facilitate approximately 550 workshops each year for 10,000-12,000 teachers and future teachers throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada. The program staff is then able to educate over three million students on the impacts of overpopulation each year.[3] Population Education also hosts an international student video contest each year through their World of 7 Billion website.[4]

Activism

Population Connection Action Fund is the political arm of Population Connection. Founded in 2013, their mission is to educate the American people and advocate progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources. Since the beginning of 2014, Population Connection Action Fund has delivered nearly half a million petition signatures to the White House calling for President Obama to rein in the overly broad enforcement of the Helms Amendment.[5]

Population Connection sponsors an annual advocacy event in Washington, D.C. called Capitol Hill Days. During the event activists attend information sessions, learn advocacy techniques, and lobby on Capitol Hill for a greater U.S. investment in international family planning. In 2018, 350 activists from 31 states participated in the event.[6]

At one time, they posted a list of local chapters on their website, but no longer do so. At that time, the smallest town with a local chapter was Bend Oregon.