| | | | | | | | | | | |  | First Unitarian Church of Baltimore Joins UUSJ! “ First Unitarian Church of Baltimore sees the UUSJ as a key partner in its work of building a better Baltimore. Through the Advocacy Corps, we bring our values to Congress.” - Rev. David Carl Olson Many First Unitarian members have been involved in UUSJ’s work of showing up for justice, including our Advocacy Corps. Kenneth Mitchell, First Unitarian’s representative to the UUSJ Board, is among them. “I am very pleased and proud to be part of the UUSJ Advocacy Corps, Mitchell says. “I make the trip once a month from Baltimore to Capitol Hill to do this important work. I certainly have enjoyed and been very satisfied with my experience of the program. I am also deeply pleased to be part of UUSJ’s mobilization program for social justice issues"... Read more HERE. | | We Thank First Baltimore for Joining! This spring the founding congregational members of UUSJ have been joined by First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (FUCB). UUSJ now has 16 congregations on its board. We thank Moses Sumler and Kenneth Mitchell (pictured below) for participating in the UUSJ Advocacy Corps. | | | | | | | | | | UUSJ’s Advocacy Goes Virtual for Now The pandemic has changed the way most everyone works as “virtual” has become the new normal. UUSJ’s Capitol Hill Advocacy Corps is no exception, pivoting to a new mode, which has included phone calls with Congressional staff and constituents in place of face-to-face meetings. Advocacy Corps volunteers are co-creating the future of UUSJ advocacy, with the expectation that no direct visits to Capitol Hill will take place until January 2021. Monthly “Write Here! Write Now!” letter-writing campaigns continue, coupled with monthly issue briefings. | | | | | June’s Write Here! Write Now! -- Secure our vote! Urge Your Senators to Provide $4B for free, fair, safe, and secure elections! (And support the Post Office) The coronavirus will remain a threat during our November elections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If we want to have the most important election of our lives be free, fair, secure, and safe, we must be able to register online, vote by mail and have safe polling places. And we need a strong U.S. Postal Service. Changing the way we vote is expensive, and state budgets are stretched to the breaking point. The House has already passed the HEROES Act . Now it’s time to tell your Senators that we deserve a free, fair, safe and secure election — the time to start preparing is now. And to include the $4 billion in the next stimulus bill. Join the WHWN issue briefing on June 5 at 3pmET to learn more about what you can do, meet other active UUs, and write letters. For details: Advocacy@UUSJ.org . RSVP HERE. | | | Using Social Media to Promote UUSJ Action Alerts Some UUs are finding creative ways to conduct advocacy work despite the inability to meet face-to-face with their elected representatives due to the pandemic. Tanner Wray, new member of the Cedar Lane UU Church in Bethesda (MD), is sending UUSJ Action Alerts to some 95 contacts, including “Protect Your Right to Vote” and on “Ask Your College.” His list includes Facebook friends, professional contacts, Twitter followers in higher education and neighborhood political listserv. “I am not saying I've got this down yet” Tanner says, “but I am trying to figure out how to amplify the UU voices, and maybe get more bang for the buck for all the work that's been done.” | | | | | | | | | Want to “be the change?” -- “Storytelling As Advocacy” Workshop July 11 Want to “be the change?” We know that UUs love to advocate for social justice topics, and many of us go beyond the talk and walk the walk. Yet in advocacy work it often seems stories move hearts and then hearts move minds. We want to help boost your efforts in lobbying our legislators to create change in line with UU values. This can be through in-person meetings, public speaking or letter-to-the-editor and op-ed writing. Join us for a digital workshop on personal storytelling and effective advocacy – Your Story Can Create Change! Let us help you figure out what to say, how to say it and how to share it. | |  | UUSJ Annual Board Meeting June 13 UUSJ Board will be discussing the FY 2020-21 budget and pandemic related developments at its annual Board meeting, June 13, 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM ET by Zoom. Details will be sent to Board members soon. All UUSJ members are welcome to be heard. Please let Board Secretary Charlotte Jones Carroll (cjonescarroll@aol.com) if you’d like to attend. | | | | | Save the Date - June 17 Meet Kelsey Cowger - Get Your Congregation Mobilizing Voters Wednesday, June 17, 2020 7:30 - 8:30pm ET Join the Zoom meeting/webinar to discuss our UU the Vote projects in more detail and to talk through how to organize a campaign for electoral reform in your own congregation. This session will serve as an opportunity to meet Kelsey Cowger, the Reeb/UUSJ Voting Campaign organizer, and bring your questions! UUSJ has joined forces and pooled resources with the Reeb Project for Voting Rights to hire Kelsey as an organizer through November 2020. Kelsey will help UUs fight voter suppression, improve ballot access, register voters and connect the joint project with the broader UU the Vote initiative. This partnership is an exciting opportunity to broaden UUSJ’s impact by expanding our voter mobilization programs, which have a strong record of success and collaboration in past elections. See related details in the Defending Our Democracy section of this newsletter. | | INTRODUCING: ASK YOUR COLLEGE - A campaign to boost student voting The goal of this national non-partisan campaign is to get college presidents to make a visible commitment to reaching full-student voter registration and voter participation in the 2020 election. See more details in the Defending Our Democracy section of this newsletter. | | | | | | | Unitarian Universalist News | | | A message from Love Resists "People of faith, particularly those of us who are white progressives, need to combat the systems of criminalization in our country. Systems of policing and criminalization in this country are inherently violent, steeped in and created to reinforce white supremacy, anti-blackness, and racialized control." President Reverend Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray Beloved Friends, As the pain and grief of centuries of violence without justice find their expression, let us remember the Rev. Dr. King’s words: "America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?" This week, we heard about Amy Cooper. And then George Floyd. And then Tony McDade… see the full message here . Love Resists is a joint campaign by the UUA and the UUSC. | | | | How We Thrive - Video - UU The Vote Many UU congregations are struggling with how to do justice and advocacy work during this time of physical distancing. UU the Vote explores this in a recent webinar on pivoting justice work to meet the challenges brought on by the COVID-19. The webinar highlights three focus areas for action: Act Locally, being All in on the Issues; all in on Democracy and Building Spiritual Resilience. Watch the Facebooklive recording to learn more. | | | |  | General Assembly Goes Virtual, June 24-28 What does our faith ask of us during this time of great challenge and heartbreak? This year’s virtual UUA General Assembly (GA) will explore the power, possibility, purpose, struggle, and joy of finding the path forward together as Unitarian Universalists. Due to the coronavirus, this year’s General Assembly will be 100% online. All GA registrants will have access to the GA Virtual Participation Portal, which combines multiple ways to engage including chats, Question & Answer sessions, and polling. GA participants can watch and ask questions during live sessions including workshops and business sessions. Delegates can propose amendments in the live business sessions, participate in debates, and vote in general sessions. Registration for Virtual GA is $150. Registration is not required for worship events, including the Synergy Bridging Worship, the Service of the Living Tradition, and Sunday morning worship, or for general sessions. A variety of workshops and special events will provide registrants with inspiration and resources to live into our mission and continue the work of our faith—both within UU congregations and in the greater world. For full GA details: VIRTUAL GA PROGRAMS | | North Carolina’s Forward Together Gets New Executive Director and Grant for UUtheVote Welcome to Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson, recently-appointed Executive Director of the UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina. She is managing the NC “ UUtheVote ” initiative which just received a grant from the UU Social Responsibility fund. She hosts a weekly “Friday Action Hour” that offers many opportunities for congregants across the state to take action on social justice issues. Details: UU Forward Together. | | | | | | | | | | | Celebrate World Refugee Day - June 2020 UUSJ acknowledged the 40th anniversary of World Refugee Day during May by supporting House and Senate Resolutions recognizing that important anniversary, and calling for a return to historically higher US refugee resettlement levels. Around the world, communities, schools, businesses, faith groups and people from all walks of life will be taking big and small steps on June 20 in solidarity with refugees. Find out here how you can be a part of it. | | | | | COVID-19 and Immigrants - What UUs are Hearing This past month, UUSJ offered a webinar on issues related to COVID-19 and immigrants to expand our knowledge and learn about options for future advocacy action. We learned that UUs are responding to the experience of immigrants in their personal and congregational networks and therefore highly focused on hunger issues, access to support resources, and income implications of the pandemic. UUSJ is deeply concerned about the severe health risks facing people detained by ICE. We are also disturbed that families with undocumented members are currently excluded from cash and access to health care. Members of the Immigration Task Group urged our House members to push that these families (many of which include US citizens denied aid) be included in the next emergency bill. The HEROES Act passed by the House in May does provide relief for these families. We continue to monitor actions as the legislation moves to the Senate. | | Candidate Plans for DACA and TPS Looking ahead to the November presidential election, UUSJ and the Immigration Task force are exploring presidential platform positions on immigration and refugees. Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s campaign immigration team includes representatives of several trusted strategic partners. It appears the platform could include developing pathways to legal residency for immigrants living many years in the US with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be a key part of that platform. | | Want to Join UUSJ’s Immigration Task Group? The task group meets by Zoom on most alternate Thursdays at 4 p.m. ET. Contact Charlotte Jones-Carroll (cjonescarroll@aol.com). | | | | | | | Environmental and Climate Justice | |  | UUs Advocate for Replacement for ‘Super Pollutant’ HFCs during Earth Month UUSJ collaborated with the UU Ministry for Earth to celebrate Earth Day last month and in April. Our Write Here! Write Now! nationwide letter-writing campaign urged House and Senate members to “Act Now Against Dangerous Greenhouse ‘Super Pollutant’ hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by supporting S.2754 in the Senate and companion bill H.R.5544" in the House. Both bills enjoyed bipartisan support. During the pandemic, UUSJ held two virtual letter-writing events with more than 100 registrants. UUs in eleven states sent into UUSJ more than 200 letters despite pandemic conditions as congregations were not able to gather in person to write letters as is the usual “Write Here! Write Now! practice. People were also encouraged to make phone calls and send their messages directly to their members of Congress. | | | |  | | Webinar on COVID-19 and Climate Crisis, June 11, 8:00pmET UUs for a Just Economic Community will host a webinar to address how the climate crisis, like COVID-19, is a global health threat and how to manage the health effects of the climate crisis. Leading the discussion is Julia Ying, co-chair of the Northern New Mexico Chapter of the Climate Reality Project, a member of 350 Santa Fe, and a retired general medical practitioner from Australia. Click to join the webinar on June 11. | | | | | | | | | | Poor People’s Campaign June 20th Milestone Digital Justice Gathering with PPC Saturday, June 20, 2020 10:00 AM ET Facebook Live & Broadcast Event - Details Forthcoming June 20th is a movement milestone, not the end goal of the Poor People’s Campaign : A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC). The goal is building a beloved community of our nation’s peoples. Join the movement! The UUA , SideWithLove , and UUSJ have endorsed the PPC and a leadership council has been formed ( recent UU history with PPC here ). Use the special UU RSVP for the June 20th Digital Justice Gathering. Help show that UUs will rise-up for a justice-centered vision of American society, and mobilize to address poverty and inequality in a society that has long ignored the needs of 140 million people who are poor or one emergency away from being poor . | | | | | PPC #StayAlive Campaign - 50 Days of Action Please join the Poor People’s Campaign : A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC) in urging folks to “Stay in place! Stay alive! Organize, Organize, Organize!” Be part of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign for 50 Days of Action: June2020.org . -
Read a PPC news alert about the Stay in Place! Stay Alive! Organize! campaign. -
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| | | | | | | | |  | INTRODUCING: ASK YOUR COLLEGE A campaign to boost student voting Only half of America’s 20 million college students voted in 2016. This year, COVID-19 will make voting even more challenging. The good news is that college student voting nearly doubled between 2014 and 2018, and some colleges have achieved nearly 95% student registration. You can help build on this momentum through the Ask Your College campaign. The goal of this national non-partisan campaign is to get college presidents to make a visible commitment to reaching full-student voter participation in the 2020 election. Volunteers who have a connection to a college – alum, faculty member, parent of student – are asked to write to the college president and ask them to make this commitment. Everything needed to join the campaign, write to college presidents, and follow up is right here Now is the time to Ask Your College. Colleges need to implement best-practice student voter programs by the summer and fall. Please sign up and support this campaign. Your participation could help bring thousands more students to the polls in 2020. For details contact Fred Van Deusen (fredvandeu@gmail.com). | | Join the Reclaim Vote Project to Mobilize Voters! Connect with the UUSJ/Reeb Project! The Reeb Project for Voting Rights and UUSJ are teaming up through November to fight voter suppression, improve ballot access and help people register to vote. With polling places shutting down due to the coronavirus and a shift to mail-in ballots, it is critical that all Americans are able to vote. We are targeting regions particularly vulnerable to voter suppression and collaborating with area partner organizations and UU congregations. Since in-person canvassing looks unlikely, we’re developing other ways to talk to voters, individually and as a denomination. This includes phone banking, text messaging and writing letters and postcards. We’ll be rolling out our first project -- with the help of Reclaim Our Vote ... see more details HERE | | | | | | | | Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ)
7750 16th St NW, | Washington, District of Columbia 20012
202-600-9132 | info@uusj.org | | | | | | | |
