What are we doing as a congregation for Social Justice

Whether we are filling a shopping cart with donated food, building low-income housing, cleaning local streams, ponds, and parks, or walking to raise funds for food pantries, the Social Justice Committee (SJC) represents the aspects of Unitarian Universalism dedicated to making our world a better place to live.

The SJC is the umbrella organization encompassing a variety of efforts devoted to social causes and actions.  We particularly support programs dedicated to addressing hunger, affordable housing, and environmental concerns.

The SJC meets  and engages the Congregation in activities such as carrying out service projects, bearing witness, fund-raising, writing grants, and raising awareness on legislation around issues of concern. Sometimes social action can be promoted with the simple decisions, such as active recycling of plastic and glass used at UUCIA, or by choosing to use ceramic mugs instead of Styrofoam cups to enjoy our Sunday coffee.

In addition, many individual members of our congregation are active in groups working to eliminate racism, secure civil rights for gays and lesbians, promote literacy, and stop domestic violence. In pursuit of Unitarian Universalist principles, which uphold the dignity and worth of all individuals, members of the Andover congregation participate both in Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) national and international programs and in a number of local programs, listed below.

The focus areas are a reflection of the passions of our congregation family. They change to match the interests of our members with the needs of our changing world. No matter what your interests, you will find people of energy, creativity and caring to join you in your own efforts. Overall guidance of our congregation’s social justice programs is directed by Social Justice Committee. Permanent funding comes from the Congregation’s Social Justice Endowment investments as well as from operating budget support.

UUCiA collects food weekly for the People’s Pantry in North Andover. We have organized walkers and sponsorship for the Lazaraus Hike for Hope to provide services for homeless families in transition, and we always have a group who raise funds by participating in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger. Several times a year, we assist on build days for Lawrence Habitat for Humanity www.lawrencehabitat.org. For the holiday season, we participate in a Gift Tree to ensure warm clothes for youth in Lawrence.

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, UUCiA joined forces with Refugee Immigration Ministry
(RIM www.r-i-m.net) to assist several persons who had been evacuated to this area. Within a few months, they had found jobs and gained independence. In 2006, UU Andover made a deeper commitment to working with RIM-sponsored political asylum seekers through its case management program and undertook to sponsor 3 clients in conjunction as a cluster with several other churches in the Merrimack Valley.

Clusters are made up of representatives from several congregations in a given community which agree to work on an interfaith cooperative process to offer a community-based opportunity for clients to receive support in beginning their new lives. Congregations which are participating include: Lutheran, Episcopal, United Presbyterian, United Methodist, American Baptist, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, Unitarian, Ba’hai, Jewish, Buddhist, and the Society of Friends. Those who have participated in this process have been enriched, not only by the partnerships they have formed with refugees but by the interfaith sharing between the congregations.

People seek asylum when their own government can no longer protect them from threats to their lives. Once released into the community, they are free to begin their lives, but often lack the resources to effectively do so. It has been reported that there are asylees moving from shelter to shelter and that there are teenagers struggling with little support to go to school and create a life here. With our help, they can become contributing members of our communities.

One of our clients has since received his asylum from Homeland Security; we continue to remain hopeful for the other two in 2007.

Local Initiatives The principal focus of the following local programs is Lawrence, the city of our origins, and centers around issues important to women and children. For general information, please contact Susan Stott, Chair, Lawrence Connection Task Force (475-3748).

Fighting Hunger Locally and Globally

The Hunger Task Force seeks to increase awareness of hunger, including its roots, while engaging interested congregation members/friends in actively working to reduce hunger. All members (children as well as adults), friends and visitors can make weekly donations of non-perishable food products to the People’s Pantry foodbank through our “Locke Street Supermarket,” shopping cart. Contact person:  Anne Racer.  People’s Pantry of North Andover is an agency funded by Project Bread.

In recent years UUCiA has had numerous individuals and families participate in the Project Bread Walk for Hunger and solicit pledges from others in the congregation.   For 35 years, Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger has provided critical resources for hungry children and families in Massachusetts. Today, The Walk for Hunger is the oldest continuous pledge walk in the country and the largest annual one-day fundraiser to alleviate local hunger. On the first Sunday in May, caring people from every background, united in the spirit of helping others, come together to take part in this wonderful Massachusetts tradition to help feed hungry families in their communities.  Contact person:  Ellen Prokopow

UUCIA serves Fair Trade Coffee from Equal Exchange and coordinates group purchases of coffees and teas.  Equal Exchange was founded in 1986 to create a new approach to trade, one that includes informed consumers, honest and fair trade relationships and cooperative principles. As a worker-owned co-op, Equal Exchange has accomplished this by offering consumers fairly traded gourmet coffee direct from small-scale farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The coffee served after worship service on Sunday morning comes from Equal Exchange (donations 50 cents per cup appreciated), and people can also buy coffee by the pound for their own use through the SJC. Using internationally recognized fair trade standards, Equal Exchange seeks to balance the inequities found in the conventional coffee trade. Coffee is a leading source of income for the Developing World. Through fair trade, it can be a delicious and powerful tool to bring about positive change for small farmers and their families. Contact person:  Ellen Prokopow

Guest at Your Table brings together thousands of U.S. families and individuals as well as some UU communities abroad in a shared commitment to stand with people struggling daily for their human rights.  Guest at Your Table is UUSC’s most visible program for congregational involvement.  Each year, every member household in participating congregation is asked to take a Guest at Your Table box and brochure home and contribute money to the box at mealtime over a four-week period. Most often, the boxes and brochures are distributed within each Unitarian Universalist congregation starting each November and are collected at the end of December. All monies collected benefit UUSC’s programs. UUCIA is considered a UUSC Honor Congregation, because over 10% of our members are also UUSC members.

We also encourage you to visit http://www.thehungersite.com every day, a United Nations-sponsored web site that enables food donations by its sponsors tied to your web clicks!  What is The Hunger Site?  The Hunger Site is the world’s first online activism site. It gives Internet users the daily opportunity to quickly make a difference in the fight to end hunger. In less than 5 seconds, visitors can click on the “Give Free Food” button and, at no cost to them, send food to the hungry in countries like Bosnia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Honduras, Mozambique, Eritrea and the United States – anywhere there’s a need. To date, more than 150 million visitors have clicked to give more than 14,000 metric tons of food (almost 250 million cups of food) to the world’s hungry. The staple food is paid for by The Hunger Site sponsors and distributed by America’s Second Harvest and Mercy Corps.

Others may volunteer at Bread and Roses (free dinners for approximately 200 guests).  Bread and Roses, celebrating 20 years this year, is a soup kitchen located in Lawrence at 58 Newbury St.  Dinner is served family style 5 nights a week to all who enter. It’s open from 5pm – 7pm for dinner except on Fridays and Sundays.  Bread and Roses receives no government funding.  Project Bread is a sponsor of Bread and Roses along with many individuals and community and religious groups. Volunteers are asked to contact acting director Bob Lanzoni and he will schedule a meeting or volunteer training to introduce you to Bread and Roses. 978-681-8768.

The Lawrence Connection: Minimizing barriers between communities

Summer Start. The Congregation provides money for buses for field trips for nearly one hundred four- and five-year-olds who are enrolled in the Head Start program in Lawrence from early July through the first week of August.  Planned in conjunction with Head Start, Summer Start enables members of our congregation to work together as staff and volunteers with teachers, children and parents from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds toward the common goal of benefiting these children. The daily program includes a wide variety of other learning and nurturing activities. Summer Start is funded by the Congregation and by grants from local foundations.  Contact persons:  Thea Shapiro and Sherry Lundquist.

Merrimack Valley Project.  MVP is a coalition of organizations, the mission of which is to develop democratic institutions that promote social justice. Members include labor councils, religious groups, and tenants’ organizations. Over the past seven years, the MVP has been involved in securing jobs and in improving public services, such as firefighting and the protection of affordable housing. Our congregation has participated in the MVP’s annual convention, the purpose of which is to establish priorities for the coming year.  An emerging cluster of MVP concerns that may interest many members of the congregation includes workers rights, affordable housing, citizenship, literacy, and English as a second language development (ESL) for recent immigrants. Contact person: Alice Kleinhans.

Habitat for Humanity International Several times a year, members of the Congregation contribute a day of labor as part of Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity.  Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, is a nonprofit, ecumenical faith-based organization dedicated to eliminating poverty housing. Habitat for Humanity brings together people with resources and people in need to build simple, decent, affordable houses. The houses are sold to those in need at no profit, through no-interest loans. Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1985 and has built 41 houses in the Merrimack Valley, including houses in Lawrence, Methuen, and Haverhill. Visit the GLHFH web site to learn more! Each year we see the dedication of several completed homes which members of our Congregation, along with others, contributed their elbow grease and sweat to finish!  The dedication services are delivered in English, Spanish, and Khmer. Coordinator and contact person for UUCIA is Bob Rougvie.

Lazarus House of Lawrence, Massachusetts, provides a continuum of care encompassing food, shelter, clothing, advocacy, job training, medical and dental care, a listening ear, a welcoming heart, the restoration of dignity and self respect to the poor and needy. This year UUCIA sent a large contingent of pledge walkers to the 4th Annual “Hike for Hope” 5-mile walk.

Andover Community Trust ACT advocates for and develops long-term, permanently affordable housing in Andover, using the community land trust (CLT) model. The CLT retains ownership of the land and the owner purchases the home with a ground lease and a deed restriction, which restricts the resale value, so the home will be affordable in perpetuity.  Andover Community Trust is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non profit Massachusetts corporation.   Contact person:  Susan Stott.

Special Sundays Periodically during the year the Congregation coordinates special campaigns (Book Drive, Present Drive, Turkey Drive, Coat Drive) to give adults and the children a hands-on service experience together. These are child-driven and child-directed opportunities to collect and distribute food and other goods that will enhance the seasonal experiences of economically disadvantaged people in Lawrence.   Contact person: Anne Racer