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. |
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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|
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.
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|
 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.
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| 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
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