UUANI Newsletters

UUANI BOARD UUANI BOARD

January 2024: Looking Back with Gratitude, Looking Forward Together

All Aboard

UUANI has a full nine-member Board with the addition of two new members this year: Rev. Beth Johnson from the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale and Kristin Clowes from Second Unitarian Church of Chicago. Welcome, Kristin and Beth!

 

Catalysts Multiplying

Nancy Ford is our new Unity Temple Congregational Catalyst, while former intern Kay’te Ingram is now our Statewide BIPOC Catalyst. Allyson Rosemore continues as UU Rockford Congregational Catalyst, with more to come!

 

More GRACE than ever

Our current GRACE* training has 23 participants from 8 congregations: ALUUC (Springfield), Bloomington, Carbondale, DeKalb, Evanston, Second (Chicago), Third (Chicago) and Unity Temple (Oak Park). Previous participants have:

  • led faith in action visioning sessions in Sunday worship

  • launched congregation-wide social justice campaigns as well as more targeted efforts

  • organized neighborhood mutual aid projects

  • ramped up their own leadership in social justice and other congregational ministries

  • become Congregational Catalysts

  • created statewide networking spaces for social justice leaders.

We look forward to seeing what participants in this year’s cohort will do!

*GRACE: Grounded, Relational, Accountable, Capacity-building, Effective


Advocating with Those in Prison

17 people from 9 congregations showed up for the first meeting of our new Restorative Justice Advocacy Team, a collaboration between UUANI and the UU Prison Ministry of Illinois. Grounded in relationships with people who are currently incarcerated, this team will share updates about current campaigns and engage in targeted advocacy with key elected officials. First on the docket: getting Elder Parole over the finish line so incarcerated seniors can apply to return as contributing members of our communities.


Register Wisconsin Voters

The Unitarian Church of Evanston will be getting out the vote in Wisconsin again this year with the Milwaukee Voter Project, a grassroots group of non-partisan volunteers who are working to ensure that all citizens, especially those in underserved communities, are registered to vote and are aware of upcoming elections. Join your fellow UUs at these upcoming trainings.

Register for 7pm Weds  Jan 24  training

Register for 1:30pm Fri  Jan 26  training


Engage Your Neighbors Around
Climate Justice

UUANI is offering a Climate Justice Teach-In to learn about three new campaigns around clean and equitable transportation, buildings/heat and power from the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, of which UUANI is a member.  Building on this Teach-In, we are proposing to do three interactive Listen, Lead, Share events (one on each campaign) to solicit input and engagement from our congregations and our neighbors in these multi-year campaigns. Come to the Teach-In to find out how your congregation can participate.

7pm Thursday February 8

Register


Engage Your Community Around Reproductive Justice

The UU Church of Urbana-Champaign spearhead a community-wide Reproductive Justice Week last April. They're inviting other congregations to consider doing a version of this in your own communities. Come to our Reproductive Justice Team meeting to learn more.

5pm Tuesday February 27

Register


Save the Date

You are invited to join the Illinois Poor People’s Campaign in Springfield as part of a nationwide action to mobilize people to their state houses and to the polls! On March 2 we will gather in Springfield to bring our demands and let our commitment be known. More info here.

Saturday March 2


Looking Back with Gratitude

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Actions of the Week, meetings with legislators, Advocacy Days at the Capitol and more. Our 2023 Annual Report recaps the legislative and other victories we were part of. And thanks to everyone who helped grow connections and build power in our congregations and communities locally and statewide. Together we continue to Build Community and Bend the Arc Toward Justice.

Click here for ways you can
get involved in our work together

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UUANI BOARD UUANI BOARD

10th Anniversary Edition Newsletter

UUANI 10th Anniversary:
A Day of Celebration, Community and Commitment

More than 140 UUs from 22 congregations across the state gathered online and at Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Church in Springfield to celebrate UUANI's first ten (plus) years. It was a joyous time to be together, woven with acknowledgment of the depth of the world's sorrow, grief and injustice.

We shared the story of all the people who brought us this far and all we've done as UUs in solidarity with partner organizations, helping win victories such as marriage equality, the Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), Pretrial Fairness ending money bond, ending immigrant detention in Illinois, and engaging well over 100,000 voters in various elections.

We sang and ate cake!

And we explored a wide range of ways we can continue working to bend the arc toward justice in accountable friendship as we strive toward beloved community.

Click here for ways you can
get involved in our work together

Thanks to our amazing tech team, here are recordings of each session:

 

Thanks to everyone who made this such a wonderful event!

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UUANI BOARD UUANI BOARD

August 2023 UUANI Newsletter


UUANI 10th Anniversary Celebration: Building Community, Bending the Arc!


Nicole Pressley from Side With Love/UUtheVote

Join UUs from across Illinois as we celebrate all we've done together over the last ten years, all the new things happening and all that's coming up. Nicole Pressley from Side With Love/UUtheVote will be our keynote speaker. We'll showcase congregational social justice work around the state as well as current campaigns with our statewide partners. This event will be both in-person at Abraham Lincoln UU Congregation in Springfield and online via Zoom. We're encouraging those who can't make it to Springfield to join a watch party at your congregation.

10am to 3pm Saturday, November 4


What’s New with UUANI

New Vision & Logo

Just in time for our 10th Anniversary Celebration, we have a new logo (above) reflecting our new vision: "Building Community, Bending the Arc!" Thanks to Jean Ruth from Unity Temple UU Congregation for her many hours creating a fresh look for UUANI!

 

New Partners & Intern

In collaboration with DRUUMM and the UU College of Social Justice, we have a new intern organizing UUs of color across the state: Katecia (Kay'te) Ingram at the UU Church of Bloomington Normal. You can contact her through our Contact Us form. Welcome, Kay'te!

 

New Congregational Catalysts

Working with UUANI a few hours each week organizing their congregations, Jeletta Brant (left) at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship and Allyson Rosemore (right) at the UU Church of Rockford are connecting newcomers to social justice opportunities in their congregations and with their communities. Thanks to both catalysts and congregations for piloting this initiative, which we hope to expand to other congregations around the state.

 

New GRACE Training Model

Building on our previous Social Justice Leadership Corps training, we're training leaders to develop Grounded, Relational, Accountable, Capacity-building, Effective social justice programs in congregations around the state. We're starting another training cohort this fall.

New Action Council & Issue Teams

Composed of representatives from congregations around the state, the Action Council is a networking space for congregational organizing (applying the GRACE model) and joint advocacy across issues. We're also developing Issue Teams: 

  • Reproductive Justice Team: Laura Randall from UUSC will join our next meeting at 5pm on Tuesday August 22 to talk about the intersections between reproductive justice and trans rights, including partnering with trans organizers to get trans families and individuals out of unsafe states to safer states like IL and offer temporary housing, assistance with job searching, and community welcome.

  • Environmental Action Team: We're planning to meet in September to talk about stopping CO2 pipelines and other campaigns.

  • Carceral Justice Team: UUANI is partnering with the UU Prison Ministry of IL to launch a joint advocacy team to send a delegation of legislators to prison, establish parole for elders, and ultimately end death by incarceration in our state.

 

New Digital Platform & Website

Those who have been following closely may have noticed slight changes in our emails and online actions as we've switched from Salsa to EveryAction. Our apologies for the hiatus in our Actions of the Week while we got up to speed on this transition. Our website is also under construction but will be back up soon.


From Our Partners

Surprise Lessons in Congregational Transformation

First UU Congregation of Ann Arbor had a history of environmentalism that mostly focused on mitigation, decreasing their carbon footprint. The Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice framework guided them to rethink things - to look more at climate justice (yikes! that's hard!) and congregational transformation (what is that?). As a result they have sparked more cross-group collaborations, increased community outreach activities, and, well, maybe they're having more impact!

6pm Wednesday, August 16


Court Watching and Canvassing for Pretrial Fairness

On July 18th, the Illinois Supreme Court declared in the strongest possible language that the Pretrial Fairness Act is constitutional and will take effect on September 18. No longer will the racist and unfair money bond system destabilize communities by pulling away from their homes, loved ones, jobs and more—simply because they could not afford to purchase their freedom.

Join the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice to watch pretrial hearings across the state to monitor implementation of the new system. Or join a community canvassing team to spread awareness of the Pretrial Fairness Act, defend it against attacks and ensure our communities are informed on their rights. Both efforts include training to help you feel comfortable and confident in what you'll be doing.

Multiple dates in August and September
Multiple locations around the state

Sign Up:


2023 Illinois Environmental Legislative Session Debrief

We've won some victories on issues we've advocated for through UUANI's Actions of the Week, including the governor's recent vetoes of bills repealing Illinois' nuclear moratorium and allowing privately operated tollways on Interstate 55. Join Faith in Place for a webinar to debrief this Spring's IL legislative Session and ways you can get involved to advocate for healthier communities.

6pm Tuesday, August 29


Racial Justice as a Spiritual Practice

Beloved Conversations is a program for people seeking to embody racial justice as a spiritual practice, to heal the impact of racism on our lives, in order to get free together. In recognition of the different spiritual needs and learning goals of people with different experiences of race and racism in our world, the program is run in two separate sections: one for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) called Gathering Our Selves, and one for white people called Un/Learning for Liberation.

Registration open through August 31


Time to Send Voter Postcards Again

After a long break, Reclaim Our Vote is postcarding, phoning, and texting for key races in the November 7 General Election in Virginia. It is an incredibly important election for voting rights, reproductive rights, and education. Postcards can be sent starting September 8; in-person early voting starts September 22.

The Kentucky UU State Action Network (KUUJAN) is also asking for help getting out the vote for their statewide elections this fall.


LGBTQ+ Immigration Panel

In case you missed it, you can hear Equality IL Deputy Director and UUANI Board member Mony Ruiz-Velasco in Equality Illinois' virtual discussion about what is happening with immigration in Illinois for the LGBTQ+ community.


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