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.