Social Justice at UUSF

 

A Mission of Social Justice

 

Commitment to social justice is central to Unitarian-Universalism. Seven Principles guide our faith and compel us to act with the belief that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities. Denominationally, our justice efforts include education for the congregation or the community, service, advocacy, witnessing, and community organizing.

 

How We Choose Where to Focus our Attention

 

In a world filled with injustice—with individuals and groups denied basic human rights and opportunities because of their race, their income status, their gender, their sexual orientation, their age, their religious or political beliefs, where they live, or other factors—how do we choose where to focus our attention and efforts? At UUSF, our choices come about through the interplay of three factors:

  • Our ministerial team and lay leadership highlight and promote areas of focus based on what we see in the wider community and world and what we hear from our congregants.
  • Congregants, either singly or in a group, adopt an issue that holds personal meaning, begin working on it, and draw the broader congregation in.
  • Others in the local community ask for our help.

 

Major Areas of Focus

 

What we work on, where we devote our time and resources, shifts over time. Currently, much of our work falls into three buckets, with some overlap among the buckets.

 

UUSF is currently active on several fronts with respect to hunger and food insecurity. Congregants, on several Saturdays per year, staff Shepherd’s Pantry, a local food assistance provider located in the basement of another church. In Summer 2022, we partnered with the New Bedford anti-poverty agency People Acting in Community Endeavors (PACE) and the Leduc Center for Civic Engagement at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, to provide 50+ bags of groceries and over $500 to the PACE Food Bank. We’ve helped spread the word about the work of, and participate in, the Marion Institute’s Southcoast Food Policy Council, including its recent Southcoast Food System Assessment and Food Policy Council Working Groups. We’ve made small donations from our Sunday service collection to help support the work of Sharing the Harvest Community Farm.

Most of our climate change efforts have been in support of The Climate Reality Project, and more specifically its Southcoast chapter, which is led by one of our congregants. We’ve partnered with Climate Reality Southcoast to promote events like Be the Solution to Pollution beach clean-ups and plastic waste brand audits, and we’ve hosted online and in-person education and action events in collaboration with Climate Reality, Be the Solution, Break Free from Plastic,  and ClimateXChange through our UUSF South Coast Progressive Voices speaker series. 

Affordable housing is a new issue for us at UUSF, and our efforts to date have been modest. Our annual budget supports a Community Help Fund to meet assistance appeals to UUSF from the wider community. Recently, we’ve seen an increase in housing-related requests, and we’ve responded to help. Because of the growing need, we took the uncommon step of dedicating one month’s Share the Plate receipts to the Community Help Fund. We are also looking to involve our congregation in supporting a Fairhaven-specific initiative: the adoption of three new mixed-use zoning overlay districts. The zoning districts, if adopted by Fairhaven Town Meeting, hold promise for increasing the town’s housing, including affordable housing.

 

Other Social Justice Work at UUSF

 

Each Sunday, fifty percent of the non-pledge collections at our church are donated to a local, regional or global non-profit organization, selected on a monthly basis, that does work in keeping with our UU Principles.

Our church welcomes and nurtures the inclusion of all people into the life of the congregation. A Welcoming Congregation Working Group exists within the church to provide special welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and to create educational forums and other events in support of this objective. Recently, we’ve connected with the Fairhaven Belonging Committee to explore ways in which we can support each other’s efforts.

SCPV is an occasional speaker series addressing local, regional, and national issues of broad public interest to educate and prompt action. Sessions are either in person or online. SCPV events are always publicized in church communications and on our UUSF Facebook page.

CEJ, a group comprised of congregants and others, partners with other organizations, like American Promise, to address a widening gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” in American society and the role of unfettered big money in American politics.

Twice monthly, UUSF compiles a Justice & Service Newsletter, featuring information on social justice-oriented events and activities within our South Coast orbit. Contact us to join our J&S Newsletter mailing list.

At Christmastime, the church annually helps one or more needy families, often in conjunction with the New Bedford office of Child and Family Services, Inc. Congregants purchase gifts for family members from a “wish list” as a way of brightening their holiday season. This is an intergenerational project that involves the children and youth of the church in sorting and wrapping presents.

In 2018, UUSF, in conjunction with other faith groups and community organizations, launched the New Bedford Immigrant Support Network to assist asylum seekers by providing transportation to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appointments at considerable distance from their homes in New Bedford. Although this work ended in spring 2020, we remain committed to working with our immigrant neighbors, especially those who are undocumented or seeking formal asylum.

We have recently committed to sponsoring a local family’s bid to gain CAM parole status. The U.S. CAM refugee and parole program provides certain qualified children who are nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as certain family members of those children, an opportunity to apply for refugee status.

 

Our Community Partners

 

As a medium size congregation, we find that our efforts can be most impactful when we work in partnerships with others. The list below captures several of the community partners with whom we’ve worked, or whose messages we’ve amplified, in recent years. Because our work brings us into many local orbits, this list is not intended to be exhaustive.

 

New Bedford-based CEDC provides a three-prong “people-centered asset-based” pathway where all those in the immigrant community have access to essential resources and skill-building, connections within the community through collaboration, and work collaboratively towards longer-term community change and resilience.

UU Mass Action‘s mission is to organize and mobilize Unitarian Universalists in Massachusetts to confront oppression. They provide pathways toward justice and identify opportunities in which we can live our shared values.
CSJ has been committed to economic and social justice in Southeastern Massachusetts and beyond since 1994! Visit CSJ to learn more.

ECM has been a major supporter of UUSF’s justice and service work in recent years. The ECM Justice Network includes action groups active or forming on Housing, Immigration, Environment, and Decarceration & Police Accountability.

The local New Bedford branch of the NAACP addresses a number of issues, including economic development, education and housing.

Serving an area that stretches from the Rhode Island state line east to Provincetown, south to the Islands and north to Attleboro, Brockton and Plymouth, YMCA Southeastern Massachusetts works to bring about the elimination of racism and the empowerment of women.

Learn more about the Climate Reality Project and its Southcoast Chapter. Get involved locally in 100% Committed, Opt Up, No Idling, and Break Free from Plastic campaigns.

Help out at area beach clean-ups. Follow Be the Solution to Pollution on Instagram or Facebook to learn about upcoming events.

Learn about We the People Massachusetts, a nonpartisan, all volunteer network looking to get corporate money out of politics. Here you can find ways to support passage of the We the People Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the We the People Act in the MA State Legislature.

Check out Raise Up Massachusetts, a coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions committed to building an economy that invests in families, gives everyone the opportunity to succeed, and creates broadly shared prosperity.

Follow the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaignto learn how this movement is addressing poverty and low wages from the ground up.

Bristol County for Correctional Justice is calling for reforms to the Bristol County House of Corrections, including replacing “punitive culture” with “trauma-informed” and “evidence-based” rehabilitative programming; adopting a training program for de-escalation; improving food for inmates; ending solitary confinement; ending the use of K9 units; implementing diversity and inclusion in staff training; and adopting the use of body cameras.

Read all about the work of the South Coast Food Policy Council, an alliance of local organizations working together to improve access to fresh, healthy food for all area residents.

Among its many efforts, PACE operates a Food Bank that serves a yearly average of 6,000+ individuals, and has partnered with over 20 other agencies in the fight to end food insecurity and a Housing Opportunity Center that offers limited rental assistance; mediation when negotiating with a landlord; tenant education workshops; and lists of available rental units.

South Coast LGBTQ+ Network is a great resource to get connected with service and justice in our area. Their goal is to create a community where members can freely, safely, and joyously celebrate their true selves and realize their full potential. The Network sponsors weekly support groups, health and wellness events, and activities for youth and everyone across the LGBTQ+ age spectrum.