Social Justice Team Retreat
Kingston church seeks help funding restoration
The UU church in neighboring Kingston sustained extensive damage in the recent arson and vandalism attack. They have launched a 30-day crowd-funding campaign to help defray the costs of repairing and restoring their 1851 meetinghouse. They are using the platform Faithify, which is grounded in UU values and practices. Their goal is $30,000.
Kingston Church Vandalized
Our sister UU church in Kingston, Mass., was vandalized on July 4th in an apparent act of racist and anti-LGBTQ violence. We stand in solidarity with them and urge our members to attend the community service announced below:
Social Justice Team Summer Plans
If you are wondering what actions you can take over the summer to help preserve our democracy, the Social Justice Team plans to continue our Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts during July and August. These activities will include post-carding and learning more about our country’s electoral system. Anyone who is interested can participate. We do not have…
Summer Social Justice
Narcan Training
Narcan training will be given at the church on Monday, June 24, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. The training will prepare participants to respond effectively if someone (visitor, pedestrian, etc.) suffers an opioid overdose/emergency. Narcan nasal spray (an over-the-counter drug) will be made available after the training. There is no charge for this session, and it is available to both congregation and the general public.
Protecting Democracy
In collaboration with the Workers Circle, our congregation wrote 500 postcards to voters in the Atlanta GA area urging them to vote in Georgia’s May 22 primary. The Social Justice Team will conduct further writing drives as this election year progresses. We also recommend donations to the Workers Circle and two other organizations working to protect democracy, the movement Voter Project and Working America. All three are nonpartisan and non-profit.
https://www.circle.org/demanddemocracy
Summer Cash in the Plate
June: 1st week: Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Fund (non-profit) to acquire 38 acres of their ancestral land on Triangle Pond in Plymouth https://www.herringpondtribe.org/
June weeks 2-5: The Trevor Project, whose vision is “A world where all LGBTQ+ young people see a bright future for themselves. “Https://www.thetrevorproject.org”
July: Bridgewater Communities for Civil Rights (BCCR) is a “community-based organization dedicated to defending the rights of all persons while fostering open communication, providing opportunities to examine issues of social justice, and advocating for the elimination of bias and racism.” https://bccrcivilrights.org/
August: Sacred Heart Food Pantry – A Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference serving the towns of Middleboro, Lakeville, Rochester, and Carver. The conference sponsors and operates the Sacred Heart Food Pantry in Middleboro which helps feed hundreds of families every month. https://sydmiddleboro.org
We’ve Almost Completed Postcarding to Georgia Voters!
Quite a few folks in the congregation have been writing postcards to voters in Georgia to help motivate them to participate in the primary there on May 21. Just a few cards in our stack of 500 are still outstanding. The rest have been mailed. Please be sure to return your cards to Lois on…
April Cash in the Plate
The Cash in the Plate for the month of April will be divided evenly among three “get out the vote” organizations: Movement Voter Project, The Workers Circle, and Working America.
March Cash in the Plate
Our congregation’s March Cash in the Plate (CIP) will be donated to Brockton-based Health Imperatives that has as its mission “to improve the health and well-being of low-income, vulnerable people in Southeastern Massachusetts.” Because March includes a fifth Sunday this year, the proceeds of the CIP that day (3/31) will be given to the Mashpee-based…
Herring Pond Wampanoags Solicit Donations to Help Acquire Some of Their Ancestral Land
The Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe is requesting donations to enable them to acquire 38 acres of their ancestral land on the shores of Triangle Pond, located between Great Herring Pond and Long Pond in Plymouth. This land stewardship project will involve traditional ecological practices and “sacred ceremonies, food sovereignty, community empowerment, educational opportunities, and cultural…
What Does Democracy Mean to You?
The Dock C. Bracy Center for Human Reconciliation is sponsoring a project to this effect. From now until May 1, they are accepting visual art and/or 200-character written-word submissions, in either Youth (
“Very Concerning” Arrest of Black Trans Philadelphia Official Being Investigated
The following story was reported on March 7 by Samantha Riedel of the online news site Them. A Pennsylvania state trooper has been placed on “restricted duty” after he threatened to use his taser on one of Philadelphia’s top LGBTQ+ officials during a traffic stop last weekend. The Philadelphia district attorney’s office is investigating the…
No Place for Hate
“Whipping up anger against immigrants has dangerous consequences,” per a recent column by Yvonne Abraham in the Boston Globe. She reports ugly pushback against refugees in Dedham and other MA communities. Yet a recent federal report found that, between 2005 and 2019, the net economic contribution of refugees and asylees approached $124 billion.” This is…
Upcoming Social Justice events
Our Current Projects
The Team brings news and information to the congregation about social justice events and activities being held in our community, offers training and runs events that are of major interest to church members, and actively supports several local organizations including Bridgewater Committee for Civil Rights (BCCR). The Brockton Chapter of the NAACP, the Matthew Mission Food Pantry, and Sustainable Middleboro.
Our Social Justice Team
Team members are Lois Aldrich, Dody Adkins-Perry, Deanne Bonnar, Bill Howe, and Christine Hoyle. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact a member of the team or write to sjt@UUmiddleboro.org.
