Social Action Resources
This website has many social action resources!
< —-See list on the left-hand side bar on this page.
Find current Social Action Opportunities HERE.
Have time for Social Action Study?
Women’s Reproductive Rights
Get up to speed on the latest in reproductive rights in Massachusetts via the MA NARAL Chapter https://prochoicemass.org/
Learn the History through video “Reproductive Rights & the Women Who Sparked a Movement: Retro Report” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okn7DuxQpas
LGBTQ+
Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Young People LINK
First Nations Peoples
UU College of Social Justice Study Resources on Solidarity with First Nations https://uucsj.org/study-resources/
webinar series on Unitarian Universalism’s imperial past Unitarian/Universalist Colonial Legacy Webinar Series | International Unitarian Universalism | UUA.org
Democracy
Explore the past, present, and future of the U.S. and crisis of democracy http://reclaimourdemocracy.org/how-did-this-happen/
Climate Change
UU College of Social Justice Study Resources on Climate LINK
Explore issues with the many text and video resources of the Sierra Club and 350.org
Want to know enough to take on climate deniers? Take the popular online course “Denial101X”
Immigrant Justice
UU College of Social Justice Study Resources on Immigrant Justice LINK
On Immigrant Justice by the Southern Poverty Law Center LINK
UUMass Action Immigration Justice LINK
Racial Justice
Get up to speed with The Movement for Black Lives
Use the UU Breathe Act TOOLKIT to Understand Our Role in ” that would fundamentally shifting how we envision community safety: away from policing, prisons, and militarization of our borders and our communities, and toward investing in and sustaining thriving cities and neighborhoods based on principles of fairness and inclusion.
Delve into Racism with SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice)
Debby Irving’s 21 Day Challenge https://debbyirving.com/21-day-challenge/
1619 Project LINK
Read recent best-seller: The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee about pervasive White attitude that what minorities gain means they must lose.
Poverty and Inequality
Upstream Podcast LINK Radical ideas and inspiring stories for a just transition to a more beautiful and equitable world
Beautiful Solutions: https://solutions.thischangeseverything.org/ collects stories of ways people are already creating just economies and the just world we envision.
United for a Fair Economy RESOURCES non-profit that supports social movements working for a resilient, sustainable and equitable economy.
Explore Social Justice and Learn Tactics through a Unitarian Universalist Lense
UUA Curricula and Resources for Adults LINK
History of Social Justice Theologies in UUism LINK
***
Become an Abolitionist! (of Policing and Prisons)
We UUs have a proud history in the forefront of anti-slavery work. How would you like to be a modern-day abolitionist? The platform of UU partner–the Movement for Black Lives–includes a call to abolish policing and prisons. Mere reform is not enough.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch constantly deplore our over reliance on imprisonment, especially by privatized prisons; the U.S. is unique in this respect. With only 5 percent of the Earth’s population, the U.S. accounts for nearly a quarter of the entire world’s prison population. African Americans and Hispanics make up more than half of those in our prisons despite being less than a third of our population. We have the most imprisoned women and the most imprisoned juveniles. Amnesty continues to call for a halt to what they see as politically-motivated mass incarceration with its many concurrent human rights abuses. They also document rampant racism in our criminal justice system.
So, what is the alternative? The Movement for Black Lives urges us to be visionary and future-oriented. It states: “We know the safest communities in America are places that don’t center the police. What we’re looking for already exists, and we already know it works. We need look no further than neighborhoods where the wealthy, well-connected, and well-off live, or anywhere where there is easy access to living wages, health care, quality public education, and freedom from police terror.”
In other words, well-served neighborhoods, not policing, make for healthy community outcomes. Rich folks suffer from alcoholism and the opioid pandemic, from schizophrenia and mental illnesses, from learning and other disabilities. Rich folk suffer from domestic violence, aggressive and negligent car accidents, and youthful foolish behavior. But residents of wealthier neighborhoods can access community assistance and afford private help and competent legal defense. You can inform yourself about restorative justice–a visionary and humane alternative that Concord has offered our youth for decades so that they can avoid an arrest record. Cities across the country are discussing defunding the police and offering everyone the healthful resources that a place like Concord has. In sum, our faith calls upon us to work for a loving, caring world where no child is born at high risk of incarceration. Members of our congregation are knowledgeable and involved in this mission.