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.

The Poor People’s Campaign  

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  

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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.