ALUUC Social Action Committee and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Updates
Fair Trade Products
The ALUUC Social Action Committee (SAC) will be selling Fair Trade products (coffee, teas, cocoa, and chocolate bars) the second Sunday of each month. The purchase of fair trade goods through the UUSC Coffee Project benefits agricultural cooperatives through UUSC’s Small Farmer Fund. The UUSC Coffee Project is collaboration between the UUSC and Equal Exchange, a worker-owned, fair trade, company based in West Bridgewater, MA. UUs have the highest participation rate of any denomination in Equal Exchange’s Interfaith Program!
Coffee from the UUSC Coffee Project is now being served on Sundays, following the service. Next sale date – April 8.
Change for Change
Thanks to the generosity of ALUUC members and friends, $273.37 was collected for the Boys and Girls Club of Central Illinois. The Social Action Committee has selected the Prairie Center Against Sexual Assault as the April Change for Change recipient. In 2012, Prairie Center celebrates thirty-seven years of service in Central Illinois. Our work began in 1975, when a dedicated cadre of Springfield women organized to create a rape crisis center in Springfield, Illinois. They established a grass roots organization with 24-hour crisis hotline and named it The Rape Information and Counseling Service (RICS). Today RICS is known as the Prairie Center Against Sexual Assault. We are the third largest rape crisis center in Illinois serving eleven counties. Prairie Center maintains an office in Springfield and in Jacksonville. We employ twelve staff members and have 30 volunteer crisis workers. Our mission today is the same as it was in 1975: alleviate the suffering of sexual assault victims, prevent sexual violence, and promote social justice for women and children. Prairie Center provides emergency room response, legal advocacy and counseling for sexual assault survivors. We advocate for victim rights in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. Our school based prevention education programs focus on reducing the likelihood of sexual victimization, particularly in the lives of children and adolescents.
Justice Sunday 2012: Justice Is the Human Right to Water
On May 13, 2012, ALUUC will stand up with UU congregations nationwide to celebrate the culmination of our efforts for the human right to water. Our congregation’s Justice Sunday activities are helping spotlight issues affecting safe, affordable, accessible water for daily human needs. Working with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, we are participating in meaningful advocacy actions, so that together we can help make the human right to water a reality. This special worship service celebrates what we have done together so far, and reminds us that Justice Sunday calls us to reflect, understand, and act — today and every day.
Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis
In preparation for Justice Sunday you may want to read the new book by Cynthia Barnett, Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis. Ms. Barnett is an award-winning journalist whose book reports on the many ways one of the most water-rich nations on the planet has squandered its way to scarcity, and argues the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for America. Blue Revolution is also a powerful meditation on water and community in America. Order your copy directly from Beacon Press; Use promotional code UUSC to buy Blue Revolution on Beacon.org and get a 20% discount, free shipping, and a portion of the sale will support UUSC. You can also purchase your copy through the UUSC bookshelf at Powell’s — where every book purchase generates a donation supporting UUSC’s human-rights work!
Pax Christi Springfield Event
Iran: The Folly of an Attack will be presented by Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, 8th Day Center for Justice, Chicago on Wednesday, April 18 at 6:00 pm at the Lincoln Library, Carnegie North, 7th and Capitol, Springfield. Fr. Bossie will provide a social analysis of the tenuous situation in Iran. For more information, call 544-3997.
Mexico Recognizes the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
The human right to water and sanitation is officially law in Mexico. The President took the final step towards a constitutional amendment on February 8, 2012, when he published the new article 12 of the national constitution, which says that every person in Mexico is entitled to affordable, accessible, and safe water in sufficient amounts for domestic uses. UUSC congratulates partner HIC-AL, and all Mexicans, for achieving such a milestone.
UUSC Online Auction
UUSC is preparing to announce a new way to choose compassionate consumption: bid in UUSC’s first online auction! Teaming up with Bidding for Good, UUSC is offering a variety of items you won’t find anywhere else — a meal with UUSC President and CEO Bill Schulz, art created by Haitian teens, vacation stays in Florida and Wyoming, and more! All items were donated to support UUSC, so all proceeds help UUSC advance human rights and social justice. Preview a few special items today at www.uusc.org/auction and start bidding on March 12.
Support the Authentic Fair Trade Movement
Recently, there have been changes that weaken Fair Trade standards; for example, a new initiative seeks to allow large plantation coffee and cacao into the Fair Trade system. We believe these changes threaten small farmer co-operatives’ existence and the Fair Trade movement itself. Fair Trade co-ops are a vehicle for economic empowerment and social change, allowing farmers market access and control over their own lands and businesses. UUSC’s partner Equal Exchange urges you to support small farmers by signing their Authentic Fair Trade Petition; both individuals and congregations/organizations may sign. Share the petition with friends on social media and tell your congregation about this important issue!
Join UUSC
Justice Sunday is in full swing. This program practices UUSC’s approach to its work: collaborating at the grassroots level to build awareness and make a difference, through eye to eye partnership. During Justice Sunday, individuals and groups around the country turn their focus to the human right to water. UUSC has created a space to learn from and support each other.
Membership in UUSC helps achieve these goals too. Membership includes monthly Values in Action newsletters, semi-annual Rights Now magazines, and periodic action alerts tailored to your specific interest areas — to keep you informed, and provide you with tools to engage in the work with us. And we get to hear from you! Because advancing human rights is the work of many hands, we hope you will consider Justice Sunday a good time to renew or begin your UUSC membership. Become a member today at uusc.org/donate_justicesunday
UUSC is an independent membership-based human-rights organization and receives no funding from any government or denomination.
Join ALUUC Social Action Committee
Social Action Committee Members include Bernie Carver, Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant, Delinda Chapman, Peggy Fenley, Pat Fletcher, Vinnie Gupta, Linda Sievert Haynes, Stu Jacobson, Doug Liberati, Teresa Liberati, Vicki Lock , John Malan, Sally Millichamp, Michael Plog (Board Committee Liaison), Susan Solon, Lynnda White and Sarah Williamson. If you are interested in becoming a member of the ALUUC Social Action Committee, contact Deborah at SAC@ALUUC.org or Board Liaison Michael Plog.
Download the ALUUC-Social-Action-Committee-Annual-Report-July-2010-June-2011
