Events, Econ Justice

WA Low Income Housing Alliance Weekly Webinars, 10:00 am Wednesdays

July 1, 2020 by webmaster Leave a Comment

The WA Low Income Housing Alliance works toward the opportunity for all Washington residents to live in safe, healthy, affordable homes in thriving communities. They sponsor a weekly webinar to highlight work and provide action points on these issues.

Examples of recent/coming meetings: Marc Dones joined us July 1st to share about the newly formed Center on Housing Justice, an arm of the National Innovation Service that will focus on dismantling structural racism inside our nation’s housing and homeless service systems, and redesigning toward an equitable future! On July 8th, we’ll be joined by Lowel Krueger from the Yakima Housing Authority and Amber Johnson from SNAP to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting their tenants.

If you would like to submit a question ahead of the call, please use this form to do so! We will do our very best to answer your questions during the call or in follow-up correspondence.

You can register for the call at this link, or by clicking the button above. After registering, you should receive a confirmation email with the call-in information and a password. If for some reason you do not, please email John at johns@wliha.org to make sure you get it.

Backbone Campaign Fundamental Right to Food Events, June 26, July 1, online

June 24, 2020 by webmaster Leave a Comment

Food is a basic need, and healthy local food should be a fundamental right. At the heart of the food system is the seed. Our current food system is so broken – in most all ways.

Join Backbone for two events, this Friday and next Wednesday. We will talk about the effects of racism and colonization on our food system and how those oppressive systems relate to growing a garden and saving your seeds.

Scroll down for detailed info on each virtual event and to register.

1. Backbone is honored and grateful to host a conversation with Farmers Lawrence Jenkins and Aleta Haskins, of The Circle of Life Gardens: Friday, June 26th, 11:30am (Pacific).

2. Following on our Conversation is a Virtual Workshop on Seed Saving: Wednesday, July 1st, 4pm (Pacific).

UUs for a Just Economic Community Organizing UU Community to Join Poor People’s Campaign

June 11, 2020 by webmaster Leave a Comment

A wonderful opportunity!

The UUA/Poor People’s Campaign has reached out to UUJEC to join their effort for economic justice. We’ve always felt we were a good fit but somehow never connected.

We need volunteers
This great opportunity means we need to increase our capacity. Our volunteers will meet for an hour meeting monthly and a few more hours to do the actual work. We need leaders and workers. Please send an email to uujec@uujec.org and we’ll get you set up.

Looking for poor people to share their story
Can you help point the council towards any UUs that are low-income folks, perhaps willing to speak of that experience (to witness) as part of a Church of the Larger Fellowship service on June 14, 2020, centered on PPC? See PPC video. More ways to help

Four Ways to Support UU Involvement in Poor People’s Campaign

June 11, 2020 by webmaster Leave a Comment

Letter to UUJEC from Pablo DeJesus,
council member UUA’s PPC Leadership Council:

I’m writing to ask if UUJEC can do several things to support UU involvement in the PPC, especially in these final days leading into Sat. June 20th — a major milestone for PPC. See the UUA announcement on the formation of a UU leadership council HERE or UUSJ’s promulgation in our May eNews, of which I am a part. (Several council members are CCed here.)

As you know, this is a deeply troubling moment in our nation, rife with an unfolding national conversation about the disproportionate economic impacts of the pandemic and the cross-cutting role of systems of criminalization and racial injustice as entrenched policy and social structures. For this reason, it feels even more deeply important for UUs to support campaigns that center the leadership of poor and low-income people, people of color, and other disenfranchised folks in our society. The PPC is such a campaign.

So I’d ask on behalf of the UUA’s PPC Leadership Council for several steps in the assistance of the council and our UU denomination’s commitment to the PPC.

Four Asks:

UUJEC Contacts: Very Timely/Urgent — Can you help connect the council with any UUs that are low-income folks, willing to speak of that experience (to witness) as part of a Church of the Larger Fellowship service on June 14, 2020, centered on PPC? I’m thinking of folks perhaps like your brave UUJEC member who spoke directly to Sen. Portman (OH) during our joint UU conference in 2017 (Reversing Inequality: Healthcare Justice is a UU Value). Personal stories like his will help the PPC council win hearts and minds.
UUJEC Promotion: Can you promulgate the special UU RSVP for June 20th and encourage UUs in the UUJEC network to register and attend several times going into June 20th in ~10 days? In so doing you’d be joining the UUA, SideWithLove, and UUSJ. You can see in UUSJ’s June eNews and our events list how UUSJ is striving to promote (in part). You may have seen some of our eBlasts. UUSJ is also posting events and content to Facebook as possible. Please consider closely what UUJEC can do to support the promotion of PPC. Here is the PPC’s digital toolkit that offers text & graphics to make things easier.
UUJEC Connection: Rev. Robin Tanner, NJ is a UU minister from NJ and also a lead national faith organizer for the PPC. She might be able to speak to UUJEC stakeholders to explain the PPC campaign and its goals and especially its economic justice commitments. I will comment here, I can think of few national campaigns beyond the PPC that are so clearly aligned with UUJEC’s general interest in restructuring the American economy away from escalating inequality, rampant inequity, and towards justice, equity, and service to the human condition.
UUJEC Follow-on: Please consider having an internal conversation during the next month or so, on if or how UUJEC can support UU mobilization and participation in the PPC heading towards November. It is my understanding after we “click” past June 20th the PPC will be more focused on Voter Mobilization and GOTV activity engaging poor and low-income participation. As you know from our two conferences together, if we can get candidates who take structural inequity and inequality seriously as a policy area, we will have more traction and support for policies in the next congress that reflect UU values and principles. This is generally consistent with UUA’s UU the Vote campaign, and UUSJ’s joint project with Reeb Voting Rights Project (review an upcoming event June 17 HERE or RSVP). On how PPC activity dovetails with UU the Vote, Susan Leslie, UUA might offer referrals to specific staff.

It is my sincere hope that UUJEC can look at what is possible in response to this request for connection and assistance from the UUA PPC Leadership Council.

In love and for justice,

Pablo

Webinar Draws Parallels Between COVID-19 and Climate Crisis, June 11, online

May 30, 2020 by webmaster Leave a Comment

Join UUs for a Just Economic Community for a webinar:

Climate Crisis, like COVID-19, is a Global Health Threat; & Managing the Health Effects of the Climate Crisis. Thursday June 11, 5:00 pm PDT

To join our Webinar, please click here.

Brief Bio:
Julia Ying is a volunteer public speaker trained by former US Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project. She is Co-Chair of the Climate Reality Northern New Mexico Chapter. She is also a member of 350 Santa Fe. She is a retired General Medical Practitioner from Sydney Australia, and is a happy grandmother to 5 grandchildren. She is now living in Los Alamos, NM. She is passionate about taking care of Mother Earth, to preserve the beauty of nature she loves, and to know her grandchildren can grow up in a safe, sustainable world.

Julia Ying can be contacted on: climaterealitynnm@gmail.com Website: ClimateRealityNNM.org