Environmental Justice
Marika Stone
[email protected]
One photo, many words: Our Earth Day tree planting team:
Rev. CJ, Larry Stauber, Sylvia Ansay and granddaughter, Howie and me. Larry Stauber has agreed to join Marika Stone on Environmental Justice team. This emerging 'food forest' joins the pollinator garden (aka Wayne's Garden) and raised vegetables beds. These are ready for the new season planting. The Youth Group has been participating during their Sunday meetings. We can use more hands willing to get dirty. Composting is ongoing - thanks to Suzanne Schluter for providing us with the bin. These are model educational projects on the theme of food security for the future. Rev. CJ is in conversation with El Sol re: future partnering on growing food, TBD. Bob Ashmore and I joined Hannah Trenkle and Richard Anderson (her dad) in planting seeds at the Pat Reese homeless shelter in West Palm Beach. This was a Girl Scout project for Hannah. Community gardens like this need donations, expertise and volunteer time. In July, I attended the Sea Level Rise Symposium http://www.artmarshall.org/portal/sea-level-rise-symposium#.VASKhoBdVY4. Jan Booher of UUFBR and South Florida Climate Action Partners is preparing material for activists to take to their local governments to encourage signing the http://southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/ This I intend to do as soon as I receive the package. This summer, Howard and I screened the first three episodes of Years of Living Dangerously, the Emmy-winning series on climate change, in the Adult Program Teaching Thursdays time slot. There was a potluck and discussion/recommended actions with each event. I urge all fellow congregants to take the 10% Local Food Shift challenge (no torrent of ice on the head required) and to switch to renewable energy, see http://www.pear-energy.com/ There are no plans to screen additional episodes of YLD. The series will soon be available on DVD for those who wish to pursue it. I remain active with Transition Palm Beaches as part of the work of environmental justice in Palm Beach County. I welcome subscribers to my blog: http://transitiontales.wordpress.com. And I welcome anyone who is interested in working on Environmental Justice to contact me. FAIR TRADE COFFEE Sylvia Ansay Note: Sylvia is out of town. We will include her report next month. SAC Grants Barbara Moszynski at [email protected], Chris Strain at [email protected] Judy Bonner at [email protected] For the past several years the Social Action Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches has authorized a limited number of grants to meet needs in our community not currently being met. The money for these grants is raised by dedicating the plate collection on the third Sunday of each month. This year $ $6960 was awarded in general awards and $760 in a dedicated award to Emergency Medical Assistance. We have a balance of $540 in reserve. The grants were up to $500 and were awarded to not for profit organizations or individuals that addressed pressing needs in our local community. . Organizations with budgets under $250,000 received first priority. 1. Beyond Blind Institute - $ 300 - To provide Blind Shot golf program for sight-paired/blind. 2. Center for Family Services Pat Reeves Center - $ 300 - To purchase microwave ovens 3. Children's Home Society - $ 250- To establish a baby's closet to benefit the babies of mothers in foster care 4. Christ Child Society - $400 - To purchase supplies for volunteers to make 10 baby layettes 5. Community Food Pantry of Lake Park - Club 100 charities - $ 500 - to purchase rubber mats for the concrete floor 6. De Porres place - $460 - To purchase 24 student books and teacher's guides 7. Family Promise - $ 350 - To purchase meals for homeless families 8. First UU Feeding Our Community's Children - $500 - To provide food for migrant children and their families in western Palm Beach County 9. Hope 4 Mobility - $500 - To purchase materials needed to construct adaptive equipment for special needs children 10. Mothers Against Murderers - $ 500 - To purchase a heat transfer tee shirt printer 11. New Generation Missionary Church -$500- To help 30 kids from Jacques Pierre-Louis Haitian congregation get ready for a successful school year 12. P.E.A.C.E. - $500 - To purchase additional simultaneous translation devices 13. Prisoner Art - $400 - To purchase frames for prisoner art prints to sell. All sale proceeds go to the prisoner. 14. Toby Center for Family Transitions -$ 500 - To provide counseling services 15. Toussaint L'Ouverture Charter High School for Arts and Social Justice - To purchase critical science materials 16. Vita Nova - $ 500 - To purchase items on wish list such as apartment furniture, linens, etc. needed for foster teens in transition to independent living 17. Emergency Medical Assistance Inc. - $780 -(This money is raised in a dedicated collection) To provide financial assistance to women who have made the decision to terminate their pregnancies but can't afford the cost of a safe and legal abortion Family Promise Roberta Marshall [email protected] The First UU of NPB will be adding a new project, Family Promise, to the list of special interests supported by SAC. Family Promise's mission is "to partner with the interfaith community to help local homeless children by empowering their families to regain self-sufficiency". The program is small but has been powerful in shaping children's lives. Family Promise of North/Central Palm Beach County has been active in our community for 3 years. Tropical Sands Christian Church functions as a Host congregation. First UU will be partnering with Tropical Sands Christian Church in a supportive role. The host congregations lovingly provide: overnight housing for a period of one week two or three times a year; evening meals served family style each evening; foodstuffs for lunch and breakfast and overnight hosts in an oversight/chaperone capacity. First UU will provide some evening meals and will act as overnight hosts when needed. First UU will not be expected to provide evening meals and overnight hosts for the entire week. Can't cook? There may be other skills or interests that you might donate such as tutoring or reading to the small children after the evening meal. Tropical Sands will be giving us ample time for volunteers to do what they do best. Volunteer. Feel the energy and the fellowship that is called Family Promise. For more information regarding this exciting opportunity please attend an informational meeting scheduled for September 7 at 12pm in the sanctuary. Please register at the table in the back of Ministers Hall. As an aside there is a 3rd Anniversary Celebration scheduled for Sept. 18 at 6pm. The event includes dinner, music and fellowship. Tickets are on sale now for $10. See Judy Bonner or Roberta Marshall. Take out boxes are available. The celebration will be hosted by Trinity United Methodist Church on Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens. Meet the volunteers, staff and graduates that make this program special. Food Justice Bob Ashmore http://spirithouseproject.org/ Members and friends of our congregation packaged meals in May and June. We will have another packaging event in November. The two events packaged about 2,000 meals each. The meals which consist of rice, lentils, freeze dried veggies and sea salt are placed in baggies each of which can feed a family of five or six. Preparation time is a half hour. The school system has distributed them to children and their parents, mostly in the Glades area. Many of the children receive breakfast and lunch through the schools during the school year but during the summer and holiday vacation time may not receive nutritious meals. After the June packaging, we also gave a small portion of the packages to Family Promise. They used them, and will continue to use them in the future, to give to families as they move out on their own. The Social Action Committee organizes specific activities for issues relating to Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning Persons. During the 2013-2014 program year the primary focus has been participation in Pridefest sponsored by Compass, the LGBT Community Center for Palm Beach County. This year's two-day event was held in Lake Worth March 28 and 30, 2014. 26 of our members, families, and friends marched in the Sunday parade down the streets of Lake Worth with banners and promotional candy. Of these 9 were children and youth from the Religious Education classes. In addition our minister the Reverend C J McGregor has identified issues and offered illustration on the LGBT community throughout the worship and program year. I myself gave two sermons on the subject at his invitation, and we have cited occasions and celebrations related to LGBT news and the foundation Standing on the Side of Love. In a year that advances for gay marriage rights and the overturn of the Defense of Marriage Act, almost every week was some kind of these occasions. Listed below are sample celebration and the dates they will be observed during the upcoming program year. October LGBT History Month October 11 National Coming Out Day November 8 Carl Sagan Day March 28 and 29 Pridefest 2015 with the parade at 11:30 am Sunday April 17 Day of Silence May 17 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) May 22 Harvey Milk birthday June 21 Stonewall Pride in Wilton Manors, FL and at various locations worldwide June 29 Anniversary of original Stonewall P.E.A.C.E. (People Engaged in Active Community Efforts) Team Leader: Barbara Hatzfeld [email protected] Team Members: Marijane Gregg & Rev. CJ McGregor. Our goal for the Nehemiah Assembly was 60; we had 62. Our goal for the Investment fund was $3500; we collected $3710. Our Nehemiah Action had 2600+ people and was successful on our issues. The Sheriff has agreed to let Non Licensed drivers show consular ID's or passports when they are stopped for minor offenses. They will be given a ticket but not placed in jail. Sheriff Bradshaw has said YES to our other request that he no longer comply with ICE detainer requests! I am copying pasting below the actual press release the Sheriff's Office put out ... This is a MAJOR victory. Because of the hard work you all put into turning out 2,600 people this past March, undocumented immigrants in Palm Beach County need no longer live in fear around 2 things - 1) being arrested for driving without a and NOW -2) if they do end up in jail, they need no longer fear being detained / deported by ICE. In short - the meaning this has to a LOT of people's lives in Palm Beach County is huge. And it is all because of YOU, PEACE, and some very hard work this past Spring. Belle Glade, South Bay & Pahokee plus Palm Beach County are all working on First Source ordinances to reduce the 40% unemployment rates. The Palm Beach County Commissioners are studying the Wage Theft Resolutions effects. We are hoping to have four team members for 2014-2015. We have a goal of 80 people to attend the 2015 Nehemiah Assembly. Systemic Justice through Legislative Change first Sat. 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM Wayne Johnson [email protected] Richard Hattwick [email protected] - Original purpose
The original purpose of this program was to convene a monthly meeting at which current local, state and federal government performance would be analyzed. The intent was to select issues where there was a concern about government performance (or lack of performance). The goal was to identify possible legislative actions which might lead to more responsible government actions. And the anticipated final products were to be to create awareness and possibly actions with respect to the problems and proposed solutions. It was anticipated that the creating awareness would be the primary action. The intended audience was members of our own congregation with an interest in "current events." Non-members were to be welcomed but few were expected given limited publicity. - Experience in the 2013-14 program year
Monthly workshop meetings were held during the first half of 2014. Attendance was small, ranging from 4 to 10 persons. The content of the analysis part of each workshop consisted of a dialog led by Wayne Johnson. Wayne did most of the talking but others jumped in regularly. The information content of that part was outstanding thanks to Wayne's encyclopedic knowledge and analytical skills. The legislative action part of the workshop originally depended on one of the original members of the group writing letters to the editors of various publications. When that individual dropped out of the group, that effort was temporarily suspended. A second awareness-creating action consisted of a monthly short report in the SAC News. An assessment of the usefulness of that effort has not been conducted. - Plans for the 2014-15 program year
At the end of the August workshop Wayne Johnson and Dick Hattwick conducted a brief assessment of the program. Very small attendance was a concern as was our failure to launch a meaningful menu of actions. However, both Wayne and Dick felt that the quality of the discussions was as good as or better than expected. Therefore it was agreed that the program should be continued for the 2014-15 program year. It was also agreed that major efforts should be made to publicize the monthly meetings and to introduce meaningful follow-up actions. Follow-up actions which are being considered include monthly calls for action on legislative actions which are currently taking place in Congress, the state legislature, and local governmental bodies such as the Palm Beach County School Board and the County Board of Commissioners. The plan is to provide each member of our congregation with the background and contact information needed to express the member's view on a proposed act or action of a local, state of federal government entity. It would then be up to each member of the congregation to follow-up with the appropriate elected official. UUSC We have 80 memberships for their 2013-14 fiscal year which ended June 30th. We have a goal of 100 for this year and will attempt to sign more people up at our Guest at your Table service Ongoing Single Events International Day of Peace Sept. 21 - Judy Bonner and Peace Fair - youth group. Guest at your table Sunday Service Nov. 16 - CJ McGregor Soup lunch near Thanksgiving with proceeds to charity Nov. 23 - June Kleeman Sat. workshop January - community activists - keynote speaker -economic and racial Equity? MLK event? Judy Bonner Standing on the side of Love - Feb.1 service -Grants team Gay Pride Parade end of March Paul Coleman Spring Cluster Meeting - social action -Judy Bonner New Ideas Economic Justice -- Delegates at general assembly chose a new four-year Congregational Study/Action Issue, on rising economic inequality, Three GA Actions of Immediate Witness. "Pray for Relief" Faith Summit on Stopping Deportations, Affirm congregational commitments to prevent gun violence, Promote efforts to rescue victims of GLBT persecution in Uganda. Judy Kraft still wants to get a lawyer to initiate a class action suit for Unequal Protection of poor, unemployed, sick, old, disabled (but not officially defined as such) under XIV amendment re issues of income inequality & lack of health insurance. FL has such an inadequate safety net, & the State Legislature ignores these people. Documentaries - monthly SA related with discussion/actions - 4th. Sat. AM - we need a leader for this. Racial and Economic Justice - Extended families with Haitian church to support children's education. - adopt a school - could be done in conjunction with CSAI -Judy Bonner Discontinued Affordable Health Care - We conducted a weekly phone bank to schedule individuals to sign up for the Affordable Care Act. We held a sign up event. This project has been completed. Judy Bonner [email protected] Pets in Prison - After much investigation, we decided that this project is not feasible at this time. Jan Morris [email protected] Racial Equity - Our Book study group of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crowe was very successful. The average attendance was 6-8. Discussions were lively. No action plan has yet been formulated. Judy Bonner |