Shared Offering ArchiveUCE UCE2024-02-20T17:16:20+00:00
Shared Offering Archive
2023-2024 Shared Offering Recipients
September 2023: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
October 2023: NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch
November 2023: Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI)
December 2023: Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU)
January 2024: Community Renewal Society (CRS)
February 2024: Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
March 2024: Deborah’s Place
April 2024: Interfaith Action of Evanston
May 2024: The Night Ministry
June 2024: Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA)
July 2024: Restore Justice Foundation
August 2024: C&W Foundation
September 2024: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIIR)
5th Sundays: Evanston Reparations Community Fund
We are going to adjust the Shared Offering cycle to be from October through September each year, so there was an extra organization picked this year for September 2024.
UUSC advances human rights and social justice around the world, partnering with those who confront unjust power structures and mobilizing to challenge oppressive policies. Our work is grounded in the belief that all people have inherent power and dignity.
Key actions include economic and legal support for Central American refugees, work with indigenous peoples facing climate disruption, and support for the Rohingya struggling with genocide in Burma.
After a 1908 race riot in Springfield IL, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was founded by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, and a group of white liberals in 1909, and its Evanston arm became active soon thereafter. The NAACP is the oldest grass roots civil rights organization in the U.S., and welcomes people of all colors, creeds and ethnicities. Its mission is to secure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons. The Recent activities of the Evanston/North Shore Branch have included partnering with Connection for the Homeless in developing data to support equitable zoning changes in Evanston; providing scholarships to students graduating from ETHS as well as students continuing their education at HBCUs; sponsoring an exhibit at the Evanston Art Center to introduce to the community excellent but lesser-known artists of color; sponsoring a well-attended Environmental Justice Awareness day at Fleetwood-Jourdain; sponsoring candidate forums and carrying out voter registration and GOTV activities; working to get bills passed in Illinois regarding African-American and Asian-American history education, including the Juneteenth holiday; gathering and transporting a truckload of supplies for the community of Rolling Fork, MS, which suffered terribly from a tornado last spring; and a variety of other initiatives that respond to ongoing or acute crises. For more information, visit its website, www.evanstonnaacp.org or email the Branch at naacpev@gmail.com.
Opportunities to support and volunteer with the NAACP Evanston/NS Branch include
- Taking out a membership ($30/year)
- Joining a committee (such as Political Action & Civic Engagement, Education, Environmental Justice, Health)
- Helping with voter registration, candidate forums and other GOTV activities sponsored by the Branch
- Reading stories by Black writers to students at Oakton Elementary School during the NAACP Black History Month Read-A-Thon
- Periodic opportunities to join rallies, ceremonies honoring community members and other gatherings where having a good showing is important
- Periodic projects that support the mission of the NAACP, such as those mentioned above
UUANI strives first and foremost to link UUs with opportunities to affect legislation in Springfield and nationally and to offer training to be influential advocates. UUANI devises programs to build power among UU congregations in Illinois in order to achieve meaningful, concrete, far-reaching results which put UU values and principles into action. Part of building that power is honing skills to be effective “woke” partners with organizations representing a wide diversity of cultures, as we work together for systemic change toward a more just and equitable society.
One of the most important ways UUANI serves the UU congregations of Illinois is in supporting folks who yearn for social justice with training in advocacy and discernment – learning how to ally effectively with partner organizations to widen the reach of our voices. Directors Rev Scott Aaseng and Rev Karen Mooney and their teams will work with you and/or your social justice team to hone your skills to advocate powerfully for those social justice issues dear to you, to develop skills to organize support among your fellow UUs, and to discern how unconscious bias might interfere with your work with organizations led by people of other cultures, allowing you to bravely cross cultural barriers toward a more just society.
To get involved: http://www.uuani.org/contact-us
And sign up for Actions of the Week HERE: https://uuani.salsalabs.org/actionoftheweek/index.html
BLUU
started as a small organizing collective that formed in 2015 in Cleveland during the Movement for Black Lives Convening. We are now a thriving spiritual community and justice-minded organization creating connection for Black people.
BLUU is committed to Unitarian Universalism that is liberatory and life-giving for Black people. We manifest this dream by creating spiritual community, spiritual resources, and political education opportunities for Black Unitarian Universalists and other Black folks who share our values.
BLUU harnesses love’s power to combat oppression and foster healing as a spiritual and political imperative. We know the power of love to be life changing, inclusive, relational, uncomfortable, unconditional and without end.
The Community Renewal Society is an organization of over 70 member churches in the Chicago area who have been working together for civil rights and social justice for over 130 years. CRS engineers social change by participating in public demonstrations and events, lobbying state legislators and other public officials and offering social organizing training sessions. CRS decides what issues to work on by participation from its churches and their members, and by working with other organizations.
Members of UCE could work directly with CRS staff to join a committee or to attend an event or training session. They could go to the Community Renewal Society website to see dates and times of coming events. UCE Members also could talk to any member of the UCE Legislative Action Team, or join our Team’s monthly meeting, usually the second Tuesday of each month, from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
The Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) builds partnerships among social movements and organized communities within and between the U.S. and Latin America. We work together through popular education, grassroots organizing, public policy advocacy, and direct action to dismantle U.S. militarism, neoliberal economic and immigration policy, and other forms of state and institutional violence.We are united by our liberating faiths and inspired by the power of people to organize and to find allies to work for sustainable economies, just relationships and human dignity.
Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Supportive housing and services offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals and moving on from the experience of homelessness. We achieve our mission through a unique model that weaves together supportive housing with a menu of voluntary, evidence-based services. We deliver these services in an intentional environment that recognizes each woman’s strengths and abilities and fosters a sense of belonging and community. The Deborah’s Place model has evolved over 36 years, using external research and internal data to develop and deliver effective programs and services. We know that women who experience chronic homelessness can overcome complex barriers to housing, health and stability when they have what they need to be successful – access to affordable and appropriate housing, adequate healthcare, regular income and positive social supports. Deborah’s Place serves more than 500 women annually through outreach, housing and support services.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer opportunities at Deborah’s Place are limited. Currently, we are able to accept individual or small volunteer groups to do meal service in our Dolores’ Safe Haven program. Volunteers can cook a meal in our kitchen or bring in a catered meal and serve it to residents for lunch or dinner 7 days a week. Other volunteer opportunities may be available as the current health situation permits. For more information on volunteering at Deborah’s Place, please complete the contact form on our website at https://www.deborahsplace.org/contact-us/.
Interfaith Action of Evanston strives to build a just community. We work with diverse faith communities and individuals seeking to address the systemic issues of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Through interfaith dialogue, we bring people together to build relationships and encourage understanding across faith boundaries. We partner with local legislators, community leaders and our neighbors to promote a healthy and equitable society.
We manage and staff soup kitchens, a warming center, an emergency overnight shelter, a hospitality center and free fresh produce distribution in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Producemobile.
We monitor and advocate for social justice. We share ideas across faiths and recommend actions to engage legislators and policymakers. Our public gatherings provide a venue for volunteers, supporters and others who care about ending hunger and homelessness.
We invite and promote opportunities for our faith community members to attend worship and/or engage in conversations with members of different faiths who share their values.
The Night Ministry is a Chicago-based organization whose mission is to provide human connection, housing support, and health care to members of our community who are unhoused or experiencing poverty.
Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA) is a not-for-profit organization that empowers refugees by providing them with the educational resources needed to make a successful transition to the United States. Our vision is a world where migrants in need are welcomed and empowered. Our mission is to ensure that refugee families are provided access to an education sufficient to prepare them to become economically self-sufficient and robustly engaged in American civic life. Our strategy is to be located in the neighborhoods that we serve to make daily educational services easily available to newly-arrived refugees.
We work to end extreme sentences for children and youth in Illinois and replace them with compassionate, common-sense policies that bring people home sooner and make communities safer.
OUR STORY
Clarence and Wendy founded C&W in August 2014, a family own market and ice cream parlor located in the Evanston community offering residents and neighboring communities with essential items, groceries, snacks and produce. Through our Foundation, C&W marketplace will always seek new opportunities to partner with local businesses or organizations to uplift the Evanston community and serve those in need.
HISTORY OF C&W / CLARENCE & WENDY
Clarence and Wendy are long term residents of Evanston. Clarence has spent most of his professional career working as an IT management professional and Wendy has worked more than 40 years in health care and insurance providing professional insurance services to multiple organizations in the Chicagoland area.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Clarence and Wendy have committed full-time to the growth and development of C&W’s offerings to the Evanston community.
ICIRR is dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society.
Created in 1986 in response to President Reagan signing into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act, ICIRR has been at the forefront of helping immigrants realize and contribute to the dream that is America.
Evanston Reparations represent an historic opportunity to address the harm caused to the Black community due to discriminatory practices. ECF’s mission is built on the belief that working toward a more vibrant, equitable and inclusive Evanston will benefit every member of our community. To advance Evanston Reparations and ECF’s mission, the Foundation’s Board of Directors made a declaration to hold the Evanston Reparations Community Fund.
In June 2019, the City of Evanston adopted a resolution affirming the City’s commitment to end structural racism and achieve racial equity. Thereafter, the City held two community meetings to gather input on reparations, culminating in the November 2019 resolutions to utilize tax revenue from the sales of recreational cannabis to Evanston Reparations with up to $10 million over the next ten years.
The Evanston Reparations Community Fund (“Fund”) is intended to be a perpetual resource for Evanston’s Black community, to complement the tax revenue stream earmarked by the City for initial reparations remedies, and to ensure funding is available for reparations once those tax revenues are no longer available. The Fund will not be involved in the distribution of tax revenues earmarked by the City of Evanston for reparations. Those dollars will be administered directly by the City of Evanston through the efforts of the City’s Reparations Subcommittee comprising three alderman and city staff.
The Fund will specifically support the work of the Reparations Stakeholders Authority of Evanston (RSAE), a now 501c3 tax exempt organization. (#86-3806645) It raises funds and distributes grants to Evanston’s Black community. The RSAE will initially be led by Black community leaders. It is anticipated the RSAE will raise funds through outreach to community members, foundations and others interested in advancing Evanston Reparations.
2022-2023 Shared Offering Recipients
September: American Indian Center
October: Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois (UUPMI)
November: Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI)
December: Reparations Fund
January: Midwest Access Coalition
February: Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU)
March: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
April: Land Institute
May: The Neurodiversity Foundation
June: Deborah’s Place
July: Building Peaceful Bridges
August: Interfaith Action of Evanston (IAE)
5th Sundays: Community Renewal Society (CRS)
The mission of the American Indian Center of Chicago (AIC) is to promote fellowship among Indian people of all Tribes living in metropolitan Chicago and to create bonds of understanding and communication between Indians and non-Indians in this city; to advance the general welfare of American Indians into the metropolitan community life; to foster the economic advancement of Indian people; to sustain cultural, artistic, and avocational pursuits; and to perpetuate Indian cultural values. AIC focuses on the arts by offering workshops such as drum making, moccasin making, and also by housing the first and only art gallery space dedicated to the promotion and education of Native artists in the city of Chicago. AIC runs a year round education program for youth that provides culturally based after school and summer programming for youth of all ages. AIC actively engages the Native American community through programming such as monthly senior lunches, monthly community potlucks and weekly drum practice.
The United States is a prison nation, 1 in 4 people incarcerated in the world reside in US prisons and jails. People who go to jail need to be treated like people both while they’re there and when they get out.
Our Mission: UUPMI will equip UU’s in IL to transform institutions and support people harmed by the prison industrial complex.
Our Unitarian Universalist principles call us to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person and to engage in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We want to engage those most in need of affirmation – the people locked up, often for very minor offenses, in Illinois prisons, who look to worship services for badly needed peace and solace. The UU Church of the Larger Fellowship serves 700 people in prison who deeply value our shared faith, and 260 people in Illinois prisons have pen pals through the GLBTQ group Black & Pink. The need is clear. Our UU presence and support in prisons can save sanity, spirit, and even lives.
UUANI strives first and foremost to link UUs with opportunities to affect legislation in Springfield and nationally and to offer training to be influential advocates. UUANI devises programs to build power among UU congregations in Illinois in order to achieve meaningful, concrete, far-reaching results which put UU values and principles into action. Part of building that power is honing skills to be effective “woke” partners with organizations representing a wide diversity of cultures, as we work together for systemic change toward a more just and equitable society.
One of the most important ways UUANI serves the UU congregations of Illinois is in supporting folks who yearn for social justice with training in advocacy and discernment – learning how to ally effectively with partner organizations to widen the reach of our voices. Directors Rev Scott Aaseng and Rev Karen Mooney and their teams will work with you and/or your social justice team to hone your skills to advocate powerfully for those social justice issues dear to you, to develop skills to organize support among your fellow UUs, and to discern how unconscious bias might interfere with your work with organizations led by people of other cultures, allowing you to bravely cross cultural barriers toward a more just society.
To get involved: http://www.uuani.org/contact-us
And sign up for Actions of the Week HERE: https://uuani.salsalabs.org/actionoftheweek/index.html
Coming soon…
MAC envisions a world in which all people have access to safe, free, legal abortions wherever they live. As a practical abortion fund, MAC helps people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest access a safe abortion by assisting with travel coordination and costs, lodging, food, medicine, and childcare.
BLUU started as a small organizing collective that formed in 2015 in Cleveland during the Movement for Black Lives Convening. We are now a thriving spiritual community and justice-minded organization creating connection for Black people.
BLUU is committed to Unitarian Universalism that is liberatory and life-giving for Black people. We manifest this dream by creating spiritual community, spiritual resources, and political education opportunities for Black Unitarian Universalists and other Black folks who share our values.
BLUU harnesses love’s power to combat oppression and foster healing as a spiritual and political imperative. We know the power of love to be life changing, inclusive, relational, uncomfortable, unconditional and without end.
UUSC advances human rights and social justice around the world, partnering with those who confront unjust power structures and mobilizing to challenge oppressive policies. Our work is grounded in the belief that all people have inherent power and dignity.
Key actions include economic and legal support for Central American refugees, work with indigenous peoples facing climate disruption, and support for the Rohingya struggling with genocide in Burma.
Natural ecological systems are self-sustaining. For at least 10,000 years, humans have disrupted those systems and kept them in a continuous state of disruption in order to feed our populations and avoid famine. This, in a nutshell, is agriculture as we know it. Increasingly, the modern scale of those agricultural disruptions threatens to collapse the critical cultural and natural systems upon which we depend.
The Land Institute believes that it doesn’t have to be this way.
The Land Institute and our partners are not working to tweak the now predominant industrial, disruptive system of agriculture. We are working to displace it. We believe it is possible to provide staple foods without destroying or compromising the cultural and ecological systems upon which we depend, but only if we understand and work with the constraints and capacities of those natural systems.
When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting Nature as the source and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring.
Neurodiversity Foundation is a non-profit built and run by the neurodiverse, for the neurodiverse. We provide a platform for autistic advocates to speak to their experience and provide language for others to do the same. We are rewriting a highly stigmatized narrative by reframing misconceptions around autism and the inaccurately forecasted “outcomes” that harm a child’s self-efficacy. Our community projects are evaluated through a lens of empowerment. Utilizing a strengths-first approach, we empower individuals to feel proud of their identity rather than limited by it.
Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Supportive housing and services offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals and moving on from the experience of homelessness. We achieve our mission through a unique model that weaves together supportive housing with a menu of voluntary, evidence-based services. We deliver these services in an intentional environment that recognizes each woman’s strengths and abilities and fosters a sense of belonging and community. The Deborah’s Place model has evolved over 36 years, using external research and internal data to develop and deliver effective programs and services. We know that women who experience chronic homelessness can overcome complex barriers to housing, health and stability when they have what they need to be successful – access to affordable and appropriate housing, adequate healthcare, regular income and positive social supports. Deborah’s Place serves more than 500 women annually through outreach, housing and support services.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer opportunities at Deborah’s Place are limited. Currently, we are able to accept individual or small volunteer groups to do meal service in our Dolores’ Safe Haven program. Volunteers can cook a meal in our kitchen or bring in a catered meal and serve it to residents for lunch or dinner 7 days a week. Other volunteer opportunities may be available as the current health situation permits. For more information on volunteering at Deborah’s Place, please complete the contact form on our website at https://www.deborahsplace.org/contact-us/.
In 2014, two compassionate women from different parts of the world came together to inspire positive actions and peaceful resolutions. Ahlam Mahmood arrived in 2008 with her two young children to the United States from war-torn Iraq by way of Syria. Ahlam was blessed with many generous and compassionate people as she and her family resettled in Chicago. One of those people was Lori Lucchetti, a Glenview resident. Lori began hosting groups of interfaith women in her home. She would invite neighbors and friends. Ahlam would attend and bring other refugee women who were resettling in the Chicago area. Seeds of mutual respect, compassion, and love grew out of these luncheons and ultimately blossomed into Building Peaceful Bridges.
Building Peaceful Bridges is a nonprofit organization supporting people of all faiths whose mission is to foster multicultural relationships by assisting in the integration of refugees into American society and educating communities on the challenges facing refugee populations through their stories.
Interfaith Action of Evanston strives to build a just community. We work with diverse faith communities and individuals seeking to address the systemic issues of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Through interfaith dialogue, we bring people together to build relationships and encourage understanding across faith boundaries. We partner with local legislators, community leaders and our neighbors to promote a healthy and equitable society.
We manage and staff soup kitchens, a warming center, an emergency overnight shelter, a hospitality center and free fresh produce distribution in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s Producemobile.
We monitor and advocate for social justice. We share ideas across faiths and recommend actions to engage legislators and policymakers. Our public gatherings provide a venue for volunteers, supporters and others who care about ending hunger and homelessness.
We invite and promote opportunities for our faith community members to attend worship and/or engage in conversations with members of different faiths who share their values.
The Community Renewal Society is an organization of over 70 member churches in the Chicago area who have been working together for civil rights and social justice for over 130 years. CRS engineers social change by participating in public demonstrations and events, lobbying state legislators and other public officials and offering social organizing training sessions. CRS decides what issues to work on by participation from its churches and their members, and by working with other organizations.
Members of UCE could work directly with CRS staff to join a committee or to attend an event or training session. They could go to the Community Renewal Society website to see dates and times of coming events. UCE Members also could talk to any member of the UCE Legislative Action Team, or join our Team’s monthly meeting, usually the second Tuesday of each month, from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
2021-2022 Shared Offering Recipients
September: Deborah’s Place
October: NAACP Evanston North Shore Branch
November: Renaissance Social Services
December: UUSC, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
January: Community Renewal Society
February: Assata’s Daughters
March: UU Advocacy Network of Illinois
April: Faith in Place
May: UU Prison Ministry of Illinois
June: Restore Justice Foundation
July: Moran Center for Youth Advocacy
August: Interfaith Action of Evanston
5th Sundays: Mother and Child Alliance, formerly PACPI
October – NAACP Evanston North Shore Branch
The Evanston/North Shore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in Evanston in 1918, just nine years after the organization began at Niagara Falls. The branch is dedicated in representing residents in the Evanston/North Shore area who believe their civil rights have been violated. The branch works with standing committees that includes; Legal Redress, Education, Health and Wellness, Housing, Youth, Political and Civil Engagement. In addition, the branch works with other organizations, nonprofits and houses of worship to increase awareness of social justice issues, local, national and throughout the world.
Our website offers a full description of the array of services provided and how our members and community volunteers can work in our various programs. We especially encourage interested residents to join one of our standing committees, listed above. People are always invited to join our membership. But they can also attend rallies that we sponsor, support press conferences, and support specific concerns through letter-writing, phone calls and if necessary, protests and demonstrations.
November – Renaissance Social Services
Renaissance Social Services is changing the lives of individuals and families in Chicago, giving them hope and vision for a new life. By supporting communities and the people who live within them with quality affordable housing, behavioral healthcare, outreach, homeless prevention, compassionate support services, and a purposeful focus on racial equity, we provide opportunities for long-term stability and wellness.
As for volunteer opportunities, unfortunately, due to COVID, we really do not have many volunteer opportunities except for the Board of Directors and Associate Board. Those are virtual right now. For more information, please contact Sandra Robinson at 773-645-8900 x107 or srobinson@rssichicago.org. We are always seeking drives for household items, personal hygiene items. This does cost money so it is completely understandable if this cannot be done.
January – Community Renewal Society
The Community Renewal Society is an organization of over 70 member churches in the Chicago area who have been working together for social justice for over 130 years. For the past 14 years UCE has been a member congregation of CRS and has built a strong relationship with CRS staff, our state legislators, and social justice leaders in other churches. Each year CRS member churches meet and select specific policy goals for the coming year. These goals promote overall CRS policy aims to reduce and eliminate race and class barriers, and to provide better education, housing, jobs and justice for minorities and the poor.
Individual members of the UCE congregation participate in various CRS activities throughout the year. These include attending CRS membership assemblies where we work with members of other CRS churches to develop CRS policy goals. Also attending workshops on policy issues or lobbying, participating in public demonstrations, and joining the MLK Day celebration that CRS hosts each January.
This year CRS is fighting for independent oversight of Chicago policing activities. It is supporting passage of the Restorative Sentencing Act, under which prisoners who complete education and training courses get time off from their sentences and are better able to get and keep jobs when they are released. And CRS is arguing for an end in 2022 to the cash money bail system which keeps people in jail solely because they do not have enough money to pay for a bail bond. If you support these issues, please contact the UCE Legislative Action Team, or one of its leaders, Margaret Shaklee, Jane Bannor or Dennis Wilson.
February – Assata’s Daughters
Assata’s Daughters (AD) is a Black gender non-confirming and Black women-led, young people-focused abolitionist organization rooted in the Black Radical Tradition. They use a Black Queer Feminist lens and relationship-based tactics to organize young Black people in Chicago for the purposes of (1) disrupting the status quo and (2) deepening, Escalating, and Sustaining the Black Liberation Movement. AD provides young people, primarily on Chicago’s south side, with a political home to engage in political education, organizing training, leadership development, and the co-creation of community space to develop and practice sustainable skills such as conflict resolution, collective decision-making, and organizational development. AD assists young people and community with survival needs through mutual aid and have increased these efforts throughout the pandemic.
Please contact Aisha at ourduty2@assatasdaughters.org if you can help with any of the following:
March – UU Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI)
UUANI strives first and foremost to link UUs with opportunities to affect legislation in Springfield and nationally and to offer training to be influential advocates. UUANI devises programs to build power among UU congregations in Illinois in order to achieve meaningful, concrete, far-reaching results which put UU values and principles into action. Part of building that power is honing skills to be effective “woke” partners with organizations representing a wide diversity of cultures, as we work together for systemic change toward a more just and equitable society.
One of the most important ways UUANI serves the UU congregations of Illinois is in supporting folks who yearn for social justice with training in advocacy and discernment – learning how to ally effectively with partner organizations to widen the reach of our voices. Directors Rev Scott Aaseng and Rev Karen Mooney and their teams will work with you and/or your social justice team to hone your skills to advocate powerfully for those social justice issues dear to you, to develop skills to organize support among your fellow UUs, and to discern how unconscious bias might interfere with your work with organizations led by people of other cultures, allowing you to bravely cross cultural barriers toward a more just society.
Contact UUANI to get involved.
July – Moran Center for Youth Advocacy
Founded as the Evanston Defender Project in 1971, fully incorporating as the Evanston Community Defender Office in 1981, and renamed the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy in 2010, the Center serves as a zealous advocate for thousands of Evanston’s marginalized youth and their families in need of integrated legal and social work services. Championing justice and restoring hope, the Moran Center’s mission is to provide free, integrated legal, social, and restorative services to disinvested youth and their families to improve their quality of life at home, at school, and within the community. Central to the mission is the belief that all youth deserve justice in the courtroom, access to the classroom, and restoration in the community to thrive. The Moran Center’s six attorneys provide legal representation and advocacy in juvenile delinquency, adult criminal, civil, and educational proceedings. Criminal record remediation is provided through our Expungement & Sealing Help Desk and Certificate of Rehabilitation Initiative. In 2018, the Moran Center launched our innovative School-Based Civil Legal Clinic to help stabilize families and keep children on track in school. With a total of 15 staff and more than 50 volunteers, the Moran Center strives to create a more equitable, just, and restorative community.
Pro bono attorney opportunities: Contact Megan McClung (mmcclung@moran-center.org) to volunteer with the School-Based Civil Legal Clinic (providing civil legal advice, counsel, and/or representation to Evanston residents) OR Tom Verdun (tverdun@moran-center.org) to volunteer at the Expungement & Sealing Help Desk (looking up pro se petitioners’ criminal records and then assisting with filling out court forms).
To become involved in the Moran Center’s restorative justice work, please contact Pam Cytrynbaum (pjc@moran-center.org). For other volunteer opportunities, please contact Moran Center’s Director of Operations, Shirley Sierra (ssierra@moran-center.org).
5th Sundays – Mother and Child Alliance, formerly PACPI
Did you know that people of color are disproportionately impacted by /HIV? Did you know that 25% of all persons diagnosed with HIV identify as women? Also, the majority of testing on women is done during pregnancy where it is recommended during prenatal care and required at delivery on the newborn if mom’s status has not been established during pregnancy or at delivery. I bet you DO know that very few services are equipped to help those who are pregnant and parenting persons living with HIV.
Mother and Child Alliance (MACA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization strengthening disparate systems of care for pregnant and parenting persons living with HIV. With MACA’s 20 years of experience and your contribution, we can continue to specialize in wrapping moms and their babies in support. From linking moms to medical assistance, essential services or providing family education, MACA is doing the work – in the field, in the home and meeting people where they are at without judgment or bias. Sadly, the research still shows that people of color living with HIV have poorer outcomes, get less support and have shorter life expectancy than white people living with HIV. An HIV diagnosis is also quite stigmatizing and many women find it hard to cope with their diagnosis as there yet very few figures on the national stage that have come out as living with HIV as a woman of color. We challenge you to name even one nationally-recognized woman.
A gift of $50 can pay an emergency utility bill or $25 can get a can of formula and diapers and $20 can provide a gas card to help mom get to her appointments. We want our moms to focus on delivering a healthy infant, so your support can help ease her mind. If you don’t have the money, but have the gift of time we are also in need of volunteers to help with our community events, where we continue to raise awareness! Please visit MACA Website – Mother and Child Alliance to make a donation or for more information. Thank you for being here for us – we are so very grateful for your support!
2020-2021 Shared Offering Recipients
September: Shorefront Legacy Center
October: Crossroads Fund/Black Lives Matter Chicago
November: The Brennan Center
December: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
January: Community Renewal Society
February: Interfaith Action of Evanston
March: Poor People’s Campaign
April: Restore Justice
May: UU Prison Ministry of Illinois
June: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
July: Assata’s Daughters
August: Black Lives of UU
Fifth Sundays: Deborah’s Place
Shorefront Legacy Center
Shorefront Legacy Center is an archive of the history of Black people in Evanston, compiled and interpreted through the eyes of the Black community. It serves as a valuable resource to those who need documentation of the real story of Black Evanston and the harms that have been caused by institutional racism in Evanston. They are providing a report to support the work of the Reparations Subcommittee of the Evanston City Council, and important piece of anti-racism work. Learn more here.
Crossroads Fund/Black Lives Matter Chicago
Crossroads Fund supports community organizations working on issues of racial, social and economic justice in the Chicago area. Although it is a non-profit, 501(c)3 public foundation, it pools together resources of individuals, foundations, businesses and other entities to provide grants to numerous grassroots organizations for social change that do not themselves have tax-deductible status (as well as some that do). Their Executive Director told me that they will direct the funds we provide them to an organization we identify, such as Black Lives Matter Chicago, without charging their usual adminstrative fee for that service. Thus I am providing info both about Crossroads and BLMChicago, which otherwise meets the criteria for a Shared Fund recipient. Learn more about Crossroads Fund. Learn more about Black Lives Matter Chicago.
Brennan Center
The Brennan Center for Justice is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to defend democracy, reform justice, and protect the US Constitution. The Brennan Center is dedicated to protecting the rule of law and the values of Constitutional democracy, with many of its initiatives focused on racial justice. The Brennan Center is at the center of the fight to preserve and expand the right to vote for every eligible US citizen. Through practical policy proposals, litigation, advocacy, and communications, it drives for equal justice, campaign finance reform, ending mass incarceration, and preserving civil liberties.
Some of the Brennan Center’s key initiatives include:
- working with volunteer lawyers across the country to fight for justice for all, with a focus on reducing mass incarceration and promoting racial justice.
- restoring voting rights to people with past convictions.
- supporting fair and impartial courts and the rule of law, including by promoting a diverse bench and guarding against special interest influence.
- seeking effective national security policies that respect constitutional values and protect civil liberties, without religious or ethnic profiling.
- leading the fight against an unfair system of money in politics, by seeking campaign finance solutions and driving to overturn the Citizens United decision and related cases.
- pushing for an end to gerrymandering, and for transformation of the redistricting process to ensure fair representation for all voters.
For more information on the Brennan Center for Justice, visit brennancenter.org.
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
UUSC focuses on Central American Migrant Justice, Climate-Forced Displacement, and Human Rights for Royhingya suffering from ethnic cleansing in Burma. Whenever possible, it partners with groups led by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, and collaborates in as horizontal a way as possible, using an anti-racist framework.
With COVID-19’s, UUSC works to provide basic survival necessities, like food and cleaning supplies for tragically underserved migrants stuck in temporary shelters at the U.S-Mexico border and in Bangladesh, virtually all of whom are people of color.
It also lobbies Congress, works on releasing of migrants from detention centers, and has launched a new campaign focused on protecting the Right to Resist in response to the criminalization of protest, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC activists. Learn more here.
Community Renewal Society
Members of CRS churches and CRS staff meet with and lobby state and local officials to persuade them to develop, push for and then implement government policies that move to eliminate race and class barriers, and provide for minorities and the poor more equal access to education, jobs and good housing. CRS also fights to end racial oppression and other abuses by police against minorities. CRS sponsors, attends and leads social justice activities, working with local communities and other social justice organizations. Learn more here.
Interfaith Action of Evanston
IAE brings people together to serve hungry and homeless people, pursue Interfaith dialogue, and engage in advocacy that promotes social justice for those we serve. Learn more here.
Poor People’s Campaign
The Poor People’s Campaign – A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up the unfinished work of Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. From Alaska to Arkansas, the Bronx to the border, people are coming together to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. We understand that as a nation we are at a critical juncture — that we need a movement that will shift the moral narrative, impact policies and elections at every level of government, and build lasting power for poor and impacted people. Learn more here.
Restore Justice
Restore Justice advocates for fairness, humanity, and compassion throughout the Illinois criminal legal system, with a primary focus on those affected by extreme sentences imposed on our youth. We create and support policies that allow those who are rehabilitated to go home, and that ensure those incarcerated, their families, and victim families have opportunities for healing and justice. We engage currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, victims and their families, communities, and concerned Illinoisans in advocacy and service within the criminal justice system.
COVID-19 fundamentally changed the nature of our work in early March, 2020. Our work to advocate for a fair criminal sentencing policy transformed into a life-or-death mission to move the state mitigate the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons and to adhere to public health guidance rather than base instincts. Learn more here.
UU Prison Ministry of Illinois
UUPMI “Equips UU’s in Illinois to transform institutions and support people harmed by the prison industrial complex.” Its work includes systems change advocacy, education, congregational outreach, and ministries to people inside and upon release.
Illinois prisoners are 55% Black, compared with 15% of Illinois’ population. The Department of Corrections has not released enough people to reduce the spread of Covid-19, and people released were disproportionately white. UUPMI advocates for release and provides direct support to people inside when commissaries close, cutting off cleaning supplies and safe food. UUPMI is a lifeline for LGBTQ people inside. Learn more here.
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
ICIRR, created in 1986, is a state-wide coalition of more than 100 organizations dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social and political life of a diverse society. ICIRR is an inclusive entity that organizes, educates and demonstrates in matters concerning healthcare access, public benefits access, civic engagement, and citizenship. Their work is designed to promote the welfare and rights of all immigrants and refugees regardless of ethnic origin. Learn more here.
Assata’s Daughters
Assata’s Daughters (AD) is a Black woman-led, young person-focused collective, organizing young Black people primarily on Chicago’s south side. AD uses a popular education model designed to escalate, deepen and sustain the movement for Black liberation. They help young people and their families to meet survival needs through mutual aid, and have greatly increased those efforts to address the economic impact of Covid-19. They provide political education, leadership development, and teach sustainable forward-looking skills, such as curriculum writing, conflict resolution and self-protection. Learn more about Assata’s Daughters.
Black Lives of UU
Formed in the wake of several conversations among Black UUs at the July 2015 Movement for Black Lives Convening in Cleveland, OH – the BLUU Organizing Collective is committed to to:
- Expanding the power & capacity of Black UUs within our faith
- Providing support, information & resources for Black Unitarian Universalists.
- Justice-making and liberation through our faith
We share the newly created Vision for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism with you proudly. Developed at the Organizing Collective Board Meeting in December 2018, this vision is centered in our love for Black people and our belief in our UU faith:
BLUU harnesses love’s power to combat oppression and foster healing as a spiritual and political imperative. We know the power of love to be life changing, inclusive, relational, uncomfortable, unconditional and without end. Learn more here. Visit the Black Lives UU Facebook page.
Deborah’s Place
Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Founded in 1985 to help single women who are homeless, we have helped more than 4,000 women heal and move on from the traumatic experience of homelessness. With housing options and supportive services tailored to individual needs, every women we serve is offered opportunities to meet their goals.
Deborah’s Place was born out of the passion and commitment of a small group of volunteers who felt a responsibility to do something for women living rough on the streets of downtown Chicago. Our programs have grown from an emergency overnight shelter in 1985 to 144 units of permanent supportive housing, 115 units of scattered site community-based housing and a 10-bed interim housing program today. We serve more than 400 women per year.
Our work is meeting each woman as she begins her journey out of the chaos of homelessness. We work together with women to help them develop their own goal plans. We connect them to services that help them achieve their goals, including crisis and case management, healthcare coordination, securing income and access to education. Through this, women move on from the experience of homelessness to a stable future and better quality of life.
We could not continue this important work without the support of generous donors like you. We are proud to say that 83 center of every dollar goes directly to our programs. Learn more here.
2019-2020 Shared Offering Recipients
Shared Offering Recipients 2019-2020
Per vote by The Social Justice Council – August 14, 2019
September 2019, Assata’s Daughters, Gail Smith
October 2019, UU Prison Ministry, Dale Griffin
November 2019, Mitten Tree, Carol Nielsen, Vickie Doebele
December 2019, UUSC, Tom Ticknor and Shirley Adams
January 2020, Community Renewal Society (CRS), Dennis Wilson (CRS),
February 2020, Interfaith Action of Evanston, Barbara Butz
March 2020, UUANI, Margaret Shaklee
April 2020, Faith in Place, John Bartok
May 2020, The Poor Peoples’ Campaign, Doug Erickson
June 2020, IL Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Mary Ellen McGoey, Joe Romeo
July 2020, Deborah’s Place, Jean Durkin
August 2020, UUs for a Just Community, Jane Bannor
Fifth Sundays, The Brennan Center, Sarah Iles