Social Justice Initiatives

Written By Digital Producers

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” - Dr. Cornel West

Please see the dozens and dozens of links at the bottom of this page to see different ways you can become involved in the important work of a wide variety of local and national organizations devoted to social justice.

The Seven UU Principles

We strive to offer opportunities for our church community to participate in local, regional, and national events, and to share information about causes, action opportunities, organizations, and publications which relate to upholding our Seven UU Principles.

I.  The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

II.  Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

III. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

IV. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

V. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

VI.  The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

VII. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

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A History of Social Justice Activists

North Chapel has a history of offering opportunities for our church community, encouraging active participation in local, regional, and national events, and sharing information about causes, action opportunities, organizations, and publications which relate to upholding our Seven UU Principals. To read more about our past efforts, click the button below.

Climate Justice - Embracing Solutions Together

Our North Chapel Climate Justice section explores how we ALL can be part of the Climate Solution: Individually * in small & large groups at church * in wider communities * in our state * nationally * globally

 

“If you want to plan for one year, plant rice. If you want to plan for 10 years plant trees. If you want to plant for 100 years educate children.” –Confucius

 

Climate Action Links - Local

Sustainable Woodstock - if interested email Michael Caduto at director@sustainablewoodstock.org

Weatherization and Sustainable energy projects

-  Window Dressers: Need volunteers to assemble window inserts for low-income households. Please contact Jenevra Wetmore at: programs@sustainablewoodstock.org

- Proposal for community group (including WUHS students) to encourage planning group to design new WUHS to be net-zero!

Sign up for newsletter by emailing director@sustainablewoodstock.org

East End Park - they have a wide range of volunteer projects, from fundraising to social media, to event planning. Visit https://www.woodstockcommunitytrust.com/eastendpark to sign up for their newsletter and/or reach out to Mary MacVey at mmacvey23@gmail.com for more information

Subscribe to the UV Climate Action listserv here: https://lists.vitalcommunities.org/lists/info/uvclimateaction

View calendar of UV sustainable events and add it to your google calendar https://tinyurl.com/UVSustainableEventsCalendar

There is a monthly sustainable living Tea & Talk that is the first Sunday of each month and is advertised in the UV listservs. They also have a Google Group so folks can send each other info/questions in between meetings. If you would like to join, you can email Liane at L99Liane@aol.co

“Sorrow for the Earth” by Joan Columbus

“Sorrow for the Earth” by Joan Columbus

Climate Action Links - National

CLIMATECHANGERESOURCES.ORG

This is the hub for the world of climate change. 

It is a portal to all worthy sources of information and action. It is designed for people who are interested but not yet deeply versed in the consequences of climate change. It is a place to sort things out: Truth (what is really happening), Consequences (the result of our actions), Mitigation (how we can fix it) and Adaptation (what to do with what we can’t fix).

National Groups

Third Act - https://thirdact.org/ - For folks over 60

  • Join a working group based on location and/or experience (e.g. educator, veteran, faith)

  • Sign the pledge to close your accounts (or refuse to set up an account in the future) with four major banks if they don’t divest from fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022: https://thirdact.org/what-we-do/banking-on-our-future/

Check out these two projects, which both have a vast amount of information and actions related to climate change, regeneration.org and drawdown.org

Visit UU Ministry for Earth online at uuministryforearth.org.

Sign up for their newsletter to learn of classes and opportunities through UUA

Individual Actions

- Talk to your friends and family. Even without explicit conversations, your words and actions have an influence on others. Make them count by setting a good example and get people thinking.

- Vote with your dollars by purchasing and consuming more sustainable options whenever possible. Every choice counts (whether it costs money or not)! Our collective choices make a huge impact.

- Vote with your fork too. Eating a plant-centered diet can have a huge impact as actions taken 3x per day adds up quickly!

- Now that gas and oil use are potentially in decline, they are trying to push oil use for new plastics instead. Don't let them! Reduce your plastic use wherever possible by using bulk bins or switch to brands that use non-plastic containers. There's no money in it if there's no demand.

- Did you know floss is often made of plastic?? You can get compostable floss made with silk and packaged either in cardboard or a reusable glass bottle instead!

- Reuse paper grocery bags as produce bags in your fridge - they work great and you don't have to get fancy cotton ones. Compost them when they get too ragged or dirty.

- Learn how to properly store food to keep it fresh. Food waste is a major contributor to climate change, even if you are composting the stuff that went bad before you could get to it. (Think of all the inputs and shipping that went into getting it to you in the first place!)

- If you have property, change your lawn management - less grass, less mowing and mow on the highest setting when you do. There is so much lawn space in the US and it's space that has the power to draw down carbon if allowed to grow more. You can also put in pollinator gardens. Plant native varieties that will especially help with early and late food opportunities.

- Get involved with local "invasive" mitigation teams. Our bugs and birds did not co-evolve with invasives and thus they provide little to none of what is needed to support them. In NH we have garlic mustard pulls in May and alerts were put out for wild chervil and purple loosestrife later in the year as well.

- Or get involved with local planting teams like the Apple Corps which plants trees and berries around the Upper Valley.

- Use as little tilling as possible in your own garden and ask your local farms about their practices. Share that you are interested and supportive of no-till and other regenerative agriculture practices. (Get people thinking!)

- For people who have money to spare, you can pay monthly to offset your carbon footprint or make a one-time payment to offset big-impact items like flights. I use "GoClimate" which funds a variety of projects, not just tree planting. (Tree planting is good and all, but it isn't always done right, it could burn in a forest fire, and we need to try to solve this from lots of different angles if we want a shot.)

- There are a lot of great books being published about climate change, climate mitigation, regenerative agriculture, and various aspects of sustainable living these days. Check your local library and your library's digital offerings. I have been using Lebanon Library's digital service, Hoopla, to check out audiobooks on such topics and I still haven't run out after a year!

- There are a number of free annual summits and web-events on various topics as well. I know of several about gardening/agriculture and plant based eating, but there are plenty of others out there too. For example, NYC's Climate Week conference has been online for the last 2 years. There are talks on just about any climate topic you can imagine. I have a spreadsheet of links to some previous recordings for anyone interested.

-Shut off your outside lights at night. It messes with nocturnal insects like moths and, if they aren't eaten by a predator, they spend the whole night attracted to the light instead of foraging for food like they are supposed to. Less moths means less caterpillars means less food for baby birds, means less birds that make it to adulthood, etc. If you like song birds, shut off your lights at night and encourage your neighbors to as well.

 

Online Social Justice Action Links - National

To our knowledge, none of these organizations or announcements are linked to a political party or candidate (in accordance with UUA guidelines).

We encourage you to offer any support you can give to organizations of particular interest to you. Please contact office@northchapel.org with more suggestions for these lists. 

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Social Justice Actions