Mandatory learning sessions for participating youth (and adults) (parents are also welcome to attend) (if you can’t make it, please contact Jen Del Deo or Kirsten Hunter)

Participants are expected to attend learning sessions on:

• Adult and Youth Group:  January 8th- Click here to see an overview of this session
• Adult and Youth Group:  February 12th Click here to see an overview of this session
• Adult and Youth Group:  March 26th from 4pm-6pm at 73 Court St (upstairs)
• Youth only: April 28th* (tentative) 6pm movie night 
• Youth only: Covenanting and finalizing trip details June 18th

 Trip Commitments were due by January 8th, 2023 along with a deposit of $250

*If the individual financial commitment for this journey is prohibitive for anyone who wants to participate, we have scholarship funds available to cover some or all of the cost. 

**COVID: continues to be an unpredictable part of this program year, and all plans may change. I will notify families of moments where we may begin to commit funds that we wont be able to get back. 

About this program:

This journey is inspired by programs led by The Living Legacy Project, which grew out of the Reverend Gordon Gibson’s and his wife Judy’s passion for sharing the Civil Rights Movement story. They have a few other offerings on their website (linked above), if you are interested in this experience but are not able to make the South Church program dates work. 

At South Church in the coming months, we will be diving into conversations with youth and adults on the topic of our country’s racialized history. We will explore why it is important to understand the Civil Rights Movement, the complex history of Unitarian Universalism’s engagement with racial justice, and we will strengthen our understanding of the evolution of racism in America from enslavement through to mass incarceration and a multitude of other contemporary issues today. As a part of this experience, there will be two trips to Alabama, one for youth and another for adult participants.

During the journey to Alabama, both groups will visit 

• Birmingham, Alabama. Including a visit to the 16th Street Baptist Church where the 1963 bombing killed four little girls, visit Kelly Ingram park and the Birmingham Civil rights Institute, as well as a guided tour of the city.
• We will Visit the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and travel along the route of 1965 march to Montgomery, Alabama. 
• In Montgomery, Alabama. We will visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice  and the legacy museum.  

Many details are still taking shape. More info to come! 

Fundraising this year (for Youth Participants): 

Youth planning to participate in the trip to Alabama are required to complete a minimum of 15 fundraising hours. All youth are welcome and encouraged to participate in all fundraising events regardless of participation in the end of year journey.

Parents of Youth planning to participate in the trip to Alabama are required to sign up to help with one fundraising event sometime this year (i.e bookfair organizers)

Anticipated Fundraising events: Have an idea? You can start something new!!

• Families Tuugether – monthly throughout the year dates TBD
• Halloween Social (bake sale and pumpkin carving)- October 31, 6-9pm
• Wreath sale November 20th
• January Sunday volunteer hours- Youth can sign up to help with greeting on Sunday mornings in January
• Book Sale (dates tbd)
• Fair Trade Sale~ Holiday party and Sundays in December
• Chili Sale during First night 12/31
• Pancake Breakfast –Fundraising meal offered before worship! 4/15 (prep) & 4/16 breakfast Sign up to help HERE, or sign up to donate food HERE.
• Spring Clean Ups–We will do raking and other yard clean up work for congregants 4/8 & 4/22 Sign up HERE
• Mother’s Day Plant Sale & Bazaar 5/14–Make things to sell (money will go toward trip)and we’ll be selling hanging flowering plants. The hours you spend making things count!

Questions? Email: kirsten@southchurch-uu.org or jendeldeo@southchurch-uu.org

Some Suggestions for Holiday reading if you are thinking about this journey (pick one, any of these books will deepen your experience..) : 

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson – Also read by author on Audiobook, there is an adaptation for Young Adults as well,  and a movie that is pretty good.
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Elizabeth Wilkerson- (this is excellent on Audiobook- read by the author)
• Stamped from the Beginning- Ibram X. Kendi -OR- (adapted for young people) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• Citizen~ an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
• A More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis