[JTWNews] JTW News

[Lili Maselli]

Journey Toward Wholeness News!     			Tenth Issue        
A cyber newsletter bringing you news from the UUA's Journey Toward Wholeness
anti-oppression, anti-racist, multicultural initiative

Editor: The Reverend Dr. William Gardiner, Director for Congregational
Justice Making (wgardiner at uua.org, (617) 948-6450 
Manager: Lili Maselli, Administrator for Congregational Justice Making
(lmaselli at uua.org, (617) 948-4265)
__________________________________________________________________  

In this January 2004 issue:

UU YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT GROUPS LEADING THE WAY ON THE JOURNEY 
"BRINGING IT BACK" TO THE DISTRICT
DESIGN TEAM 101
WHITNEY YOUNG FUND GRANTS AVAILABLE 

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UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT GROUPS LEADING THE WAY ON THE
JOURNEY TOWARDS WHOLENESS
Submitted by Mimi LaValley, Youth Program Specialist, UUA 

What if UU churches were places where people of all backgrounds, ages, and
walks of life could come together to discover new and useful ways to build
authentic relationships with one another-in the face of seemingly great
differences? What if our churches were a community resource to those
struggling to dismantle systems of oppression in the world, a place where
people could go not only to become inspired to challenge racism, patriarchy,
the distribution of wealth, and so many other evils, but a clearinghouse of
practical tools for doing so? What if UU churches were a place of
inter-generational, multicultural collectives conspiring to change the
world, by studying their power, privilege, fear, internalized oppression,
shame, anger, complicity, and potential for reconciliation, together? 

It seems that everywhere you look, UU youth and young adults are asking
these questions of each other and of their communities. Anti-racist activism
is springing up like bursting bottle rockets in the Young Religious UUs
(YRUU) and Continental UU Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN) skyline. The
following articles detail some of the most exciting developments: the
grassroots anti-racism education campaign undertaken by districts like the
Southwest thanks to the leadership of 12th grader Amy Leyenberger and
others, and the Design Team, conceived and built over the summer to
streamline and institutionalize anti-racism efforts throughout all districts
as described by Jennifer Dunmore, a new young adult. 

Here is one of my favorite examples of the work young UU's are doing in
local high school youth groups, young adult groups, and campus groups:

The youth group at University Unitarian Church in Seattle has a special
subset called SPAG (the Social and Political Activism Group). Last year,
SPAG chose to work with racism as its focus issue. They invited a group
called Youth Undoing Institutional Racism (a component of Seattle Young
People's Project) to lead a workshop with the youth group on white
privilege. They read articles, had discussions, then planned a cluster
conference on the issue of racism. As our country was in the throes of the
war on terrorism at that point, the theme of the conference was STRaW or
"Stop this Racist War." The focus of the conference was to write a script,
build a simple set and costumes, and put on a street theater piece about the
racial profiling and civil liberty violations that were happening post-9/11.
"It was a lot of work," Amanda Ayling, the Youth Program Coordinator told
me, "but it turned out quite well and a lot of our congregation came
downstairs to see it on Sunday morning."

This is a great example of how local groups continue to define and shape our
movement. The creativity of the project, the partnership between SPAG and
activists in their community (like Youth Undoing Institutional Racism), the
outreach they engaged in, and the support they received from the
congregation where they are based, set an example UU's everywhere can
follow. When we team up, young and old, church to church, church to
community, "upstairs" at church to "downstairs", and outside the
congregation walls, we can accomplish a great deal.

There are challenges for local groups who want to get involved with the
Journey Towards Wholeness for youth and young adults. Right now most of the
network and structure exists mainly on the continental and district level.
But campus groups, young adult groups, and youth groups continue to bustle
with anti-racist activity nonetheless, as leaders like Jennifer and Amy work
tirelessly trying to expand and improve the network to bring everyone into
the fold of racial justice and anti-oppression work. 

What are youth and young adults up to in your local church basement, back
room, attic, or veranda? What kind of support and allies do they need? From
you? From the UUA? From your district leadership? And what kind of example
are they setting for all of us?

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"BRINGING IT BACK" TO THE DISTRICT
Submitted by Amy Leyenberger, Youth Council Representative for the SW
District

Racism is like an automatic moving sidewalk, like the kind seen in airports.
Only this sidewalk moves in the direction of oppression and destruction.
Some people are actively racist, meaning they are moving in the same
direction as the sidewalk and will arrive at the destination before everyone
else. Others are standing still, not actively racist but not anti-racist
either. Therefore, by standing still, they are nevertheless moving in the
direction of racism. And then there are those that are actively anti-racist.
To achieve anti-racism one has to be moving in the opposite direction at a
faster, more rigorous pace than the people moving towards oppression. This
analogy is borrowed from the book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting
Together in the Cafeteria? And other Conversations on Race, by Beverly
Daniel Tatum, and has become a core part of my beliefs as a UU youth.
Through my work in YRUU with anti-racism, my life and my future have been
altered, and now one of the most important goals in my life is to be moving
powerfully in the opposite direction of racism. I believe it can be done,
but not without the strong support and passionate help of many other adults
and youth committed to anti-racism. 

I am a youth from the Southwest District (SWD) of the UUA, and anti-racism
is a relatively new passion in my life. My involvement began two years ago
when I was elected as the Youth Council Representative (YCR) for the SWD. In
August 2002, I headed off to Seattle WA for my first Youth Council, the
annual weeklong meeting of the governing body for YRUU. In 1999 Youth
Council passed a resolution to commit YRUU to becoming an anti-racist
organization. Since then, Youth Council has been restructured to include an
intensive anti-racism training.  In that one week I learned more about
racism and anti-racism than I had in my entire life, and my passion for this
work was ignited. During my second Youth Council this past August, I started
brainstorming about how I was going to bring this work back to the SWD. We
needed to have a conference focused entirely on anti-racism so that the
youth in the district would get excited about this work and strive to
include it in future events. Also, by "bringing it back" to the district
level, it would hopefully be included in local youth programming eventually
as well and continue to spread throughout YRUU.  To fund the conference, two
other youth from the SWD and I applied for a YFUUD (Youth Funding for UU
Development) grant. We were awarded the grant and this made it possible to
have the first ever SWD YRUU anti-racism conference that is happening in
April 2004.  

My time in SWD YRUU is coming to an end very soon. Hopefully my efforts and
passion for anti-racism will be recognized by the youth in my district and
the work will be continued where I leave off. In the Fall I will be
attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs OH. I plan to continue my work
there, and learn how to organize more effectively. I am hoping to apply what
I have learned to begin to work in alliance with the People of Color
organization BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), and possibly help start up a
White Allies group. Within YRUU and CUUYAN I plan to help with the
development of a standard anti-racism training to be available for every
district, much like the Spirituality Development Conference or the
Leadership Development Conference offered by the Youth Office. 

In a few years I will come back to YRUU as an adult and continue to help and
support youth in organizing around anti-racism. No one can do this work
alone. Without encouragement from both youth and adults, I would have
stepped away from this work a long time ago.  With the help of adult and
youth anti-racist allies, the question is no longer how can I do this work,
but how can I not? Be an ally. Be a resource to whoever needs it in any way
possible. Young people are a powerful force, in need of lots of support, as
we change the world! 

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DESIGN TEAM 101
Submitted by Jennifer Dunmore, member of Anti-Racism Transformation Team

A Design Team can be many things. For YRUU and C*UUYAN, it was created to
help guide the Anti-Racism work. The long-term goal of the Design Team is to
create an Anti-Racism Transformation Team that will become a permanent
structure of the two organizations. The Transformation Team will operate to
make our anti-racism work be accountable to all of our constituents and be
in harmony with overall long-term, collective goals. Currently the team is
made up of ten youth and young adults of different identities, and we are in
the process of looking for one more member. 

The past four years for both YRUU and C*UUYAN have been particularly
exciting in the work around anti-racism. Things are constantly changing in
both organizations, and it was realized that to create stability the
anti-racism work would need to have more structure, and an institutional
organizing base. A resolution was brought to annual business meetings of
YRUU and C*UUYAN asking for buy-in and formation of a selection committee to
create a Design Team to design an Anti-Racism Transformation Team. Both
resolutions were passed by consensus.

The youth and young adults involved in the Design Team are working to grow
Unitarian Universalism in an anti-racist way. They are sharing the training
models, resources, and skills to build an anti-racist majority among young
people. You can help by keeping abreast of our work, and spreading the word
to your local congregation, district, and the young people in your life. You
can also keep an eye out for upcoming opportunities to participate in the
Design Team survey and get involved with the Transformation Team and The
Anti-Racism Workshop Trainer Training. 

To learn more about the design team email, write, call, or visit the
website.
You can email the Youth Office at yruu at uua.org, (617) 948-4350 or Young
Adult Office at ya-cm at uua.org, (617) 948-4629.  If you have access to the
web, visit our website at:
http://www.uua.org/ya-cm/youngadults/designteam.html

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WHITNEY YOUNG FUND GRANTS
With the establishment of the Journey Toward Wholeness Sunday Fund,
congregations across the continent are taking up a special collection to
support their own racial justice work and to fund urban ministry projects.
Participating congregations will send 1/3 of the funds they raise to the UUA
to help support Whitney Young Urban Ministry Grants.  The Whitney M. Young,
Jr. Urban Ministry Grants Panel makes grants of up to $3,000 for selected
one-year projects.  Any Unitarian Universalist organization can apply for
grants to fund their own urban ministry projects or for partnership programs
which they are sponsoring.   Applications must be submitted by May 15, 2004.
More details and an application form are available at:
http://www.uua.org/programs/justice/antiracism/jtwsunday/wyappl.html

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We welcome your feedback, comments, suggestions, stories, and recommended
resources!  You can reach us by hitting "reply."  See you next issue.

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Office for Congregational Justice Making
Unitarian Universalist Association, 25 Beacon Street, Boston MA  02108