It continues to be an honor to serve this coming year as Chair of the UUSJ board, accompanied by Rev. Peggy Clarke (New York, NY), Vice-Chair; Chloe Emily Ockey (Fresno, CA), Secretary; and Mariano Vera (Sarasota, FL), Treasurer.
Under the first year of UUSJ’s new diverse, national governance structure, we made considerable progress thanks to our many hard-working volunteers and a small staff. We solidified new roles and embraced virtual education and advocacy, engaging many of you across the country in meetings with Congressional offices and our policy action committees. This provided a richer experience for volunteers and more constituent involvement for Members of Congress. Watch for our upcoming annual report, showing how many social justice actions UUSJ generated.
Of course, the world did not wait for us to reorganize, and we faced numerous challenges. A year ago, we thought progress might be possible at the federal level in our four main policy areas – Democracy, Immigration, Environment, and Economic Inequality. Yet, in case after case, progressive legislation we supported stalled in the Senate and failed to become law. These included: funding climate change initiatives, protecting our electoral processes, offering immigrants pathways to citizenship, and strengthening social safety nets.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court and some lower courts are rolling back past progress in many areas. Reproductive justice and stopping gun violence have become ever more urgent, along with better integration of racial justice in our policy priorities. So UUSJ must determine how to engage with the judicial branch effectively. We must also figure out how UUSJ — a small non-profit focused on federal-level advocacy — can remain relevant without falling into “mission creep.”
One approach we’re taking is partnering more frequently with Unitarian Universalist national programs like Side with Love, UU the Vote, UUs for a Just Economic Community, UU Ministry for the Earth, and the UU Service Committee’s immigration efforts, as well as non-UU partners like Poor People’s Campaign, Faithful Democracy, and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition. We can take the lead in some areas and amplify partners’ lead in others. Reaching out to organizations representing impacted people will help us shift our priorities to ones identified by those most affected and further UUSJ’s goal of widening the circle of concern.
I hope you – our UUSJ supporters – will remain engaged with UUSJ, help fund our efforts and continue to support key federal social justice actions this coming year.
Charlotte Jones-Carroll retired in 2000 after a career at the US Agency for International Development (10 years) and the World Bank (21 years) doing strategy, program, and budget work, including eight years as a manager. She subsequently did consulting work for the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Before becoming Board Chair, Charlotte was the Convenor of UUSJ’s Immigration Action Team and related advocacy for UUSJ