On October 6th and 7th UUFR hosted an annual gathering of the UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina (aka UU Justice NC), their first since 2019.

On Friday evening, there was a justice storytelling and singing event. Saturday included a day of workshops with several of our NC Justice Partners, a keynote address, and break-out groups. There was so much to celebrate!

Here’s a quick run-down of what UUJNC has accomplished during 2023:

a) UUs played a key role in the fight to expand Medicaid coverage to over 600,000 North Carolinians! UU actions included phone calls, showing up at the Legislature with people in dire need of healthcare, postcarding, and Valentines Day cards designed by UU children and delivered to legislators with candy.

b) Legislators who were key votes in the SB20 abortion ban bill were called by constituents every three minutes for 6 days.

c) At the General Assembly, school board meetings, and at the Action Hour, we fought against bills and policies that attack LGBTQ+ youth.

d) UUs were trained to learn how to provide safety at the polls, drag story hours, in our congregations and beyond.

e) We advocated for full funding of the Leandro Plan and against private school vouchers and book bans.

f) We logged over 1,800 hours of action and education at our weekly online events in collaboration with our justice partners. There have been 175 Action Hours and counting!

WHAT ELSE DOES UUJNC DO? In 2023, UU Justice NC helped congregations live their values by: – supporting congregations to adopt the 8th principle. – supporting LGBTQ+ safety, advocacy, and inclusion, thanks to a $21K grant from the UU funding program. – connecting congregations with experts to help them assess local safety threats, develop safety policies, and train staff and lay leaders. -We believe that we have a moral responsibility to do together what we cannot do alone. We work with state and national partners spanning racial, economic, environmental, immigrant, electoral justice and more. Go to the partners page at https://www.uujusticenc.org/ to read about them.