Get Involved in our Hunger Initiative!

To help address hunger in our community, the church is in the beginning stages of a two-year church-wide social action initiative around the problem.  To start things off, we have developed a website! Visit http://uucuc.org/hunger-initiative to review the Initiative’s background and events coming up. We are now coordinating volunteer efforts and would love to hear from you. 

Until our online volunteer site is ready, just email us at: hunger@uucuc.org   

Also, don’t miss the upcoming 5th Annual Hunger Symposium 7-8:30 pm Monday, Sept. 26: Illinois Terminal in Champaign.

We hope you will get involved! 
 

September Shared Offering: Education Justice Project

September’s Shared Offering is the Education Justice Project (EJP), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Under the inspiration and direction of Dr. Rebecca Ginsburg (Professor of Landscape Architecture), the EJP offers upper-level university courses and related activities to incarcerated people in Illinois. The related activities include tutoring, an on-site resource room, bilingual Spanish-English instruction, book clubs, a speaker series, and support for a network of families of EJP students. The program currently operates at the Danville Correctional Facility for men. Nearly all staff in the program are trained volunteers from the university and the local community. The program is grounded in a well substantiated body of research. College-in-prison programs reduce arrest, conviction, and reincarceration rates among released prisoners. College-in-prison programs are also linked to fewer disciplinary incidents within prison and thus safer environments for prisoners and staff alike. College-in-prison programs also have benefits for inmates’ families and, hence, their communities. The strongest predictor of whether a given person will attend college is whether her or his parents did. So, when an incarcerated person receives a college education, his or her children are more likely to pursue their own educations. In spite of these significant benefits, there has been a precipitous drop in college-in-prison programs around the country. There were over seven hundred degree-granting programs at their height, in the early 1990s. In 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act eliminated the use of Pell Grants for prisoners, and most prison college programs closed, including Illinois’ BA-granting programs. Bachelor degrees have not been offered in Illinois prisons since 2002. The EJP is a vital program, seeking long-term responses to chronic structural problems like crime and incarceration, both of which disproportionately affect the poor and people of color in our society. Please check out the website http://www.educationjustice.net/ or ask Jennifer Greene for further information.

Snack and Chat UU Community Fair; Sept. 25

Get Connected at the Snack and Chat UU Community Fair on Sept. 25 Find out about the many opportunities for involvement and connections at our church at this year’s UU Community Fair; Representatives from our church’s committees and small groups will be in the Fellowship Hall after each service on Sunday, Sept. 25. Stop by their tables, sample tasty snacks, and find out how you can get connected with others at church and contribute your time and talents to the many facets of our UU community. Questions? Contact Peggy Patten at m-patten@sbcglobal.net.

Khasi Dinner and Travelogue Saturday, October 1st, 6:15 pm

The Partner Church Committee invites you to enjoy
“An Evening in Meghalaya: Khasi Dinner and Travelogue”

Celebrate the culture of Northeast India
as you taste Indian food with a Khasi flavor
and share Peri’s and Brigitte’s experience
with our Partner Church in Nongtalong
and the northeast region of India.

Join us for appetizers at 6:15 pm; dinner served at 6:30 pm.
Entertainment and travelogue follow dinner

$20 per person or $45 for a family of three or more
Reserve or buy tickets on September 18 or 25,
or from a Partner Church Committee member.

UU Team helps with Habitat for Humanity Build

Volunteer crews from the UU Church participated in two build dates for Habitat for Humanity in June and July. Over these two dates, church members built a handicapped ramp, installed doors, painted woodwork, installed blinds and other fixtures, caulked around sinks and bathtubs, and did multiple other jobs in helping finishing the house for Towanda Frazier and her family. Thanks to these UU members who were part of these crews: Anne and David Sharpe, Charlie Boast, Charlie Wisseman, Dara Purvis, David Wolfe, Geoff Levin, Jeff Watts, Kathleen Robbins, Nicole Tami and her brother, Tullio, and father-in-law, Kosta, Pat Nolan, Roch Ducey, Sandy Hannum, Shawnda Fuller, Steve Troyes, Teresa Jones, Tim Schreiber, and Sandy and Joe Finnerty. The photo shows some of our crew on the front porch of the home. Habitat is building two more houses this summer and fall, so if some of you would like to participate in these builds, please contact me for information.
Jim Hannum
Social Action Committee

Social Action Committee recommends...

Check out the following community events and activities if you are interested in social action issues. These are not sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church but are activities that promote the ideals of the church.

Would you like to stand up for peace?
Join AWARE (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort)'s monthly peace demonstrations
The first Saturday of every month, 2-4pm in downtown Champaign, on the corner of Main and Neil streets.
New faces are always welcome!

C-U Coffee Party Summer Film Festival at Channing-Murray,
1209 W. Oregon St., Urbana, IL
Saturday, July 23, 2011
3pm-6pm with potluck intermission

Film: The Corporation -- explores the nature and spectacular rise of
the corporation, the dominant institution of our time. Taking the
corporation's status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion,
the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask,
"what kind of person is it?" Including interviews with 40 corporate
insiders and critics including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton
Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore, plus true
confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Film: Inside Job
Sunday, August 14, 2011
2:30pm

Film: Casino Jack and the United States of Money
Sunday, September 18, 2011
2:30PM

Islamophobia
Manufacturing the “Muslim Menace”
Public Forum
Thursday July 14th, at 7:00pm
Champaign Public Library
Robeson rooms A+B
200 West Green St., Champaign IL 61820

Speakers include: Matt Niemi, and Ola Moshref of CMIC the local Mosque,
Stuart Levy of AWARE, Eric Heim of the ISO, and Raad Ismail.

This program will explore how the war on terror impacted the Muslim, Arab, and
South Asian populations in the U.S., and the efforts of the Federal government
to isolate, harass, and intimidate American Muslims in the name of “Homeland
Security”. Entrapment and dramatic media-assisted raids have allowed the
government to present a picture of the American Muslim community as a
breeding ground for dangerous terrorists. Subsequent, often questionable,
prosecutions have led to some convictions, some charges being dismissed and some accused
accepted guilty pleas to dramatically reduced charges under the threat of
long prison sentences. The unsuccessful prosecutions have had much less media
attention.

Our goal is to educate the public in respect to Muslim religion, values, and politics, Islam and democracy.

Sponsored by: AWARE, and the ISO (International Socialists Organization)
Contact: Iso.champaign@gmail.com; aware@anti-war.net

July Shared Offering: Generations of Hope

Generations of Hope is a unique 16 year old 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation located on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. Our mission is to develop and sustain the intergenerational neighborhood, Hope Meadows, for adoptive families of foster children that promotes permanency, community and caring relationships while offering safety and meaningful purpose in the daily lives of older adults. Hope Meadows is a geographically contained, intergenerational, intentional community. It is a place where adoptive families can get the support and information they need, children can finally find a place to call home, and and elders find real purpose and meaning in their everyday lives.