UUCP’s Community Partner’s in Social Justice Action

We have entered the Phase 2 in the JUST Pensacola social justice process. As you know, JUST Pensacola stands for Justice Unity Seeking Transformation. In connection with training from DART, we are standing with more than 20 other congregations of many faiths in addressing local social justice issues. In the first phase we were Listening to community members regarding the social injustices that were troubling them. Our congregation had a total of six small meetings, mostly in members’ homes, where we were encouraged to voice our concerns. All the other congregations were doing the same process. At the end of the Listening phase, the congregations met together in the sanctuary of First Methodist Church on November 4th in a Covenant Assembly. The meeting was packed. We had 36 members present. Each person who attended voted for selection of an area to study and look for ways to make meaningful improvements guiding our community toward justice. The two areas chosen were Education and Criminal Justice, both of which are of interest to our congregation.

The next phase is Research. This is the time when we look in depth at the areas of interest and identify a doable project that has the potential to make a difference for our community. The research will involve looking at trouble areas in our locale and how these troubles have been addressed in other communities. We will talk to the people who might have the power to make the changes we want. Examples of people to talk to include school board members and superintendents of schools for education, or the police chief or judges or lawyers for criminal justice.

Since JUST Pensacola is part of a larger and much older organization network called DART (Direct Action Research and Training) we will have access to the records of communities who’ve faced similar issues. We’ll see how they have approached their problems and what successes they have had. This will also be part of the Research.

All of this is getting us ready for the final phase which will be our Direct Action. We’ll gather with many other citizens of the area who are also led by their congregations and present our stories and hopes to the leaders who can effect change. That action will take place in April or May of 2020.

This is where we are. Six of us are signed up as interested in participating in the research phase. If anyone else would like to research with us, please contact Paula Montgomery. These are exciting times!