[C*UUYAN-Chat] Fundraiser for Youth and Young Adult Anti-Racism Programs

[Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward]

Dear friends,

 

The following is a letter written by six current and former UUA staff,
announcing a hopeful new fundraiser to support anti-racism work in our
youth and young adult communities. Please forward this to others who may
be interested in participating. Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

In faith,

Betty Jeanne

 

 

 

 

 

Dear UU youth, young adults, and those who support anti-racism work in
youth and young adult communities:

 

YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists) and C*UUYAN (Continental
Unitarian Universalist Young Adults Network) are two organizations
greatly committed to becoming more anti-racist institutions within our
UU community, but they need our help. Funding for anti-racism work is
not where it needs to be. There is great motivation for this work and
many youth and young adults are actively involved. Unfortunately, the
current financial support from within the UUA does not cover the costs
of these necessary resources and programming opportunities, making it
difficult to do this important work.

 

For example, the Youth and Young Adult Transformation Team (a team
forming to do major long-term visioning and planning for anti-racism
within YRUU and C*UUYAN) is under funded, and may not be able to meet to
fulfill their mission. In May 2005, the Anti-Racism Trainer/Organizer
Program was established, but this valuable program requires a UUA
employee to track and support this initiative. There are many talented
trainer-organizers who need support, and many communities who hope for
trainings to happen in their communities, yet there is no paid
individual who is able to give this work the complete attention it
needs. 

 

For the past few years, folks in the Youth Office and Young Adult/Campus
Ministries Office have largely picked up the ball on this work, but the
momentum behind it is growing so much that it is too great a task for
the small staff - which has been severely cut over the past year - to
handle.  

 

It is with all this knowledge that we, Joseph Lyons, Mimi LaValley,
Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward, Jason Lydon, Megan Selby, and Jesse Jaeger
(current and former Youth Office and Young Adult/Campus Ministries
Staff) hope to encourage financial donations from those committed to
this work. We are committed to match whatever the community is able to
raise out of our own personal funds, up to $2,400.00. If the community
is able to raise more, those funds would be greatly appreciated and
useful, but by raising only $2,400.00, we will already have $4,800.00 to
support this work.  

 

This money will not be enough to cover all of the programs that are in
need of funding; it will, however, be a great start and will show the
UUA that as a community we are doing everything we can to raise the
money needed to support these programs. Hopefully this inspiring example
will encourage the UUA Board of Trustees, Leadership Council, and other
folks to fully fund all the anti-racism/identity development programming
we are working to provide. 

 

We already have reason to be hopeful: this summer a $2000.00 YFUUD (YRUU
Fund for Unitarian Universalist Development) grant was awarded to the
Transformation Team, and over $900.00 was raised in the social auction
at ConCon (the YRUU Continental Conference) and donated to the
Anti-Racism Trainer/Organizer Program. These are exciting financial
developments, but we still have a long way to go. This is an opportunity
for folks to send financial donations (in check, money order or other
forms) to the Youth Office, all of which will directly fund anti-racism
and identity development work for youth and young adults. We need to put
our resources where our values are, and this is just the start. Those of
us with economic privilege to do so need to step up and share the
wealth. This is a great opportunity to give what you can. Thank you for
your continued support for this vital work.

 

Yours in faithful struggle,

 

Joseph, Mimi, Betty Jeanne, Jason, Megan, and Jesse

 

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