A Long History of Community Involvement
Our Social Action program is a key part of our community. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown has long been involved in social justice and witness for social change. Some programs in the past have included: creation of ACTION, founding a Montressori School at the church, work on the Gray to Green Festival, creation of the Pride Center, and the Cocha-Mocha program, founding the Northside Farmers Market, which is ongoing, support of Sojourner House, development of the Mahoning River Connection, support of the Wick Park Neighbors Association and founding of Treez Please. We continue to be active in many of these programs through individual member involvement and our Social Action committee.
The All Church Social Justice Project – “UUYO Farm to Family”
In addition to all those efforts, we are working to make social action a more integrated part of our congregation through an All Church Social Justice Project. The All Church Project would provide more opportunities for people to be involved in many ways, working together on one project. The All Church Project idea developed in late 2009 and approved by the congregation at the congregational meeting in January 2010. The congregation unanimously agreed to focus their efforts behind an All-Church Project that promotes healthy eating, sustainable urban agriculture practices, and educational opportunities on these fronts for our youth in our community.
The goal of this project is to assure access for everyone to healthy food produced in an environmentally sustainable manner preferably by local farmers. In short, we want to improve the way the Mahoning Valley eats.
People may participate on many levels. On the strictly personal level, people can work to change the groc
eries they buy and how they eat. They can contact local food stores to encourage them to offer local produce in season. They can attend educational programs. And there will be opportunities to volunteer in programs. One example being explored is to adopt a local school and develop a hands-on project for students, perhaps a small garden. Another is to help with the Farmers’ Market or the Food Co-op. We also will be exploring ways our effort can benefit from the UUA Green Sanctuary movement.
We will not re-invent the wheel. We will begin by partnering with local groups already involved in local food issues, especially the Northside Farmers’ Market held on our grounds. Input from our congregation can build on and expand these current efforts. However, we will be looking for areas of need where we may need to branch out on our own to fill a gap.