Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, Indiana Seeking the Spirit | Building Community | Changing the World
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Social Justice at UUCB: Help us change the world!

Justice Advocacy Corner

The Justice Advocacy Corner is a hub for up-to-date urgent actions, information about bills and policies, and community resources.

Visit the Justice Advocacy Corner

UUCB Calendar

Visit the UUCB calendar for up-to-date information on all events.

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Democracy Task Force

Democracy Task Force helps UUCB become more powerful in the work of resisting authoritarianism and creating a democracy that prioritizes the needs of the people and dismantles systems that prioritize the rich and powerful.

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Democracy Task Force

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Purpose: Democracy Task Force was established in 2025 to help our congregation become more powerful in the work of resisting authoritarianism and creating a democracy that prioritizes the needs of the people and dismantles systems that prioritize the rich and powerful. 

Our activities include: 
  • Mobilizing for protests
  • Bringing political education and democracy skill-building to the congregation
  • Letter writing and visits with elected officials
  • UU the Vote - a program to educate and turnout voters in upcoming elections
Partners: We seek to do all of our work in relationships of accountability with the wider community, including with organizations such as: Indivisible, 50501, Hoosier Action, local labor unions, veterans organizations, Bloomington Alliance for Immigrant Rights, Side with Love, Showing Up for Racial Justice.

Get involved: All of our calls to action are posted in the Friday Update email and on the UUCB website (Justice & Advocacy Corner). Stay tuned for volunteer opportunities this fall to help us plan bigger projects. You can also email the task force at democracy@uubloomington.org.
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Green Sanctuary Task Force

We promote decisions & actions that reflect our moral imperative to care for the earth.

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Green Sanctuary Task Force

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Click here to view the 2025 Earth Day Celebration Information!

As Unitarian Universalists, we promote decisions and actions that reflect our moral imperative to care for the Earth. We inspire our neighbors and guide our public servants at every level of government to address climate change and develop the resilience required to adapt to a changing environment.

Helping Our Members Reduce Their Carbon Footprints:


Helping to Reduce Resource Use in our Church Building and Grounds:

Our Paris Pledge - working to become carbon neutral by 2040

Our Accomplishments to Date – including becoming a Green Sanctuary congregation and
a certified Energy Star® building of worship

Our Community Involvement – in local, state, regional and national environmental nonprofits

Climate Change Resources - learn about climate change or update your knowledge

Our Covenant – be respectful and supportive
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Habitat Task Force

We help increase local affordable, decent housing. We build Habitat for Humanity homes, organize fundraisers, sponsor Women+ Build teams, and raise awareness of housing needs.

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Habitat for Humanity Task Force

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The primary goal of the Habitat Task Force is to support Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County and its effort to provide more decent, affordable housing for local residents. The task force also seeks to back objectives of other organizations to improve the housing situation in Monroe County for those in need. Task force members volunteer to build Habitat houses, raise funds to donate to Habitat for Humanity for a variety of needs, including construction and equipment costs and other specific needs. We also seek to improve awareness in the congregation and community about the need for affordable housing and steps people can take to improve the housing situation. 

The Habitat Task Force made a significant financial and volunteer contribution to Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County during FY 2024-25. 

Our total task force donations amounted to $10,351.86. That amount included a $10,000 donation in October 2024, to partially sponsor Habitat’s first fully-handicapped accessible home; $239 to Women+ Build 2024 team members in Aug. 2024; and $112.86 in-kind donation for builders’ snacks in April 2025.

Special revenue given to Habitat from UU’s 25% Sunday Plate collected from UUers totaled $7,887. The grand total given to Habitat in FY2024-25 was $18,238.86.

During the FY 2024-25, the Habitat Task Force met in July, August, September, October and November in 2024, and January, February, March, April, May, July and August in 2025. Active members include task force chairperson Barb Berggoetz, Kathleen Chmelewski, Richard Stumpner, Licia Weber, Brian and Pearl Springfield, Christine Banister, Jenny Vessels, Kathy Sideli, Mary Blizzard, Jackie Hall, Michael Darnell, and Jenny Deaton.

We welcome new members to attend meetings, help with making plans, organize and decide on activities, and determine how to spend funds. We also welcome those who want to participate in builds, help volunteer and supply food for our fundraisers, provide specific skills, and help the task force in any way, no matter the time involved.   

Task force’s activities completed in FY 2024-25 and planned through 2025 are: 

Sunday Plate Collection – Congregation approved Habitat as 2024-25 recipient in June 2024; congregation contributed $7,887 through June 2025 to fund installation of house solar panels, and mandatory radon testing equipment for Habitat homes. 

Habitat Women+ Build – UU & Friends 35-member team raised $20,000 as individuals with the help from UU members’ contributions, for the Sept. 4, 2024 build day. The 2025 Women+ Build team will paint a paired home on Sept. 17. The team has raised $14,900, as of Aug. 1.  

Bake sale at UU – Proceeds went to help Women+ Build team members meet their financial commitment to build – Aug. 2024. 

Donated $10,000 -- In Oct. 2024, task force gave those funds to help sponsor a Habitat home, the first fully-handicapped accessible home built by Habitat in Monroe County and supplied volunteers to help build that home for Samantha Walker in May 2025. 

IU football parking – Three members worked a November 2024 game and will help with parking at the UU lot for a game in Sept. 2025. 

UU Holiday Bazaar table – Task force members sold handmade gifts and crafts, gift baskets and specialty food and other items in Dec. 2024 and will do so in Dec. 2025.

Chili & soup take-home sale – Task force members and other supporters made and sold chili and soup in February 2025. We have tentative plans to do so in February 2026.

Habitat builds – UU groups of 8-12 people volunteered on Nov. 9 and June 29, 2024, and May 31 and for the CommUNITY Build on July 18, 2025. 

Habitat for Humanity’s More Than Houses fundraiser dinner – Eight UUers attended on March 11, 2025, and we plan to send group in March 2026. Habitat gave Barb Berggoetz and Pearl Springfield annual awards for significant contributions to Habitat.   

Snack-packing activity after May 4, 2025 services – We donated snacks for volunteer builders.

Habitat Women+ Build Brunch – We sponsored a fundraiser brunch to raise money for UU & Friends team members on May 18, 2025.  Nine members each received $100 each for volunteering and/or providing food.

Financial report – for fiscal year 2024-25 (ending June 30, 2025) 
Income sources: 
IU football parking -- $1,780
UU Holiday Bazaar table (Dec. 2025) -- $1,551
Chili/soup fundraiser (Feb. 2025) -- $1,325.62
Habitat Women Build Brunch fundraiser (May 2025) -- $2,090 (inc. additional baked goods sale) 
UU social justice funds donation (2024) -- $300 
Bake sale for Women Build (Aug. 2024) -- $239 
Handmade bench sales (summer 2024) -- $734.24 
Total FY 2024-25 income raised/received -- $7,901.20

Special income from 25% Sunday Plate Collection contributed by congregation: $7,887 

Expenses FY 2024-25
Holiday Bazaar booth fee (Dec. 2024) -- $50
Supplies (chili/soup containers) -- $62.54
Donation to Habitat for sponsoring construction of one home (Oct. 2024) -- $10,000
Cost of snacks for Habitat builders -- $112.86 
Bench construction supplies -- $461.91 
Total expenses/donations FY 2024-25 -- $10,687.31 

Revenue as of May 2025 -- $9,858 
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Homelessness Task Force

We provide services to people experiencing homelessness and educate the congregation about the struggles associated with homelessness.

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Homelessness Task Force

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Homelessness Task Force

The Homelessness Task Force works with agencies to provide services/support to homeless people, develop strategies addressing issues related to homelessness, and improve ways of better attending to the root causes of poverty. Working with other task forces and congregational initiatives, we build a stronger community of support that extends our potential to address issues of homelessness that uniquely afflict our community. Taking into account the intersectional barriers that cause and perpetuate homelessness, this task force works broadly to address our congregation’s commitment to the 8th principle's journeying to dismantle racism and other oppressions.

Our community initiatives include:

Clothing/Provision Drives for Shalom Community Center
Based around the shifting seasons and needs at Shalom, we advertise and collect resources for distribution at the center informed by regular staff and volunteers.

Concerts for Consciousness and Fundraising
Organizing local artists and outreaching to the community, we use art to draw attention to our task force initiatives through hosting concerts, media screenings, and other art-based forms of drawing funds and attention to the effects of poverty.

Assembly of Care Kits
Periodically, we use targeted provision drives to collect and assemble care kits that include things such as food, clothing, and toiletries for distribution at Shalom.

Support of Poverty Abolitionist Initiatives
In coordination with the Poverty Abolitionist group, the task force supports the education and actions of root causes of poverty, supporting fundraising efforts for any action items that arise.

Volunteer Coordination
In response to the volunteer opportunity and needs of the community services, the task force informs interested congregants of opportunities to volunteer in ways that address homelessness and other related aspects of poverty.

Co-Chairs: Mary Blizzard, Christine Banister, and Jason Michálek
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Hunger Task Force

We provide food to lessen food insecurity for low income and unhoused people in Bloomington.

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Hunger Task Force

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The Hunger Task Force provides food to lessen food insecurity for low income and unhoused people in Bloomington.

Our subcommittees include:

Community Kitchen
We support 4 shifts per month at the Community Kitchen that focus on  food prep and packaging individual meals.
Sign up for one or two shifts a month

Little Free Pantry
  • We place food daily at the Little Free Pantry next to Needmore Coffee. Over 600 lbs. of food per month is stocked at the Little Free Pantry.
  • Bloomington Fire Department developed a QR sticker which lists resources and assistance for those in need. The stickers are often placed on food items in the Little Free Pantry.

Food Drives: Monthly and Targeted
Recipients change from month to month.

Pathways/MCUM Holiday Food Baskets
During the month of November, we collect and donate Food Baskets for families in need.

Shalom Community Center Hot Breakfasts
Daily, chefs at Shalom prepare a hot breakfast from the food donations we provide.

Holiday Bazaar
Knitters, weavers, quilters and crocheters are encouraged to donate their creations, which are sold at the annual UU Holiday Bazaar, our biggest fundraiser.

Kroger Food Cards
Through the Caring Committee, we give Kroger Food Cards to congregants in need, when requested.

Grocery Cards
Bloomingfoods and Fresh Thyme food cards are sold to congregants each Sunday. The 5% Hunger TF earns is used to provide food to Shalom and the Little Free Pantry.

Social Justice Moment -The Month of November



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International Outreach Task Force

We provide direct financial, material, and humanitarian support to Spurgeons Academy, a school for AIDS orphans in Kibera, Nairobi.

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International Outreach Task Force

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The International Outreach Task Force (IOTF) provides direct financial, material, and humanitarian support to Spurgeon's Academy, a school for orphans and vulnerable children in Kibera, a sprawling slum in Nairobi.

Every two years IOTF organizes a trip to Kenya. Learn more:
Between trips, we focus on fundraising efforts - including jewelry and glass sales, monthly bake sales, and fall football parking.

The mission of the IOTF is to provide direct financial, material, and/or humanitarian support to specified international development projects with the aim of bettering lives and building human bridges between people of different cultures. The core intent of the IOTF is to direct our efforts toward supporting small scale service/development projects that are tied directly to members of our congregation and initiated and operated by local people.

The IOTF also focuses on enhancing the development of cultural awareness, understanding, compassion, and love in our congregation and greater community. We feel that, by both its inherent nature and our specific intent as a task force, the work of the IOTF supports core principles of Unitarian Universalism including: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; and the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.
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Just Peace Task Force

We are the nucleus for congregational peace activism to communicate, educate, and mobilize on issues of war and peace.

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Just Peace Task Force

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We are the nucleus for congregational peace activism to communicate, educate, and mobilize on issues of war and peace. 

Activities:
  • We support the Back from the Brink campaign to reduce nuclear arsenals and work toward global abolition of nuclear weapons.
  • We support a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.
  • We lead the effort to become a Peace Advocate Congregation in the UU Peacemaker’s program.
  • We continue to address the dangers of a sweeping war on terror and need to support diplomacy with Iran.
  • We support a living wage, workers' rights, and income equality.


SJ Month August

Task Force Application 2015 for more information

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Racial Justice Task Force

We work to dismantle racism in ourselves and our institutions through education and action.

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Racial Justice Task Force

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The Racial Justice Task Force works to dismantle racism in ourselves and our institutions through education and action. 

The task force seeks to work with other organizations and to make events and programs broadly available.  Here are some examples of our activities:

  • We raise funds to support the work of Resilience Productions and provide and serve refreshments at their performances.  The mission of Resilience Productions is to educate, enlighten and engage the public regarding the many unknown and uncelebrated contributions of African Americans to our country’s history.
  • We donate books by BIPOC authors to local schools and non-profit organizations.
  • We, together with the Bloomington Multifaith Alliance: Faith for Racial Equity group, offer book reads and community events with guest speakers to raise awareness of historic and current racial inequities and promote actions to advance racial justice and healing.
  • We share information about how to safely and effectively intervene when witnessing harmful behavior like harassment, bullying, or violence.
  • We support the local NAACP and help promote their events.
  • We organize field trips to historically significant locations.
  • We make financial contributions to support Native Americans whose homelands were in Indiana.

In addition, our meetings provide an opportunity for members to discuss and reflect on current events related to racial justice.

Please see this living document for more information about events and resources.

Chair: Ruth Aydt



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Rainbow Rights Task Force

We seek to revive, document, and advance the knowledge, concerns, and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, communities, and causes, advocating for spiritual wholeness in relation to gender and sexuality.

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Rainbow Rights Task Force

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The Rainbow Rights Task Force seeks to revive, document, and advance the knowledge, concerns, and rights of the LGBTQIA+ individuals, communities, and causes. Building upon our congregations commitment to the 8th principle's journeying to dismantle racism and other oppressions, this task force acknowledges the spectrum of identities that reside beneath the systematic injustices experienced by marginalized persons, and we commit ourselves to journey in advocating for spiritual wholeness in relation to gender and sexuality.
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Refugee and Immigrant Support and Education (RISE)

We welcome people from other countries and reach out to support folks new to our community and form friendships.

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RISE (Refugee and Immigrant Support and Education) Task Force

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The Refugee and Immigrant Support Task Force (UU-RISE) provides direct support, financial and nonfinancial, to two sponsored families. The Fahkerduin's are from Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States during the U.S. military withdrawal in 2021. With help from Exodus Refugee Immigration, (Exodus Refugee Immigration | Building a New Life in Indiana), Bloomington Refugee Support Network  (RSN Home) and UU-RISE, the family is thriving. The Zaiter's are a Syrian family who arrived in the U.S. in December 2023 after a number of years in resettlement areas in Egypt and Lebanon. They are continuing their journey to establish their new home here in Bloomington. UU-RISE members support other families through volunteer hours and fund raising for Bloomington RSN. UU-RISE also provides opportunities for community members to learn about immigrant experiences and join in local and federal advocacy efforts to support immigrants and refugees.
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Reproductive Justice Task Force

We support the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

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Reproductive Justice Task Force

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Reproductive Justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.

We seek to promote and maintain an active, liberal voice as we educate ourselves and the community, advocate for reproductive justice, and connect with community partners (political, healthcare, and faith-based) to ensure reproductive justice for all..


Activities: 
 
  •         Fundraising such as the Valentine’s Bake Sale – our annual   fundraiser in February. We donate to the Hoosier Abortion Fund, the local Diaper Bank at Tandem, Middle Way House re: Period Poverty, and our UU OWL program of sexuality education for all ages, for the training of teachers 
  • Provide updates to members about Reproductive Justice issues at state and federal level.
  • Active support for All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center:  train to be a peer counselor for the 24 hr hotline; promote their other online trainings; participate in fundraiser for Hoosier Abortion Fund.
  • Our 4th Trimester Team offers 3 months of postpartum or post adoption support to members and friends of UU who are welcoming a new baby into their lives.
Currently, meetings are held in person at the church Library (with an option to join online via Zoom) on the 4th Monday evening of the month, August – May.  Join the email list list to be notified about meetings and other events, plus legislation and more!!

Co-Chairs: Nan McKinley and Cindy Lonnberg