Contact: David Vita, 203.322.0706
Our Mission
The Mission of our Legislative Advocacy work is to empower the TUUCW community through education, organization, and mobilization to engage in the transformative work of social justice by working with impacted communities to change laws in Connecticut and put our faith into action.
To engage in legislative advocacy is to have a positive outlook, to believe in a better future, and to do something to help create it. Everyone can do something and through our collective effort we can force systemic change that will better people’s lives and will save lives, including our own. And in doing this we are changed and more fully live our values as Unitarian Universalists.
Social Action & Social Justice – What’s the Difference?
Our congregation has a rich history in both social action and social justice, addressing immediate needs as well as working toward long-term solutions guided by our faith and expressed in our UU Principles.
Social Action deals with the world as it is: providing direct assistance to people to meet their basic needs… now. It tends to be one to one or for small groups of people nearby. Reading to or tutoring students at the Beardsley School, setting up apartments for arriving refugees, and providing Brown Bag Lunches to food insecure people are examples of social action in our congregation.
Social Justice is about the world as it should be: alleviating inequalities by advocating for systemic change. It’s organizing for long-term solutions that affect large groups of people or, in our case, primarily people across the state of Connecticut. It’s changing laws. It’s the work of legislative advocacy. Gun violence prevention, health insurance for immigrants, and protecting people from domestic violence are just three of the legislative efforts that we have been involved with over the years.
The question sometimes comes up whether when we engage in social action and social justice is that prohibited political activity for our congregation? The answer is no. We can advocate for legislation, which is issue-driven and thus non-partisan. It’s about the issue. We cannot advocate for or endorse particular candidates, for example, because that is partisan.
Unitarian Universalism seeks to be a “church without walls” in which social concerns become the agenda of the people as we take our spiritual and ethical values into the public arena. Spirituality and social justice aren’t an either or. They’re a both. There is in Unitarian Universalism a seamless garment of spirituality and social justice; we are a ‘spiritual center with a civic circumference’. Faith exists by mission.
Some History
The congregation has periodically been engaged in advocacy for decades but starting in 2005 with the creation of the Director of Social Justice staff position our efforts expanded and became more intentional, consistent, organized and impactful. We have changed votes and played an instrumental role in passing legislation. All of it is done by working with community partners, individuals and organizations most impacted by the problems that are being addressed. On the state level we have successfully taken legislative action on:
- Catalytic convertors for school buses to prevent exhaust fumes in the buses
- Gun Violence Prevention
- Domestic Violence
- Immigration
- Reproductive Justice
- Clean Slate
- Minimum Wage
- Healthcare
- Paid sick days
- Housing
- Limiting health insurance rate increases
- Medical Assistance in Dying
- Eliminating the death penalty in CT
How Does This Work? What Do We Do?
It boils down five words… show up however you can!
When provided with sufficient support can you:
- Sign a petition.
- Make a phone call, write a letter, send a post card.
- Post on social media.
- Write a paragraph or two in Soundings.
- Write a Letter to the Editor.
- Knock on doors and distribute literature.
- Help organize a program for the congregation.
- Attend a meeting once a month.
- Attend an event such as a press conference or rally locally or in Hartford.
- Meet with your state representatives.
- Provide written or oral testimony in person or on zoom.
- Ask a State Representative to co-sign a bill.
If you can do any of the above or would like to learn how to then join the team!
2024
Our Social Justice Council voted to support the following three legislative efforts in the 2024 CT. General Assembly:
- HUSKY for Immigrants
- Reproductive Justice
- Gun Violence Prevention
