Children’s Advocacy Ideas for Your Congregation

I received an e-mail last week from a Unitarian Universalist asking how she and a group from her congregation can advocate for children. She explained that they do not have have a lot of extra time or money, but they do care deeply about young people.

What can you do in your congregation to advocate for children, especially if you have limited time and money? The following three actions can make a difference in children’s lives:

1. Write an article in the congregational newsletter about why children’s issues matter to you. You may want to educate members about legislation on the state or federal level that impacts young people. Or you can encourage members to donate or volunteer with a local organization that serves children, such as an afterschool program.

2. Incorporate children’s issues into a worship service. If you don’t have a lot of time, you may not want to lead a whole Sunday morning worship service, if this is even an option at your congregation. But you could ask the minister or religious educator for suggestions about how to raise awareness of children’s issues during one worship this spring.

For instance, you could offer a prayer for children facing hardship. You could give a testimony about an experience you have had that deepened your commitment to helping children. Or you could hold a special offertory to raise money for a children’s organization.

3. Offer a letter writing table following worship. When the U.S. Senate is about to vote on a key piece of children’s legislation, encourage your fellow congregants to contact their senators. At this table, include a sample letter that you have written to your senators. Ask people to write their own letters, or to sign a copy of yours, and then offer to send these letters for them.

(This is a lot less time consuming when you are asking people to contact their senators than when you are asking them to contact their representatives. Because everyone in your state has the same two senators, it is easy to address and send all the letters. The process is more time-intensive if you ask people to contact representatives, since you then need to look up each person’s representative based on their zip+4.)

Please comment if you have additional suggestions! 

Foster and Adoptive Families Form Community at First Universalist Society of Salem

The Salem News carried a story last week about how families with foster children and adopted children have built a community at the First Universalist Society of Salem. (Unitarian Universalists in the Media pointed me to this story).

The parents of these children have built loving families and helped to address a significant problem: the lack of available homes for children. The Salem News reports:

“On the North Shore and Cape Ann alone, there are roughly 375 foster children right now. In the same area, there are only 140 families who provide foster care, according to Carla King, who is the foster parent recruiter for the area office of the Department of Social Services.

‘There’s a huge need for foster homes,’ she said.”

To celebrate the families in the congregation and help people learn more about being foster or adoptive parents, the congregation held a worship service last Sunday, February 25th.

UU’s in Vero Beach Start Health-E Teens Coalition

One of the highlights of being the national organizer for Promise the Children is learning about programs Unitarian Universalists have created to help children and youth.

Claudia Jimenez, the Director of Lifespan Religious Education at the UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, recently told me about the Health-E Teens Coalition (HETC). HETC is a grassroots organization promoting factual health information for youth, including comprehensive sexuality education. Jimenez started HETC with a fellow Unitarian Universalist parent, Judy Orcutt.

Jimenez explains how Our Whole Lives (the Unitarian Universalist sexuality education program) inspired her and Orcutt:

“We are both trained [middle-school and high-school] OWL facilitators and are very impressed with the quality of the curriculum and the wonderful activities. However, OWL reaches mostly progressive families and we are appalled with the pregnancy and STI rates in our county. This type of education should be available to all children. The abstinence-only education in our schools is simply not working, and it is time to try to do something about it.”

HETC is a model for how Unitarian Universalists can promote sexuality education on the local level. Last week, HETC held an educational event titled “What Every Parent Needs to Know About the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Vaccine.” The event was held in a secular community center and was open to the public. Jimenez and Orcutt have also been interviewed in the local media about HETC.

For more information about you can support the Health-E Teens Coalition, please contact Claudia Jimenez at

Revised 4:50pm on 2/26/07