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The Green Sanctuary Program
The Green Sanctuary Program is a nation-wide UU program that encourages UU congregations to put into practice its Seventh Principle as promoted by the Unitarian Universalist Ministry For The Earth (UUMFE). The GSP requires that each participating congregation complete 12 tasks in four focus areas. The focus areas are 1) Worship and Celebration, 2) Religious Education, 3) Environmental Justice and 4) Sustainable Living. The current BUF GSP Committee has been working diligently to come up with 12 projects that will provide all members of the congregation a way to participate.
Guiding Principles for BUF Social Justice Collections
Twelve times a year, one Sunday a month, BUF members will be invited to give to a Social Justice Collection for a non-profit organization serving in one of the following areas: women and children, environment, poverty/homelessness, peace and human rights, social and economic justice, and health. An attempt will be made to spread the Social Justice Collections between all these areas.
Organizations for which BUF makes a Social Justice Collection should provide opportunities for direct member involvement in the organization's efforts to help people in Bellingham, Whatcom County and beyond. We will try to avoid situations where sending money is the only involvement we have. We will try to choose organizations whose initiatives match the skills and interests of our members.
To this end, we will ask organizations applying for a Social Justice Collection to outline in their application the volunteer opportunities that exist for BUF members, and to describe these when speaking to the members on the Social Justice Collection Sunday. They may also describe existing BUF member involvement, but one BUF member's current role in the organization will not necessarily be sufficient, if no additional volunteer opportunities are offered.
We will focus on having Social Justice Collections for organizations where our financial contribution demonstrably "makes a difference," rather than just disappears into general operational funds.
To this end, we will ask organizations applying for a Social Justice Collection to explain how the money will be used, showing how the Social Justice Collection will relate directly to the achievement of the program's goals and objectives, and the target population served. This could be accomplished by translating dollar amounts into numbers of clients served, supplies purchased, etc. This should also be described when speaking to members on Social Justice Collection Sunday.
Organizations which have received Social Justice Collections in the past will not automatically be scheduled for future Social Justice Collections, but will be invited to apply and provide the information outlined above. Past recipient organizations should describe how previous Social Justice Collections have been used to further the organization's goals, and serve the target population.
The Social Justice Committee will schedule Social Justice Collections, after evaluating all applicant organizations against these principles. Invitations to organizations to apply for Social Justice Collections, outlining these principles, will be made continuously; as such organizations come to the Committee's attention.
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Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship