Community Ministry News & Opportunities

“Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered.
We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”              
         adrienne marie brown

Addison County Crop-Walk!

SFight community hunger and join your neighbors for the 49th annual crop walk on unday Oct 6th.  You can either register below (our team is Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society (CVUUS)), or on the Middlebury town green next to St. Stephen’s Church by noon.  Marnie Wood has agreed to serve as our CVUUS “team captain,” and would love your help and participation!

Action: Please contact Marnie or Tom for more info and register for the CROP walk here: https://events.crophungerwalk.org/cropwalks/event/middleburyvt

MiddPride 2024!

Come celebrate all gender identities at this year’s MiddPride parade and festival, Oct 12th from 1-5p, starting at the College Park with the parade (Poppy is planning on being there with our Religious Exploration kids ready to march) followed by the festival on the Middlebury town green.  CVUUS is one of the event’s sponsors, and we appreciate Mike Greenwood and Liam Battjes-Greenwood for leading our congregation’s involvement.

Action: Please see Mike and Liam for more info, and visit MiddPride for information on all the other amazing events it has planned.

Supporting Foster Kids and Their Families

CVUUS partnered with the Department of Children & Families (DCF) to get the school year started off right for area foster kids and their families by throwing a pizza party and backpack gifting event on August 22nd at the Middlebury Teen Center Pavilion.  America’s foster system is in crisis, and Vermont is no different.  And the kids are the ones that pay the highest price with family and human service systems struggle.  Our community ministry is partnering with DCF to explore other ways members of CVUUS can help.  For example, we are both planning a worship service that will center the foster experience, and we are exploring the concept of hosting “Foster Family Circles,” a space where guardians can be welcomed to connect and exchange perspectives with other foster families.  We will design a separate supportive program for foster youth participating in the Circle.

Action: If you would like to participate or learn more, please contact Tom.

CVUUS Provides Safe Space for LGBTQIA+ Addiction Recovery Group

In collaboration with one of our core partners, Turning Point of Addison County, we launched “Queerly Beloved,” an addiction recovery group centered on the needs of our community’s LGBTQIA+ members this past summer.  It meets in the Ann Ross Fellowship Hall every other Thursday at 6p.  TPAC has expressed out grateful they are that CVUUS is providing such a safe, welcoming space for connection among queer community members who do not feel safe in mixed-gender meetings.

Action: If you are interested in serving as a “welcoming host” (opening and closing the building, etc.) for the group), please reach out to Tom.

Help Our Towns Declare Inclusivity!

On July 1st, the Waltham select board voted to adopt the Vermont Declaration of Inclusion, condemning racism and welcoming all persons in their community.  Tom and Amaya were on hand to advocate for the declaration and support Norm Cohen, a DOI representative who dialed in from Rutland.  While ~77% of Vermont municipalities have adopted the DOI, some Addison County towns have not. After the murder of George Floyd, Al Wakefield and a small group of community leaders in Rutland County formed a movement through which every municipality in Vermont could publicly declare the message that everyone is welcome here.   Almost 80% of Vermont’s municipalities have adopted the Declaration of Inclusion.  Leicester, Monkton, Ferrisburgh, New Haven, and Addison have not.

Action: If you would like to work with us to help these communities project a more welcoming, inclusive presence in Addison County, please contact Tom.

Partnering with FUUSB to Serve the Unhoused

At the recommendation of Rev. Tricia, Tom connected with the First UU Society of Burlington to learn more about its “Sunday Morning Breakfast” program.  On July 7th, Tom, Irena, and Amaya joined the FUUSB team as they served breakfast, handed out clothing items, and spent time with almost 100 members of Burlington’s unhoused community.

Action: If you want to join Tom in future collaborations with FUUSB like the “Sunday Morning Breakfast” program, please contact him.

Vermont Homelessness Increases… Again

For yet another year housing insecurity worsened in Vermont.  Already with the second highest rate of homelessness per capita in the United States, Vermont saw that rate increase again in 2023.  According to the annual “point in time” (PIT) count sponsored by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, at least 3,458 people (5% more than in 2022) were experiencing long-term homelessness on January 24/25, 2024, the day of the PIT count.  Vermont is witnessing an over 300 percent increase in homelessness since 2019.

Here is a VTDigger article that overviews some of the aspects of this increase, and another that debunks myths about our communities’ unhoused members.  But much more data in the actual PIT report bears reading.  Also, this survey, almost by design, undercounts people who are both homeless and housing insecure.  For example, the PIT count does not count children in foster care or adults who are incarcerated.  It does not count single moms and their children who have lost their housing and are either living in their cars or couch-surfing in other people’s homes.  As with so much of a design created by bureaucrats primarily to administer grants and construct statistics, the PIT count is a bureaucratic tool that provides just a glimpse of the suffering of homelessness and housing insecurity.

In terms of equity and justice, it’s critical that we recognize the disproportional effect homelessness is having on people of color.  A close look at a slice of the PIT data illustrates this fact:

  • In Addison County, Black people are homeless at a percentage rate twice that of white people.
  • In Chittenden County, 2.7% of the Black population are unhoused v. 0.5% of the white population
  • In Rutland County, while 1% of the white population is homeless, 5.4% or over five times more of the Black population is unhoused.

 

Homelessness is a symptom of intersectional and systemic causes.  The divide between the “haves” and “have nots” is spread throughout Vermont and the country.  Untreated mental illness and addictions are increasing.

CVUUS community ministry is taking direct action, engaging with beloveds experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, hunger, mental health struggles, and addiction.  We go into the intersections and streets, onto the country roads and under the overpasses to make connections and provide a ministry of witness to these inherently and equally worthy humans. Developing rapport is key to building the trust necessary to authentically connect with and help those who have already been churned up and spit out by our white supremacist, colonist system.  We meet people where they are with compassion, not judgment.

We are also working closely with the Vermont Interfaith Action network and Vermont legislators to shape and implement a strategy that can systemically address some of the most vexing aspects of housing insecurity and homelessness.

Action: YOU can be part of these efforts as well.  Please contact Tom to join us.

Mexican Consulate Visit

On October 19th, CVUUS will host Mexican Consulate representatives, who will process official documents (passports, ID cards, etc) for Mexican migrant workers in Addison County and beyond. We expect more than 200 people during the day. It is also an important social event for those workers who have few opportunities to get together during the rest of the year. The members of Viva El Sabor and we will provide food and drink for the attendees. Many other groups, such as the Open Door Clinic, Migrant Justice, and local banks will be there to provide services and information to the attendees. Many volunteers are needed to coordinate parking, food, and other aspects of the event. Please see Lise Anderson, Alan Moore, or Donna Blaszczyk to get involved!

Action: Sign up to donate food and beverages here. Sign up to volunteer to help on site here. 

Readers Are Leaders

As we witness the effects of poverty in our own communities, please join our CVUUS’s community reading group this autumn as we discuss Matthew Desmond’s best-seller, Poverty By America.  Desmond masterfully discusses why people living in the richest country on earth continue to suffer from poverty and outlines how to become poverty abolitionists.  The group plans to kick-off on Monday Oct 28th 7:00-8:30 p.m. in CVUUS’s Ann Ross Fellowship Hall, and continue on the next three Monday evenings (November 4, November 11, and November 18).  Here are some discussion questions we’ll consider:

  • Desmond defines poverty as “a tight knot of social problems,” breaking with conventional definitions that focus only on low incomes. What are the implications of this view? How would you define poverty?
  • “To understand the causes of poverty, we must look beyond the poor,” notes Desmond from the outset, “which makes this a book about poverty that is not just about the poor. Instead, it’s a book about how the other half lives, about how some lives are made small so that others may grow.”
  • Poverty is often invisible, but it can also be very public. When you see a tent encampment or homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk, what goes through your mind? What questions do you ask yourself?
  • Desmond found that “every year, the richest American families receive almost 40 percent more in government subsidies than the poorest American families.”? Can you think of ways that you or your family benefit from government assistance that you’ve never thought of as “welfare”? Do you think differently about it now?

Action: Please contact Mike Greenwood, Ellen Flight, or Tom to sign up.

Juvenile Justice

Corrections reform is key to creating generative systemic change to unjust and inequitable human outcomes in Vermont.  The state is considering constructing a high-end, restoration-focused mental health treatment facility in Vergennes to serve justice-involved youth as part of the solution.

Action: Learn more about plans for the Green Mountain Youth Campus here.

Impoverishment in Addison County

United Way of Addison County (UWAC) hosted the annual social service data review earlier this year.  Here is a mix of information that includes services provided by local agencies to key demographic data.  Equity-focused eyes might catch numbers like these:

  • Addison Housing Works (our community’s low-income housing trust) has a waitlist of 171 households and receives eight applications for every available unit.
  • An unhoused or housing-insecure neighbor, often struggling with trauma, seeking public assistance for housing has to complete one or more applications that are at least 49 pages long.
  • Addison Community Action saw an increase of 308 people for hunger/food assistance and 595 people for housing navigation.
  • Forty-two percent of Vermont’s children suffer tooth decay.
  • About one-third of high schoolers do not feel valued by adults of this community.
  • Atria Collective (serving victims of domestic violence) received 8,907 points of contact in 2023.

UWAC has assembled an important data sheet for our awareness.  Absent from this particular source is the disproportionate impact intersectional impoverishment has on our BIPOC neighbors.  Some of that information can be found here.

Middlebury Considering Off-Limits Areas for Area’s Unhoused After the Supreme Court Implicitly Rules Homelessness a Crime

In a historically shameful decision on June 28th, the Supreme Court ruled that people experiencing homelessness are not included in the Constitution’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.  This ruling makes it easier for local governments to destroy encampments used by unhoused members of communities and throw away their belongings.  The decision will add to the suffering of the 250,000+ people who sleep outside each night, as well as millions of Americans who are just one missed paycheck away from homelessness.  As Hilary Melton, Executive Director of Pathways Vermont said,  “Criminalizing people who are trying to survive, sleeping outside when there are no other options, is the actual crime. Every person deserves access to safe, stable housing.”  Learn more about the potential impact of this decision and the way forward here.

As this September Addison Independent article highlights, Middlebury is considering designating some municipal areas as “high sensitivity” spaces where community members, including the unhoused, would not be permitted to camp overnight.

Collaborative Connection to Resources

In addition to too often lacking healthy connections to other people in community, housing insecure and unhoused neighbors often lack connections to resources to help them navigate to services and support.  That is one reason the “Looking For…” pamphlet of Middlebury community resources and services is so valuable.  Thanks to Laura Asermily, Renee Ursitti from Ilsley Library, and others, those of us who conduct street outreach are able to hand folks in need a tri-fold full of accessible, easy-to-understand information.  We are distributing a limited number of pamphlets to high-traffic locations in Middlebury as well.

Action: Come by the Community Ministry office in Fenn House if you’d like to see one of these excellent examples of collaboration in service to those who need it most.

CVUUS Hosts Part of Middlebury College’s Clifford Symposium on Homelessness

This year’s Middlebury College Clifford symposium was entitled “Home: Housing and Belonging in Middlebury and Beyond” and took place September 19-21.  Events of the symposium are open to the public.  CVUUS was honored to have the opportunity to host a “connection & action” lunch as well as an evening screening of the documentary Just Getting By as part of the symposium.

 

Intercultural Connections—The Abenaki People

The Vermont Abenaki Artists Association sponsored the annual Abenaki Heritage Weekend June 29-30 at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum on June 29-30 .  It was a vibrant celebration of Abenaki art, culture, and heritage.

Tom and Patrick Lamphere Blackhand, Abenaki artist of the Missisquoi people

Visitors talked with artists and watched crafting in the Native Arts Marketplace of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association.  VAAA’s Waolowzi Health and Wellness committee partnered with Open Door Clinic and the Vermont Department of Health, which hosted a pop-up clinic on-site all weekend offering check-ups, referrals, and advice.

A new special Abenaki exhibit, Deep Roots, Strong Branches, is now on view in the museum’s Schoolhouse Gallery and will be on view all season.  As Abenaki curator and friend of CVUUS Vera Sheehan said, “Abenaki culture is a complex network of people, places, relationships and ceremonies that link the people with the living land.  The exhibit contains selected artwork and stories by contemporary American Abenaki artists that illustrate the resilience of the region’s Indigenous people.”

More Opportunities

We have several other opportunities! If you would like to join us or discuss opportunities you would like to add to our program list, please do not hesitate to reach out to Tom.  Here’s some background and philosophy of Unitarian Universalist community ministry.  We are grateful for your engaging spirit and faithful demonstration of Unitarian Universalist values.  Together, we make Love visible as we bend the arch of history toward a more just and equitable community.