“When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear–against alienation and separation.  The choice to love is a choice to connect–to find ourselves in the other.”

     bell hooks      

Centering the Voices and Needs of the Marginalized

Unitarian Universalist declares that we value equity, respecting the inherent worthiness and dignity of every person, that we recognize our mutual interdependence, and seek to build inclusive communities.  Our values call us to demonstrate our collective covenant by dismantling unequitable, unjust systems, biases, and structures.

In December, I had the honor of participating in the national Faith in Action (FIA) convention as a representative of Vermont Interfaith Action’s 70 justice-focused congregations.  For three days, I got to listen to and learn from other community representatives, mostly BIPOC, express their hopes and fears.  But mostly, they expressed their frustration at the unwillingness of the dominant culture to change the status quo that has resulted in where we are today.  The FIA convention was about reflecting on how our faith shows up in community.  It was about forming and reconciling relationships so that we can work together to architect a new America that is a beloved “community of communities.”

These times call for a full demonstration of Unitarian Universalist values collectively and beyond the walls of our congregations.  Equity and justice mean that the needs of the marginalized can no longer be subordinated to the needs of the privileged.  If your spirit is feeling called to engage in one of the collective, full-spectrum community ministry opportunities we have to offer, I would love to help.

Community Ministry Update

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Fall 2024 congregational conversation about Community Ministry (CM) at CVUUS and in Addison County.  As we discussed back in our initial conversation about CM in Spring 2024, our faith calls on us to respond in a collective, orchestrated way to the increasing impoverishment and disenfranchisement in our community of communities through…

• Increasing Unitarian Universalist representation in justice- and equity-focused collaborations and partnerships, which will, in turn, increase opportunities for congregational members to directly engage and create more relationships,
• Providing direct pastoral ministry and integrated services to our neighbors suffering the effects of poverty, systemic oppression, housing and food insecurity, and a loss of hope, and
• Accelerating the evolution of CVUUS from a dominant white culture / “family systems model” society into a multicultural community of communities that reflects our values and demonstrates our openness to growing more connected in our interdependent world.

Here are the slides for the conversation.  Please reach out to Tom if you’d like to learn more.

Supporting Foster Kids and Their Families

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.

CVUUS will be hosting “Foster Family Circles” starting Sunday January 26th 1-3p.  Our intent is to provide a welcoming space in which caregivers can connect and exchange perspectives with other foster families.  Partnering with the Department of Families & Children, we will offer separate supportive program for foster youth (ages 6-12 yrs) participating in their own circle.

This past summer, CVUUS partnered with 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 at the Middlebury Teen Center Pavilion.

Around the breakfast table or during the commute to soccer or piano practice, parents tell their kids, “You can be anything you want to be.”  “Work hard, and we will do our part to make your dreams come true.”  But for tens of thousands of children, the future is a dark, cold, bleak place devoid hope.  No home, no family, no education, and no security.  Official government statistics claim that 442,995 kids have lost their permanent homes and are living in foster care in the U.S.  Actually, 690,000 children spent some time in foster care in 2018.  But tens of thousands more orphaned kids go unreported because their cases are not processed through any governmental systems.  These kids have at least temporarily lost their primordial bond with their biological parents, likely the most critical of human social attachments.  This loss creates a brokenness and deep insecurity for which these kids are not remotely responsible.  While about 80%  of these children eventually are placed in a permanent home (sometimes of questionable security), roughly 53,160 kids age out of foster care without having ever had a permanent family or home.  More than 20% of these kids that age out of foster care will become instantly homeless, and as many as 50% will experience chronic homelessness over their lifetimes.  Twenty-five percent of youth aging out of foster care will live in prison within two years of foster care. Eighty percent of all incarcerated adults in the U.S. have one thing in common—they were all in foster care at some point in their lives. Also, 60% of all American women who become victims of human trafficking were foster children.

Of course, we think of our kids achieving high goals.  Imagine if none of your children graduated college.  While 70% want to go to college, 85% will never apply, and less than 3% will ever obtain post-secondary education. So these kids can simply go find a job, right?  Well, only 50% of former foster kids will successfully find employment by 24 years of age. Those who find employment will earn less than one-half of the pay of their peers. So now imagine if your children had no options but to live on the street or in prison, destitute, hungry, or traded like chattel.

Action: If you would like to participate or learn more about building a “community of communities” through supporting foster families, 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 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.

Substance Use Among Area Youth

For the first time in several years, data from the annual Addison County Youth Survey indicates substance use among our county’s young people is dow across the board (by age category and substance type).  While this is good news, data from other sources indicate that too many young people in our community lack a supportive relationship with at least one adult.

Trends in substance us in the U.S. have been changing lately, as the New York Times article indicates.  Danielle Wallace, from our partner agency at Turning Point of Addison County has told us that for the first time in years, no overdose deaths have been reported in Addison County this year.  Danielle is hoping that this decrease will lead to more focus and attention on the county’s primary substance disorder–alcoholism.    CVUUS serves on the Addison County Substance Use & Prevention Coalition.  If you’re interested in mentoring opportunities, please contact Tom.

Middlebury Declares Off-Limits Areas for Unhoused Communities After the Supreme Court Implicitly Rules Homelessness a Crime

Middlebury decision-makers decided to remove the encampment behind Middlebury’s Ilsley Public Library.  This community ministry, in collaboration with some key partners, has been engaged in trying to help the chronically unhoused community members who now have to “move on.”  (Some of you may have seen this WCAX piece about the encampment’s removal.)  Housed community members (including social services) have been communicating with the unhoused neighbors for weeks about this move.  So while it comes as no surprise, it will nonetheless create stress for them.  In this December Addison Independent article, Middlebury’s interim town clerk explains the rationale for the “notice to vacate” order.  This September Addison Independent article contains the background on the background of designating some municipal areas as “high sensitivity” spaces where community members, including the unhoused, would not be permitted to camp overnight.

This move follows similar actions by other Vermont towns after the historically shameful June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling 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.

Come Help us Bend the Arc of History Toward Justice Here in Vermont

The Vermont Interfaith Action (VIA) network is Vermont’s only faith-based advocacy organization.  As Addison County’s representative to VIA, CVUUS has a tremendous opportunity to join others, organize, and work with Vermont legislators to shape and implement strategies to systemically address some of our state’s most vexing socio-economic challenges.  We are now organizing in preparation for the new legislative year.

Action: YOU can be part of these efforts as well.  VIA is looking for justice-focused spirits interested in working any of these issues….

• Affordable Housing & Homelessness
• Climate Change
• Racial Justice
• Corrections Reform
• Anti-religious bigotry and Anti-Hate

We would love to have you join us!  Please contact Tom.

Our Towns Declare Inclusivity!

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.  On July 1^st, 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.

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 Our Unhoused Neighbors

Innovation and inter-congregational collaboration are key to finding solutions to inequity and injustice.  The good people of First UU Society of Burlington are practicing their faith through just such innovation with their “Sunday Morning Breakfast” (SMB) program.  Tom and his family have joined the FUUSB team as they served breakfast, handed out clothing items, and spent time over 100 members of Burlington’s unhoused community.  Tom was invited to preach at FUUSB on the second anniversary of FUUSB’s SMB program.

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, colonialist system.  We meet people where they are with compassion, not judgment.

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.  A Vergennes Task Force is considering what kind of compensation (e.g., exchanging permitting for land on which to build affordable housing, …) it would like to negotiate.

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.

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.

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.