Social Justice Visioning with AUW

I spent a wonderful weekend in Minneapolis with my family and friends and some snow! I was there to participate in the social justice visioning event led by the Association for Universalist Women from my home church. The day long workshop was a huge success and I benefited a lot from being there. I was able to meet many of the AUW members and learn about their experiences with social justice and what events in their lives shaped how and why they do justice work today. The main theme that came from the discussions centered around events early in life. Therefore the AUW is going to work with the youth and young adults at FUC to ensure that they receive positive messages about justice and that they can recognize the support of AUW.

The day concluded with a discussion of the issues that AUW will focus on for the year. It was a lively discussion as many women were very passionate about specific issues that they are already invested in personally and professionally. It is always a challenge to reach consensus. An important concept to keep in mind when doing this type of exercise is to constantly reflect on where the unique voice of AUW will have the most impact. At they end of the day they had formed smaller groups working on 4 exciting issues. I'm curious to see which they end up choosing.

After the event we had a covenant signing. We read select parts of the covenant and we all signed it making our relationship that much stronger. The support team also gave me a beautiful ruler that they all signed in gold. It looks great on my desk. Extra credit points for anyone who can find my mom in the above photo. Hint: we look the same!