When the new College for Social Justice (CSJ) was announced, a collaboration between the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), I was wary but hopeful. Wary because the “Just Works” program, which sent UUs to do short-term volunteer work, had already dwindled to “Just Journeys,” which sounded like tourism with some education and a bit of charitable hammer work thrown in, and the prospectus made the CSJ sound likely to be more of the same. Hopeful because new initiatives sound, well, new, and I was even more hopeful when the Rev. Kathleen McTigue became its first director. I have a lot of respect for her, as well as an affection and gratitude that will be with me always because of her compassionate care for me one time when I was a stranger and in great distress.
(Note: I have written a private letter to Kathleen telling her the same concerns I share here. We’re all part of one small faith and we can talk directly to each other, not just send our missives out onto the internet as if there were no real people concerned. I sent it a little over a year ago; she wrote back within two days and was gracious and thoughtful in her response. I’ve written to one of the program leaders of the least expensive youth justice trainings to ask how many youth get financial aid and what percentage does it cover, so I will edit this entry if I am being too pessimistic. I’m also a big supporter of the UUSC and urge every UU to join and give generously; I am speaking here of a particular program.)
The College of Social Justice has now been in place for a year and a half, and I am really disappointed. One of the slogans is “Don’t just learn about justice–do justice!” but the people being addressed are only the wealthy, because the least expensive learning opportunity being offered costs $525 plus airfare to the location. I had hoped that UUSC was finally getting away from its justice-tourism model, and Kathleen urged me to be patient. I do hope that things will change. However, along with “organizations have to begin somewhere, and can branch off from there,” a sound principle, there’s also the principle “begin as you mean to go on,” and things look pretty much the same as they did a year ago. The College of Social Justice appears under “Take Action” on the UUSC’s website, but in what way is it action? There’s some, sure, but that’s a lot of money to spend on something that is a tiny part action, a big part education, an even bigger part tourism. After all, isn’t that why people sign up for a program in Seattle or New Orleans instead of staying home where there are plenty of places to do and learn justice?
When I heard of a college of social justice, other than cringing slightly at the privilege suggested by “college” (“school” would be preferable), I liked the sound of a program that would teach me and other UUs what we really need to know about organizing and advocacy if we are to turn the world around. I understand that one can learn a lot in a week of service and listening. I’m not dismissing it; it’s better than going to Cancun for a week on the beach or staying home for a week in front of the telly, and I applaud those who do it. But I also know that those experiences are easy to come by for America’s wealthy, who already get all, every single one, of the unpaid internships and justice-tourism experiences on offer, because only the rich can take off for a summer and work for free, or travel at their own expense. Most people have to work.
There are things I need to learn, but I’m not seeing them at the CSJ. Is this the organizing model we want to teach to another generation of UUs, in the 21st century: noblesse oblige? I am here in wealthy Palo Alto, slowly helping my mostly-upper-class, mostly-white congregation to organize with poor communities, communities of recent immigrants and undocumented immigrants, communities of people of color. I could use some help. We are trying to learn to follow the lead of our less privileged partners, such as only happens when a variety of people is in the room. How is a young person to learn that lesson when everyone in her program can afford a $1000+ summer program, and most, who are not on scholarship, can afford much more, and not a single one has to earn some money that summer?
Here’s what we offer in the way of internships. Emphasis is mine.
Internships are unpaid, but interns are eligible to apply for a cost-of-living stipend from UUCSJ, intended to cover basic living expenses and local public transit. However, availability may be limited. Housing is also available, subsidized by UUCSJ and/or the partner organizations. Interns must cover the cost of travel to and from their internship location, and in some cases are asked to share in the cost of room and board.
Prospective interns are strongly encouraged to explore funding opportunities from other sources, such as their colleges and faith communities. Many colleges offer grants for summer internship placements, or the opportunity to receive academic credit. UUCSJ will work with applicants to accommodate outside guidelines for funding.
For most locations, interns will be scheduled to work no more than 25 hours per week, to allow the option of seeking an additional part-time job. (from the page Global Justice Summer Internships)
Contrast the Changemaker Fellowships offered by the Pacific School of Religion, which I probably couldn’t even receive because at least 2/3 of the spots are to be taken by people of color. We white people are, after all, well under 1/3 of the world’s population. So this program and its membership sound exactly right.
This Fellowship provides a full-tuition scholarship for the new Certificate of Spirituality and Social Change, an immersive course of study, integrating theological reflection and spiritual formation with leadership for social change. It also covers expenses for exciting immersion opportunities, leadership retreats, spiritual formation, and faculty mentoring. Changemaker Fellows are talented individuals who have demonstrated their skills to lead justice-driven change in churches, organizations, communities, and individual lives.
In this year-long program, Changemaker Fellows will:
- Integrate formative theological study with a deeper understanding of their vocations as social change leaders or Changemakers;
- Develop a greater understanding of transformative leadership practices and how to integrate these practices into their own social change work;
- Take part in a variety of offerings including cohort and immersion learning experiences, faculty mentorship, and regular group meetings for engaged theological reflection and spiritual formation;
- Enjoy a richly diverse learning experience while enriching the entire PSR community with their unique perspectives, skills, and gifts;
- Earn the new Certificate in Spirituality and Social Change. (The Fellowship covers the cost of tuition for this exciting new course of study!
This is an apples-to-oranges comparison, obviously; the goal of the Changemaker Fellowship program is quite different from the CSJ’s. But despite a heavily academic emphasis, it sees the diversity of the group as absolutely essential. It sees its work as so important that it must not be directed only toward those who can pay.
I don’t expect or want the College of Social Justice to create a certificate in social change; I just wish it would put its resources into trainings that are accessible to most people instead of a wealthy few. In the past year and a half, under Kathleen’s leadership, the CSJ has taken some steps in that direction. When she wrote to me, she spoke of instituting domestic programs in Boston and New Orleans, and they have; there are others in the US as well, and they are less expensive than a trip to Haiti or India.
There are ways to reduce the costs by a couple of orders of magnitude, however, that are being neglected, perhaps because they just aren’t as much fun for those among us who can afford a $1000 vacation. Flying trainers from Boston to our own communities, for example, would open the door to hundreds of interested activists; the cost per person could easily be lowered to $20-50, making the job of finding sufficient scholarship money easier. Mark Hicks is involved in the creation of the curricula, I understand, and that’s wonderful news–but why not bring his teachings to us where we are, instead of reserving them for those who can afford a flight across the country or the ocean? (And consider the carbon savings!) Technology has enabled us to meet faraway people for the price of an internet connection and a computer, and such meetings could be very inspiring and educational. In the meantime, the activists themselves might be encouraged to put their money into justice-making, rather than a fun, albeit challenging, trip for themselves.
I know the hope is that when the participants come home, they’ll bring what they learned to their local community. The question is, what will they have learned?
Sermons in Stones 
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March 27, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Carol
Back in the 1990s, UUSC was against work trips to other countries, because UUSC believed in fostering local self-reliance and not creating feel-good work vacations or mission trips. Ultimately I saw the wisdom of that principle as I organized water and sanitation projects in my own work.
In the early 2000s, UUSC brought on Kevin Murray, director of advocacy, who said he decided to introduce UU work trips, because, he said, people like them.
I also participated in the New Orleans program (Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal) with the youth group and was not impressed. The role of unskilled volunteers for NOLA is long over, and this program long outlived its usefulness. Unskilled volunteers are assigned to menial work such as dogwashing, for which there are local volunteers. And a local director of a farm program said skilled volunteers have at times been used where money was available to hire local workers.
Probably a big question is how do we define “social justice” and teach skills to make sure it happens?
Thanks so much for adding some real-life experience, Carol. Where UUSC focuses on local self-reliance and partnering with the local organizations that know the terrain best, it seems to do its best work. I think it’s a great model for local work as well, and I would love to see the CSJ spin off from that side of UUSC rather than the work-trips side.–AZM
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March 28, 2014 at 8:05 am
irrevspeckay
Amy you raise really important issues — I appreciate your attention to affordability/access, which is our ongoing albatross. I wonder too, having not looked into these things, in what ways these justice trips differ, if at all, from good-feeling tourism. Are they structured with spiritual discernment, with liberation-theology styled praxis of action-reflection so that transformation takes place within those who take part — moving beyond charity, assuaged guilty consciences, or good cocktail party stories? Thank you. I don’t know either, so I am not criticizing the programs based on how well they incorporate spiritual discernment and action-reflection. Even if they do both very well, I would like to see us incorporate those important aspects of justice work into a different model of the work itself. Sounds like you think so too. –AZM
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March 28, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Daniel O'Connell
“because only the rich can take off for a summer and work for free, or travel at their own expense. Most people have to work.”
Well, Mormon youth work and save money in order to be “elders” and go proselytize for 2 years. Lots of evangelicals expect new ministries to “fund themselves,” they expect ministers to work outside jobs while they “grow the church.”
And while I agree with your sentiment generally, I think having a “justice-tourism” program is a good way to raise consciousness.
That being said, I’ve found it better to bring trainers in to me– to maximize local participation– rather then send a few people out. Often the expense is less, and more people get trained locally.
Thanks for your thoughtful post.
Interesting points, Daniel. I wonder how it works for the Mormon youth. Do they have to pay their own room and board while they’re proselytizing? Do they earn two years’ worth of living expenses before they go on their missions? (I really cannot see how anyone can do that between the ages of 16 and 18 while also going to school full time.) And are they mostly upper-middle- and upper-class, the way UUs are?
I have quite a lot of sympathy with the model of working another job while planting a new church, though I’d also like to know how well it works out for evangelicals. I’ve seen some tiny little house churches that didn’t look like they were ever going to be anything else. How we UUs plant new churches (or fail to) is an interesting issue, though I think the issue there is less funding and more our franchise system and concern about rogue ministries. Much to think about . . . –AZM
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March 31, 2014 at 12:01 am
Andrew Mackay
Emerging from a prep-school background, the use of expensive, often intentional volunteer trips are well-known. They are also almost universally indefensible as activism.
You are correct for mentioning at the end the environmental impact of these trips. Going to Thailand for a limited stay is very wasteful. It could be justified (any travel really) if you develop important skills or knowledge that you can only get there. But if the mission is only a couple of weeks, that’s not going to happen. If a trip of a couple weeks is $1,000 say, we can convert that into about 65 hours at a living wage. One could pay someone that- say half time for three weeks- and that person would be local and be able to continue their skill development where you have to leave. Also, wiring money electronically has a low carbon cost.
Also these trips, when there is no compensation for lower-income individuals and people of color, contributes to inequality and puts those groups at a disadvantage. Rich kids can apply for college with a murderer’s row of volunteer work, from all over the world. Just like special summer programs, they allow rich kids a level of attention and education that lower-income kids miss entirely. Exclusive programs are just like expensive colleges- it tilts the playing field. You can’t pay, you can’t benefit from the increase in social capital.
I can walk to East Menlo Park and EPA from where I live- it’s just a few miles. Those places have high school graduation rates sometimes below 50%. A violence and mental health crisis.
Couldn’t I just donate $1,000 to the Indian initiative and then work in my own community? It’s a better distribution of resources.
All good ideas. –AZM
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March 31, 2014 at 6:29 am
Elz Curtiss
Really excellent reflection on the UUA’s continuing “otherization” of social discomfort. I have all kind of cynical reasons for asking why we do this, but the fundamental answer that works for me is that if we acknowledged the amount of social discomfort within our ranks — not just the members, but the folks who felt they couldn’t keep up the pretense of privilege and dropped out — it would destroy the polity structure that works for a self-perpetuating denominational class.
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April 1, 2014 at 8:33 pm
Heidi
Amy,
Thanks for your reflection.
I am not UUA. I am a licensed UCC minister and candidate for ordination. I am also recently returned from the UUCSJ immersion for theological school students to the US/Mexico border in partnership with Borderlinks.
As a seminary student, my resources are tight and deeply finite. I am required to complete a “border crossing” requirement for graduation. My seminary has consistently offered amazing trips that were wholly inaccessible to me financially and otherwise. Enter: UUCSJ.
They offered this incredible experience at a very reasonable price tag in an effort to make it as accessible as possible. We had a group of 8 students, representing 3 different seminaries, and not all from the UU tradition. I also want to really dispell the myth that this is some kind of “tourist” trip. This was a 7 day, very intense immersion into the economic and immigration politics of the border region. We slept in dorm accommodations in Arizona which did not have full walls, and thus little privacy. In Mexico, we were housed with families, sleeping 2-3 (or more) to a room. Our meals were entirely provided for by Borderlinks or our host families. We did not have the time or capacity to shop, or otherwise “vacation” while we were there. It was profoundly life changing work and an incredible experience. Kathleen’s leadership and coordination was adept to say the least. My ministry will be forever impacted by the work I’ve done and continue to do now that I’ve come home. Borderlinks is rooted in an immersion model that then encourages people to bring the work home to their communities.
While the UUCSJ may have some growing to do and still be finding their niche in the UUA world, I hope folks won’t write it off as simply an organization funding vacations or travel for wealthy people. That is a deep undersell of the profoundly life changing kinds of work and experience that they are trying to build. I’ll also say as a veteran of non-profit work that building a new organization or arm of one takes much longer than a year and a half. I hope people will give Kathleen a fair shot at the helm of the good work she is trying to do.
Thanks for adding your experiences, Heidi. I hope you and the other participants did learn a lot that you could not have learned in a week’s seminar at home, and that you can bring it back to your communities–not all of you, of course–no program has that kind of success–but many. My experience is that UUs have a fair amount of knowledge, and a great deal of enthusiasm, regarding social change; what we are most likely to lack are the skills of organizing. We have the will to bring the message home, but not always the know-how. (I’m writing of the religious community I know best; I’m sure we’re far from unusual in this regard.) I am so glad this experience has changed you profoundly, and I profoundly hope that the CSJ lives up to the potential you see in it. –AZM
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April 1, 2014 at 8:40 pm
Heidi
One quick additional note: I would be glad to discuss in any amount of detail the whole of what I learned while I was down there. My knowledge of everything from statistics, to on the ground realities, to US border policy and much more is so much richer and broader than I could have imagined before I went.
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