Through our Share the Plate collections on the first Sunday of each month, we contribute to the resources of worthy organizations doing social justice work in the Four Corners area.
Thank you to those who made it a priority to nominate a local organization to be a recipient of our 2019-20 Share the Plate collections. Your concern and commitment to the organization you nominated was inspiring! We received nine excellent nominations, all very worthy organizations doing important social justice work. The SRJ Coordinating Team met and carefully reviewed each nomination, considering its relationship to our social justice priorities, its impact in our community, and perceived need for financial support. It was challenging to select only four recipients out of the nine nominations. We are pleased to announce the following organizations and the schedule for Share the Plate donations.
October-December: La Plata Family Centers Coalition
LPFCC serves the critical needs of families in rural communities in Southwest Colorado, including La Plata and Archuleta counties. Multiple approaches are used to not only help families in the midst of crises and challenges, but also to support families in becoming more self-reliant and able to provide a safe, stable and nurturing home environment. More than 65% of the families served live in poverty, with an income of less than $25,000 per year. Demographically, 23% of families served are Latinx, 12% Native American, and 10% multi-racial.
January-March, 2020: Grief Center of Southwest Colorado
The Grief Center of Southwest Colorado is dedicated to meeting the needs of bereaved members of the community regardless of cultural and/or religious beliefs, manner of death, relationship to the deceased, and ability to pay. Examples of the Center’s services include therapy and support for all ages, grief groups and education for schools and community, suicide prevention and survivors of suicide support, on-call intervention response for schools and organizations (such as the school shooting in Aztec), and memorial service assistance.
April-June, 2020: 4 Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE)
Climate change is the most critical and time sensitive challenge of our time. Justice acknowledges that families who can least afford the effects of a warming planet are those most impacted by climate change. 4CORE promotes resource conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy through education and programs that strengthen the local economy and foster a healthy, sustainable environment for everyone. It particularly prioritizes collaborating with local utilities, governments, and citizen efforts to enable low income families to upgrade to more energy-efficient and cost-saving practices, such as solar and weatherization, at an affordable price.
July-September, 2020: Compañeros – Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center
Compañeros serves immigrants in the rural Southwest through community organizing, education outreach, and bilingual direct assistance, striving to make our community a more inclusive and welcoming place where people from all different backgrounds can thrive and flourish. They help immigrants with understanding their basic rights, referrals for legal services, paperwork, and navigating the complex immigration or justice system. They are the only organization in our region with a primary focus on serving immigrants.
Thank you not only to those who nominated an organization as a Share the Plate fund recipient, but also to all the members and friends who make it a priority to donate on our STP Sundays. Your generosity makes STP an important source of needed funds for organizations to do their work. On average, three months of STP donations result in just over $2000 going to a selected organization, a significant contribution.
If you would like to nominate a worthwhile organization to be considered as a recipient in the next cycle (October 2020 – September 2021), fill out the nomination form below and click the Submit button. Nominations are due by August 3, 2020. For questions, contact Bonnie Miller at yjmiller2@gmail.com.
Nominations for the recipients of our Share the Plate collections are accepted throughout the month of August. The selection of four recipients by the Social Responsibility and Justice Coordinating team will occur in September and the cycle for newly selected recipients will begin in October. Each selected recipient will receive Share the Plate collections for a three-month period. If your nominee is selected as a recipient, you will be asked to work with SRJ Coordinators to invite a representative from the organization to a Sunday service and to identify individuals from UUFD who are willing to speak about the organization at one of the STP Sundays.
The criteria for selection includes:
- nonprofit organization based in the Four Corners area
- work is focused on a pressing social justice issue
- preference given to organizations working on UUFD current social justice priorities – Basic Needs, LGBTQIA+, Healing Racism, Immigration, Environment
