In collaboration with UUSC, Side With Love offered an exciting new webinar series to deepen our collective activism and participation in the Movement for Black Lives. We invite you to participate in Taking A Collective Breath: Deepening our alignment with the Movement for Black Lives, a five-session series built around the elements of the BREATHE Act. The webinars explored the components of the BREATHE Act and utilized its structure as a way to focus our energies to effectively support ongoing racial justice work. Come learn and build with local and national partners who are shaping conditions to make liberation possible. This is an invitation to locate yourself in this moment as well, we each have a role to play. The BREATHE Act seeks to reform federal laws and eliminate funding for federal programs that criminalize Black, Muslim, and immigrant communities, reinvesting our resources in community solutions for education, health, and the environment.
THE SESSIONS
Divesting Federal Resources from Incarceration and Policing & Ending Criminal-Legal System Harms. Panelists: Author and Organizer Andrea Ritchie; and Quiana Perkins, Black Lives UU Babies and Bail Out
Investing in New Approaches to Community Safety Utilizing Funding Incentives. Panelists: Economist and Professor Francisco Perez, Center for Popular Economics; and Marilynn Winn Founder/Director, Women on the Rise
View session 2
Download transcript of session 2 closed captions
Download PDF of Francisco Perez’s presentation
Download PDF of Ana Maria De La Rosa’s land acknowledgment
Additional Resources
Examples of Pre-Arrest Diversion Programs
September 8: Education: Allocating New Money to Build Healthy, Sustainable & Equitable Communities for All People. Panelists: Sanai Browning, Philly Student Union; and Jonathan Stith, National Director, Alliance for Educational Justice
View session 3
Download transcript of session 3 closed captions
Download PDF of Jonathan Stith presentation
Download PDF of Ana Maria De La Rosa’s land acknowledgment
Additional Resources
Opening words: “A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay :
Is that Eric Garner worked / for some time for the Parks and Rec. / Horticultural Department, which means, / perhaps, that with his very large hands, / perhaps, in all likelihood, / he put gently into the earth / some plants which, most likely, / some of them, in all likelihood, / continue to grow, continue to do what such plants do, like house / and feed small and necessary creatures, / like being pleasant to touch and smell, / like converting sunlight/ into food, like making it easier / for us to breathe.
Full Report: We Came To Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools
Follow 215studentunion on FB/IG/Twitter
From Beacon Press: Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out
September 22: Environmental Justice and Public Health Allocating New Money to Build Healthy, Sustainable & Equitable Communities for All People. Panelists: Aly Tharpe, programs coordinator, UU Ministry for Earth; and activist Levi Draheim
October 13: Holding Officials Accountable & Enhancing Self-Determination of Black Communities. Panelists: Minister Sheena Rolle, Deputy Director Faith In Florida; Nicole Pressley, National Organizer UU The Vote; and Charlene Sinclair, BlackPAC.