Green Sanctuary for Our Kids: Recording and Resources
“I love how thoughtful you're being about supporting children in being leaders. It's the dream!”
At our Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting on February 18, Julie Rigano, Director of Family Ministry at the UU Church at Washington Crossing in New Jersey, shared how she used the UU Climate Justice Revival Curricula for Pre-K to Young Adult to engage children and youth in shaping the ongoing work of the congregation's environmental initiatives—and how her approach has enhanced programming for all. Julie joyfully shared several ways to involve the youngest members of our congregations in our climate justice ministries, including two activity plans that she created to supplement the Revival curricula. A huge takeaway for many attendees was the idea of identifying a Green Sanctuary Team liaison to communicate with the Director of Religious Educator.
“I’m going to rethink the Climate Justice Revival materials and try to build the liaison role to the DRE and the children's programming.”
The UU Climate Justice Revival included transformative dialogs, worship, an organizing hour, and curricular materials for PK–YA. The curricula is without question the most under-utilized part of the Revival materials. Many didn't feel they had time to do everything or the capacity to also have offerings for the younger members of the congregation. The good news is that all of the Revival activities were designed to be evergreen—if you didn't do a Revival, you can do one now or at any time in the future, if you didn't use the Religious Education Curricular materials, there is no time like the present to give them a go!
“I love how Julie centered connecting the work of our adult Green Sanctuary/Climate Justice revivals with the experiences of children and youth, and opportunities for two-way dialogue 🙂”
You can find the video, slides from the meeting, and the materials Julie shared (March Super Sunday Activity Plan 3/30/25 and September Climate Justice Revival Activity Plan 9/29/24). Check them out! Host a watch party! Share the resources with others in your community!
“I will immediately send all of these great resources to the person on our team who was just asking about how to involve our RE kids more!”
Searching for more great ideas? Our new database is a great place to start!
Have you checked out the new Green Sanctuary 2030 Database? When a congregation adds an action to the Action Report Form, it populates our new searchable database where you can:
Browse actions by Congregation
Search by Keyword
Filter by Essential and
Filter by State/Province
The search will show the name of the action, a brief description of the action, and what Essentials apply to the action. When we celebrate progress together, we create a community of shared learning and mutual supports. Itching to check it out? You can find the link in the new Green Sanctuary 2030 materials! If you haven't downloaded the new materials, today is a fantastic date to do so!
Do you have questions about the Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice process and community?
Check out our GS2030 Frequently Asked Questions document. If you still have questions after that, please email climatejustice@UUA.org and we'll do our best to help you.
