Led by our Faith in Action (FIA) Coordinating Team, our congregation selects two nonprofit organizations each to receive financial support with proceeds from our Sunday service collection. Half of the weekly contributions support our own church social justice activities, and the remaining half is divided between our two FIA partners. Recipients are nominated by church members and chosen at our annual church meeting on the first Sunday after Memorial Day. We have proudly worked with more than 20 community partners.
Faith in Action Coordinating Team
Each spring, the FIA Coordinating Team solicits applications from congregation members for outside organizations to become one of our two annual Faith in Action partners. One of the criteria for selecting these organizations is that there will be opportunities for church members to be involved in community service and volunteer work.
Contact: faithinaction@ucdsm.org
Our 20222-23 Partner Organizations
Hawthorn Hill
Hawthorn Hill‘s mission is to establish and operate housing programs for homeless families with children that help them obtain permanent housing and to provide services to help families achieve economic self-sufficiency. Hawthorn Hill runs a short-term shelter and also a long-term housing program in single family and duplex homes in Des Moines. Caseworkers meet families where they are, working with them to secure transportation, daycare and education as well as housing. They are grateful to be selected to our Faith in Action partner for 2022-23 and look forward to working in partnership with us during the coming year
Let’s Talk
Let’s Talk has been volunteering in Des Moines Middle schools since January 2014 to help students resolve conflicts in a peaceful and restorative way where each student has a chance to talk about what happened from their point of view, how it has impacted them, and what they will do going forward to make things work better. They help create a culture of respect and inclusion and work to decrease the disproportionate number of students of color suspended and referred to the juvenile justice system.
Nominate An Organization
- You and your contact at the organization need to read the FIA Partnership Responsibilities.
- If you and your contact person think this might be a good fit, you’ll need to work together to complete the nomination form and submit it to the FIA team by April 18, 2022, for the 2022-2023 partnership year.
Compassion & Choices
Green Sanctuary
Green Sanctuary Designation
Since 2015, our church has been accredited as a Green Sanctuary by the Unitarian Universalist Association. T
he designation recognizes the work we’ve done in support of the UU Seventh Principle: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
Our Green Sanctuary Team is focused on engaging church members with both environmental justice and related social justice issues, such as energy efficiency, recycling, composting, etc., for our building and grounds. The team also promotes outside activities that our members can get involved with to improve the greater Des Moines community.
To join the Team’s work, please contact Ron Heideman at Green@ucdsm.org.
Housing & Hunger
Family Promise
Future hosting weeks:
- April 9 – 16, 2023
Sign up to help with hosting, rides, and meals here!
New hosts, please fill out this form and send to Hannah Notch at hnotch@ucdsm.org
New drivers, please review the driver information and fill out the driver application form. See the volunteer driver information and links to documents here.
For more information, contact our volunteer coordinator, Elaine Imlau, at familypromise@ucdsm.org.
Family Promise of Greater Des Moines (FPGD) assists families experiencing homelessness through a network of 14 area faith-based host congregations that provide clean, safe overnight shelter and nutritious meals for a period of one week every season. The host congregations provide each family with a private room for sleeping as well as dinner and food for breakfast and for packing a lunch. Each time our church hosts, about 100 volunteer job slots are filled to assist with meals, kitchen clean up, driving, and serving as evening and overnight hosts.
Online sign-up links are available about one month before each hosting week. Watch for announcements on our homepage and in the weekly Intercom.
FEDS (Feed Every Deserving Soul)
This social justice task force concerned with hunger and hunger issues (commonly identified as the FEDS: feed every deserving soul/stomach) attempts to identify, pursue and facilitate projects for church members interested in helping to alleviate hunger in central Iowa. Activities since the FEDS inception in 2008 have included preparing and serving dinner monthly at the Central Iowa Homeless Shelter, quarterly at Children and Family Urban Movement (CFUM), and collecting for the DMARC Food Pantry.
Contact our volunteer coordinator, Bruce Martin, at feds@ucdsm.org.
Immigration Justice
Legislative Action
Write Here, Write Now!
Each month members of First Unitarian Church partner with the Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ) and participate in this project. Write Here! Write Now! is a letter-writing campaign of the UUSJ Capitol Hill Advocacy Corps. The Corps members help make the UU voice heard on Capitol Hill by delivering letters from UU’s nationwide to members of Congress and their staff. Priority issues include defending our democracy, economic justice, environmental and climate justice, immigration justice and other pressing UU issues.
Since the first Advocacy Corps Day in February, 2017, Corps members have:
- Made over 1,827 visits to Capitol Hill offices
- Conducted more than 430 scheduled and drop-in meetings
- Delivered more than 9,868 Write Here! Write Now! UU constituent letters.
More than 550 of those letters came from members of First Unitarian Church!
Before the advent of COVID-19, letters were delivered in person. Until further notice, letters are being delivered via email.
For more information about Write Here! Write Now! contact Donna Jo Wallace at writenow@ucdsm.org.
Iowa UUWitness Advocacy Network (IUUWAN)
The Iowa Unitarian Universalist Witness Advocacy Network (IUUWAN) is Iowa’s state action network, working to build relationships and engage Unitarian Universalists across Iowa. We work to experience and integrate our affirmations of the” inherent worth and dignity of every person” and the “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” two pillars of our Seven Principles. Representatives meet via Zoom at 6:00 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month.
Individual UUs can participate by paying a yearly $5 membership. We also request that congregations pay a yearly membership of $1 per member. Other donations and contributions are always appreciated.
Connect with us at IUUWAN.com or follow us on Facebook. You may also contact members Linda Lemons or Terry Lowman at iuuwan@ucdsm.org to learn more.
LGBTQ+ Justice
Welcoming Congregation
Since 1992, First Unitarian Church has been a Welcoming Congregation, a volunteer program to take intentional steps to become more welcoming and inclusive of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. After nearly two years of work we were one of the earliest churches in the Unitarian Universalist Association to earn this designation.
Our congregation identifies Five Practices of Welcome which guide our work. Welcoming Congregations should implement each of these practices annually.
- Becoming a Welcoming Congregation, or working to renew your designation
- Holding Welcoming Worship Services that include honoring a milestone or rite of passage for an LGBTQ+ member of the congregation
- Participating in Welcoming Days of Observance, which commemorate and elevate landmark days and seasons in LGBTQ+ communities (Pride Season, Transgender Day of Visibility, World AIDS Day, etc.), through worship services, public events, or other gatherings organized by the congregation
- Supporting Welcoming Faith Formation programming that highlights LGBTQ+ issues and topics for all ages
- Engaging in a Welcoming Project by providing monetary support to a local LGBTQ+ organization
If you want to learn more about our work as a Welcoming Congregation, or want to talk about implementing a practice, please contact member Birch Spick at welcome@ucdsm.org.
Transgender Action (TAG)/LGBTQ+ Group
The TAG/LGBTQ+ Group is working to increase awareness of transgender lives and issues within the church community, as well as provide a safe haven and resources for transgender people in need. Through education and speaking events, the group educates the congregation on what gender identity is, how it is separate from sexual orientation, and ways they can provide support and encouragement to the transgender people within our community.
For more information, contact member Franco Berardi at tag@ucdsm.org.