About Side with Love
Side With Love is the Organizing Strategy Team of the Unitarian Universalist Association—a network of organizers, leaders, congregations, and justice partners faithfully working to transform our world.
We organize with love at the center. Not love as sentiment, but love as strategy, ethic, and spiritual practice. Love that is bold enough to confront systems of oppression, and grounded enough to sustain the long work of building something better.
Our work is rooted in the conviction that every person has inherent worth and dignity, and that all life is bound together in sacred interdependence. From that foundation, we equip individuals, congregations, and communities to live their faith in public: developing leaders, deepening political education, building collective power, and acting in deep solidarity with frontline movements.
We don't just respond to crises. We organize toward a vision: a world where all people are free and thriving, all bodies are sacred, and communities are grounded in care, equity, and collective liberation. We root that vision in joy, spiritual nourishment, and the liberatory dreaming our faith calls us to practice.
Through campaigns, organizing programs, and movement partnerships, Side With Love accompanies communities across the country as they move from values to action, faithfully, strategically, and together.
This is not simply advocacy. It is a way of being in the world.
Our Organizing Framework
At Side With Love, organizing is not just a strategy. It is a spiritual practice, rooted in love, animated by faith, and sustained by our commitment to one another and to the world we are building together.
We believe that justice work requires more than good intentions. It requires skill, relationship, discernment, and the capacity to act together, faithfully, and for the long haul. Our Organizing Framework describes the core practices that guide how we work, how we equip Unitarian Universalists to organize, and how we build the collective power our communities need to meet this moment.
With love at the center, and anti-oppression praxis woven through everything we do, Unitarian Universalists faithfully organize by:
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Re-Imagine Thriving
Rooting our work in joy, possibility, and the world as it could be.
Before we strategize, we dream. We root our organizing not just in the problems we are working against, but in the vision we are working toward: a world where all people, all beings, and the Earth itself flourish.
Guided by our faith, theology, and spiritual practices, we cultivate what we call liberatory dreaming: the collective practice of imagining a world free from exploitation and harm, and returning to that vision again and again as our North Star. Joy, creativity, and spiritual nourishment are not extras in this work. They are essential to it.
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Ground in Context
Rooting our work in accountability, relevance, and the particular realities of our communities.
Faithful organizing is always local. Before we act, we seek to understand the people, relationships, cultures, and conditions that shape our communities; the frontline communities most impacted by injustice; and the assets, resources, and relationships we have to offer.
Grounding in context keeps us accountable. It ensures our work is relevant, sustainable, and connected to the people and places it is meant to serve.
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Nourish Community
Rooting our work in interdependence, collaboration, and covenant.
Relationships are at the heart of who we are and how we move. We do not organize as isolated individuals; we organize as communities of people in covenant with one another, accountable to one another, and sustained by one another.
Nourishing community means developing leaders at every level, navigating conflict with honesty and care, building authentic partnerships with frontline organizations, and creating spaces where people can find their role in this work and grow into it. Movements are sustained by people, and people are sustained by belonging.
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Explore Possibilities
Rooting our work in solidarity, discernment, and collective liberation.
We pause before we act. We reflect on power: who has it, who doesn't, and how we can build it together. We analyze the political landscape, develop clear goals, and ask hard questions about whether our strategies are truly aligned with our values and accountable to those most impacted.
Exploring possibilities is how we move from good intentions to faithful, strategic action, grounded in solidarity, shaped by relationship, and oriented toward collective liberation.
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Mobilize Action
Rooting our work in love, possibility, and impact.
We move together toward our dreams. Through strategic communications, facilitation, campaign design, and collective action, we activate our people and resources in ways that are faithful, coordinated, and powerful.
Mobilizing action is not about urgency for its own sake. It is about moving at the pace that sustains: bringing more people in, building lasting infrastructure for justice, and winning real changes in the conditions of people's lives.
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Anti-Oppression Praxis—Woven Through It All
Everything we do is shaped by our commitment to understanding and dismantling structurally rooted oppressions. This is not a separate step in our framework; it is the lens through which every step is taken. We ask how our organizing confronts white supremacy, centers the leadership of those most impacted, and builds toward a world where all people are genuinely free.
This framework is not a checklist. It is a living practice, one we return to, learn from, and deepen together as we grow in our capacity to organize with skill, faithfulness, and love.
Ready to learn more? Explore our resources, connect with our campaigns, and find your place in this work.