Justice movements are built by ordinary people: October Update from Side With Love

Written By Side With Love

October asks us to trust what we've built. All year, UUs have been training, gathering, and deepening relationships across congregations and communities, and now, with early voting open and Election Day on November 3rd, that work goes out into the world. Whether you joined a Solidarity Summit, trained as an election defender, or are just finding your way in, this is the month to show up. As Elio and Rachel, Side With Love’s Climate Justice organizers, wrote in this week’s Action Center Update, “We keep each other safe through community care, justice-rooted preparation, and faithful response.”

That safety-building has been real. Hundreds of UUs have joined UU the Vote Solidarity Summits to grow power, deepen relationships, and defend our elections. In Memphis, congregations joined powerful actions to defend their neighbors against ICE and the "unsafe task force" that has jailed and killed community members. In Austin, we mobilized people from across Texas to show up as voters and as election defenders at the polls. In Virginia, national, state, and local organizations came together to advance our values through three ballot measures protecting abortion access and marriage equality and restoring voting rights for returning citizens. And on October 6th, faith and labor partners in Boston will gather to build readiness to defend our elections and strengthen the connections that grow our people power.

Because states and local jurisdictions administer our elections, the fight for free and fair elections lives in our neighborhoods. Poll workers and election defenders are still needed in these final weeks, and UU the Vote can connect you to that work wherever you are.

None of this replaces the immigration and detention fights you have continued to support. TPS, detention conditions, and family separation remain open and urgent. All this following a summer that was the hottest on record for the contiguous United States. So many congregations have the infrastructure to begin forming rapid response networks to nurture hubs of resilience; whether it’s to stop a detention or muck out a basement, the safest communities show up for each other. (See the recording and resources for September’s Creating Hubs of Climate Resilience and Community Care for ideas and best practices.)

Our job is to strengthen that infrastructure, nourish our networks of community care, and fill the gaps so no one is left behind.

And we're already looking past November. Tending SOIL, Side With Love's leadership program for congregational justice teams, helps teams build skills, sharpen an organizing plan, practice interdependence, and deepen their understanding of collective liberation. If you want justice work that's more strategic, more joyful, and involves more people, start talking with your team now. Learn more.

This movement needs more than clergy and institutional leaders. It needs everyday people called by their faith to bend the moral arc toward justice. Below, find the full slate of our trainings and program updates.

Let's keep building the world we're fighting for.

In solidarity,
The Side With Love Team

All October Side With Love Events

Congregational Leadership

Tending SOIL: 6-month Leadership Program for Congregational Teams - Accepting Team Applications thru 11/20! 

  • Do you long for justice work full of  joy, appreciation, and grounding? 

  • Do you want stronger congregational and partner relationships?

  • Are you ready to develop your skills and increase the strategic capacity of your justice team? 

  • Are you working with at least two other people who want to do this too?

Tending SOIL may be for you! 

Tending SOIL is Side with Love's 6-month  leadership program to support congregational justice teams in building their capacity to faithfully and strategically engage in the transformation of the world through liberating Love. 

Through SOIL, congregational or regional teams of 3-5 participants will strengthen their Skills, develop their Organizing Plan, practice Interdependence within and beyond their congregation, and deepen their understanding of Collective Liberation (ie, SOIL!) 

Team Applications are due November 20th, 2026. The program runs January through August 2027. Join an information session to learn more!

 Learn more by joining our live Info Session on November 15 and/or viewing our recorded info session. Learn more and explore our FAQs.

Climate Justice

October 7: Green Sanctuary 2030 Office Hours 

Climate justice work can feel lonely and overwhelming. Drop into any of our monthly Office Hours to ask questions, learn what other congregations are doing, and get the support you need to create climate justice in your community. Offering shared learning and mutual supports, the new Green Sanctuary 2030 process and community of practice are here to support any UU working on climate justice.  

To prepare for our time together, please review our short Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation Video and FAQ. 

 Register to join us 10/7 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT: Green Sanctuary 2030 Office Hours 

October 12: The Gathering - Honoring 10 years of the Standing Rock Movement 

10 years after the Water Protectors began their encampment at Standing Rock, Joseph McNeil (Dakota) joins us to reflect on energy sovereignty work today, the No Dakota Access Pipeline movement of 10 years ago, and longtime Dakota/Lakota/Nakota values and cultural practices. Sandra Bercier, Keeper of the Medicines (Anishinaabe) will offer prayer & water song. Rev. Clyde Grubbs (Texas Cherokee) and Rev. Karen Van Fossan will join the conversation, drawing connections with UU involvement then and now. Side With Love's monthly event to strengthen your spirit, make sense of the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others! Join us live or watch the recording later. Register to join: The Gathering: Honoring 10 years of the Standing Rock Movement  

The Gathering is Side With Love's monthly event to strengthen your spirit, make sense of the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others! Join us live or watch the recording later, every second Monday of the month at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 4pm AT / 2pm HT.  Register at sidewithlove.org/the-gathering. 

October 21: Defending Public Lands & Standing Rock Anniversary 

The Trump Administration has removed protections from more than 86 million acres of public lands, and millions more of our beloved landscapes and wildlife are in imminent danger of expanded mining, drilling, and timber harvests with limited consultation with Tribes and Nations and public comment. As our lands, waters, and habitats are under attack, UUs passed the 2026 AIW to Defend Against the Assault on Environmental Protections: Public Lands Rules and the Endangerment Finding. As part of our Standing Rock Anniversary events, join Deb Cruz from JUUstice WA, for a discussion about current issues and how we can protect public lands from the onslaught of logging, fossil fuel and other extractive industry projects. 

Register to join: Defending Public Lands | Standing Rock Anniversary 

Recording: Love is the Framework for Climate Justice 

August's Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Gathering's theme was Love is the Framework for Climate Justice!  Our main programming ultimately asked us how we want to love our neighbors. Elio Farley, Side with Love's Climate Justice Fellow, shared lessons from years of solidarity organizing and anti-white supremacy work. He called us to develop accountable relationships with our neighbors: “Climate Justice is ultimately an ethic of love that refuses to leave anyone behind when the water rises and the fires come. Climate Justice is how we love every neighbor, both human and beyond-human. ...Climate Justice is a Universalist commitment to the dignity and interdependence of all life.” Following our grounding, we focused on the Justice Essential and celebrated the marvelous climate justice work of the UU Fellowship of Hendersonville, NC.  

View: Love is the Framework for Climate Justice: Recording and Resources | Side with Love

Resource: Essentials of Climate Action: Justice 

The UUA's Green Sanctuary 2030 program invites congregations to engage in the Four Essentials of Climate Action:  

  • Congregational Transformation: working together to improve the ways we organize and collaborate;  

  • Community Resilience: cultivating communities of care to prepare for and respond to climate disruption; 

  • Justice: partnering with those most harmed by climate change to cultivate thriving communities; and 

  • Mitigation: reducing emissions from energy usage, transportation, waste, & consumption.   

The Four Essentials for Climate Action present unique, but interconnected, areas that are critical to advancing climate justice.  While each represents a particular area of climate action, they are deeply intertwined.   

Learn more about the Justice essential with this month's resource, featuring examples from congregations, educational resources for individuals and congregations, and future events that demonstrate this essential: Essentials of Climate Action: Justice | Side with Love 

Democracy

UU The Vote Trainings & Gatherings in October 

As we approach Election Day, congregations around the country continue their work protecting voters, safeguarding elections, and building the power of our communities! Join a Solidarity Summit in your region. Solidarity Summits bring together faith communities, grassroots organizations, and local leaders to deepen relationships, build practical organizing skills, and create networks of care and collective power. 

Join our drop in Office Hours to ask UU the Vote staff any questions you have and join one or more of our Democracy Defense and Community Safety Trainings for concrete safety tools and practices for our collective wellbeing. See all upcoming events at UU the Vote Events — Side With Love. 

  • October 4 in Golden, CO: GOTV canvass against anti-trans ballot measures with One Colorado and Families Not Politics 

  • October 8: Phonebank with Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi 

  • October 10: Phonebank with One Colorado and Families Not Politics 

UU the Vote Regional Solidarity Summits 

Solidarity Summits are regional interfaith justice training and practice gatherings designed to strengthen the connections, skills, and capacities needed for this moment. 

This moment calls us to build — and rebuild — our understanding of what it means spiritually to be neighbors and to engage in many forms of sacred community defense. Across faith traditions, we are increasingly called to respond to authoritarian violence with care, strategy, and coordination. 

Find a Solidarity Summit in your region to strengthen regional networks, deepen relationships, and practice the kind of solidarity this moment demands. 

Resource: Prophetic, Not Partisan – IRS Rules for Non-Profits 

Every election year many congregations have questions about how to act boldly on behalf of our values while also remaining compliant with IRS non-profit/501(c)3 regulations, especially with the uneven and contradictory enforcement of the Johnson Amendment. Check our resource center on IRS Rules for Nonprofits, featuring two webinars with best practices and recommendations as well as our toolkit, The Real Rules for Congregations: IRS Guidelines On Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections (updated March 2025). 

Learn more: IRS Rules for Nonprofits | Side with Love

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Creating Hubs of Climate Resilience and Community Care: Recording & Resources