Living Into Our Vision
Overheard in the dining room at one camp: “Are we going to have the topic of racial justice at every one of our camps?” What a great question! The answer is no… and here’s a bit of the background for you.
In 2017, the Program Committee took notice of the call from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) for UU congregations and communities to begin looking at systems in their organization that perpetuated the harm done to Black people, Indigenous people and other people of color (also known as People of the Global Majority) and others traditionally at the margins and furthest from centers of power.
The Program Committee approached the Board in 2018 to wonder together how best to address the call to examine systems of white supremacy within the Eliot community. We discussed whether we should book speakers that would address these issues. The Program Committee felt it important that the Board displayed a willingness to engage in this work for it to be effective in camps.
With the Board’s agreement, the Program Committee moved forward with the idea that we would rotate topics focused on equity, racial justice, and inclusion through each of our camps every three years. The Board and Program Committee knew it would be a learning experience for us all as we embarked on this trajectory. There would be missteps along the way–and yet we were all dedicated to doing the work.
Our first camp to deal with the issue of racial justice was in August 2019 with the Rev. Meg Riley and Aisha Hauser as our speakers. Aisha is an accomplished religious educator, facilitator, author and anti-racism advocate with a demonstrated history of working in secular and religious settings. She is currently one of the leads for the UUA’s Church of the Larger Fellowship. Both Rev. Meg and Aisha planned the program. Rev. Meg was present onsite while Aisha participated by providing videos and daily conversation with Rev. Meg as camp progressed. The program was well-received.
Rev. Meg and Aisha were scheduled to do the same program for July 2020, and…then COVID hit. We all (Rev. Meg, Aisha, and the Program Committee) felt that we needed to postpone the program and focus on being together and seeing each other’s faces. We engaged Will Hornyak to be our speaker for that online camp.
Rev. Meg and Aisha were again contracted to be our speakers in July 2022. Due to various circumstances, Rev. Meg ended up needing to withdraw her participation as our speaker at the last minute. Aisha gracefully said she’d deliver the program on her own and she was present at camp. This camp did not go smoothly, and it highlighted the fact that we still have work to do. We released Aisha from her contract with Eliot on Wednesday afternoon. The Revs. Tandi Rogers and Samaya Oakley, who were at camp in different staff roles, delivered the program on the last two days of camp. Through this experience, we learned that we need better systems in place to handle feedback and to support our speakers.
After the camp, there were two right relations processes initiated by individuals impacted by the events of the camp. In each case the conversation was genuine, and participants listened well and expressed care for each other. Each participant said that they felt restored to right relations at the conclusion of the process. Each participant made requests of the other, and each expressed that their needs were met through the process. They also expressed they felt heard and understood by each other, that there was accountability for their actions, and apologies were offered and accepted.
Winter Eliot in 2022 was the first time that this camp addressed the issue with the Rev. Deana Vandiver and Ruth Idakula as our speakers. Ruth’s leadership is grounded in sustaining spiritual practices and she serves as a faith leader, religious educator, and facilitator for collective liberation in New Orleans and beyond. Rev. Deanna was present at camp while Ruth participated online through video and zoom. The program committee received feedback from campers regarding the success of having speaker participation via zoom. Some campers felt this was a successful blend, while others found disconnection within the presentation.
Our experiences highlight the need to emphasize that our Eliot covenant calls to us to bring our best selves to camp. We have worked on a process on how to interact with speakers at camp. This includes:
The first place to address concerns/issues is with one’s small group facilitator, who will lift it up to the Small Group Coordinator; that person will take it to the speaker, or not.
If this is not possible, alternative places to seek counsel would be the Equity Specialist (see below for the reasoning for this staff position), board liaison, and/or the Deans to workshop the issue.
This process will be included in each of our pre-camp newsletters.
We are planning for racial justice to be addressed at these upcoming camps: August 2023, Winter 2024, and July 2025. Thus far we only have a signed contract with our August 2023 speaker–Rev. Mykal Slack, community minister for Black Lives UU.
For every camp with a speaker who identifies as a Person of the Global Majority or from an identity moving from margin to center, the Program Committee recommends that we have a camp staff position of Equity Specialist. The job description for this new position was approved by the Board at the April meeting.
What actions has your Eliot Board taken since 2018 to address racial justice?
At the spring Board meeting in 2018, the Program Committee engaged Cecelia Hayes, a professional working in the field of equity and inclusion, to present and inform the Board how to engage in this work.
Our 10-year vision for what Eliot will look like in 2030 includes development of “interculturally proficient leaders and systems that promote and ensure equity and inclusion.”
We’ve read Robin D’Angelo’s book, White Fragility.
We have engaged an Intercultural Developmental Facilitator to inventory where we are in the journey to adopting and practicing cultural humility; this was done both collectively, for our predominantly white, monocultural governance board, and individually for members of the board.
We have created a new Social Justice and Inclusion Committee, which has as one of its purpose statements “to assist Eliot leaders and its organization in becoming more culturally proficient and anti-racist.”
We’ve revised our scholarship application process to be much more inclusive.
We have created a new staff position, the Equity Specialist, that will be in place each time a camp speaker is a Person of the Global Majority or other traditionally marginalized population.
Samaya Oakley, Program Committee Chair