In our Fall, 2007 welcome message, we noted that the world’s great religions all advise compassion and kindness towards others, so it’s not surprising to find local faith-based groups working to make a positive difference in the lives of the last and least. TEF is non-partisan and not affiliated with any specific religious organization but we are in harmony with these efforts and have been glad to be able to be of help.
Backpackpalooza
At the Burlingame United Methodist Church‘s second annual “Backpackpalooza” event, over six hundred backpacks were given away to local school-age children living below the poverty line. And with our matching funds, donors were able to help two children for the price of one. We salute Ursula Morgenstern, her volunteer team, and the leadership at BUMC for DOING SOMETHING about poverty in their community. This year’s event took place August 11 from 10am to 2pm at Central Park on 5th Street in San Mateo. Mark your calendars for next year, and join in the live music, games, raffle, face painting, and celebration — have fun and ‘be the change!’
Communications
We have assisted three Bay Area United Church of Christ churches with redesigning their websites, including the Congregational Church of San Mateo, the Ladera Community Church in Woodside, and and Skyline Community Church in Oakland. All three sites feature posters and mediaclips from the denomination’s national Still Speaking campaign. The progressive denomination found its ads rejected by broadcast networks, but they have been aired on cable and there is a grass-roots effort to fight network censorship at stillspeaking.org.
The denomination has some experience fighting the networks: in the ’50s when Southern television stations imposed a news blackout on the growing civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. asked the UCC to intervene. Everett Parker of the UCC’s Office of Communication organized churches and won in Federal court a ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property.
It is our hope that redesigned sites will provide these UCC churches a better foundation for communicating -and gaining support and volunteers for – social justice and anti-poverty efforts. Skyline church, for example, could use the site as a call to action, highlighting their own leadership in this arena (in addition to their Sierra Leone project and green jobs / climate crisis agenda). Church members at Skyline are partnering with other inter-faith and community services organizations to solve some of Oakland’s biggest problems with crime, education, and health care inequality, working together to bring about systemic changes in justice and poverty locally, as well as influencing many other UCC, and faith based organizations, and grass roots organizations in the Bay Area. They participate in the big brother / big sister program and host forums and community based events, movie discussions, interfaith services, and fundraisers in music and the arts, to raise awareness of, and commitment to resolve local challenges including job creation / job opportunities. Here are a few examples:
- In partnership with Mayor Ron Dellums office, and the New Interfaith Alliance of Oakland, Skyline Church is hosting a fall series on health and wellness, open to the public, covering such topics as nutrition, domestic violence, HIV awareness and prevention, mind/body/spirit holistic living, discussions on how to bring about more universal health care.
- Skyline members support Bay Area Community Services (BACS) programs, delivering services to the elderly and adults with mental illness in Alameda country, by serving as Board members, volunteers, and through financial support.
- In partnership with the East Bay Alliance for Worker Justice, Skyline leaders work to help secure living wages and healthier working conditions for contract truckers working in the port of Oakland. To this end, they are featuring a speaker series over Labor Day to raise awareness in Oakland about working conditions.
Client Feedback
Myrtle Carey attended our Ribbon Cutting event with flowers and the following gracious note: “This token of appreciation comes with the profound gratitude of the entire congregation of Ladera Community Church for choosing our project of designing a welcoming and vital new website. You blew wind into our sails and we’re soaring from its resounding success. We appreciate your talent and creativeness and we know you’ll be successful in your future endeavors. God bless.” – Myrtle Carey, Website Liaison, Ladera Community Church, September 7, 2007
