Our Mission

Raise awareness and understanding of and engagement with race and racism. This includes our individual and collective opportunities to achieve racial justice.

Our Wednesday Morning Coffee Circle

Since 2020, these unstructured conversations are open to all interested individuals and offer opportunities to talk about recent events or personal experiences, related to racial justice, and to support one another. Drop in any time, stay as long as you want.
Day and Time: Every Wednesday, 9:00 to 10:30 MT
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85271927329?pwd=V3VkeXYrSzF5OVdkaEFOT29vV1dSUT09
Meeting ID: 852 7192 7392
Passcode: chalice

Our Origin Story

RJM was formed following a 4-week interactive “Decentering Whiteness” learning circle that began in January of 2019 and was facilitated by Rev. Sara LaWall and then Director of Family Emmie Schlobohm. Shortly after the conclusion of the learning circle, 4 participants met with the purpose of continuing to educate themselves and others about race and racism. In May of 2019, this group formed the Racial Justice Ministry (RJM) of the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (BUUF). Our work began by taking the lead in the congregation’s consideration and adoption, in November of 2019, of the 8th Principle:

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

The RJM continues to be guided by this principle.

Our History

Since the 8th Principle, we have been working to “raise awareness and understanding of and engagement with race and racism.” Our work has included planned programs, including, as a sample:

• A monthly “Race in Focus” series, beginning in March of 2021, that held discussions on selected topics that included boarding schools, the Urban Indian Relocation Program, convict labor, the Tulsa Race Riot, critical race theory and The 1619 project.
• A program on “Black Music: A Window to America” in December of 2022. The program speaker was Dr. Dwight Andrews, Professor of Music Theory and African American Music at Emory University and Pastor of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Atlanta in Atlanta.
• A 2022 field trip to the Four Rivers Cultural Center and Museum that included approximately 40 individuals, adults and youth.
• Educational programs held every October on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, beginning in 2019 These programs brought to the congregation Native Americans from nearby tribes – storytellers, speakers on tribal culture, food traditions, and other aspects of tribal life.
• Supporting our nearest Native American community, Duck Valley, in their children’s and youth’s social programs through personal financial donations, organized book and clothing drives, joining with the Boise Bicycle Project in a bicycle giveaway.

Sponsoring, promoting, and sometimes funding programs offered by other community organizations, including, as a sample:

• A 2021 “Special Appeal” that raised $15,000 to fund equity, inclusion and diversity trainings Provided by the Idaho Commission for Libraries to librarians in schools and the public library system throughout the state.
• A 2021 grant of $5,000 grant from Cascadia Growth Fund to support the Boise-based “Turning Pages Project” in its second year of development. The first year of the project included elementary school students reading of books by People of Color and art projects to accompany those books.
• Promoting the annual Soul Food Festival and BIPOC Playwrights Festival.
• Spontaneous “meet-ups” in which a group of people meet up before or after and visiting relevant exhibits at the Idaho State Museum, Boise Art Museum, Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, and other community organizations.
• A presentation of $2000 to Leta Harris Neustaedter to support the staged reading of her play “Intimate Apparel” at Boise Contemporary Theater.

Our Current Work … Reparations

The Racial Justice Ministry has organized a 10 member Reparation Working Group (RWG) that has been meeting since early September 2025 with the goal of proposing a congregational resolution on reparations that can be voted on during early May when the Spring 2026 Annual Meeting of the congregation will be held. To understand reparations as clearly as we can, we have used a range of resources – from the Unitarian Universalist Association to the United Nations; we have worked through multiple drafts of the resolution; and we have mapped out a plan for 4 “Listening/Learning Circles” to provide opportunities for members of the BUUF community to learn about the draft resolution, ask questions, and express any concerns that they might have.

Listening/Learning Circles will be held on:

• Sunday, February 15, 2026 in person at 11:30 am (after the Sunday service) in the BUUF North Wing
• Monday February 23, 2026 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm by Zoom https://bit.ly/4kcAi9m
• Sunday March 15, 2026 in person 11:30 a.m. (after the Sunday service) in the BUUF in North Wing
• Monday March 23, 2026 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm by Zoom https://bit.ly/4kcAi9m

Click HERE to see the latest draft of the resolution along with “A Guide to the Social Justice Reparations Resolution 2026” that contains 5 parts:

• Part 1: Background
• Part 2: The Problem We Are Addressing / Historical Grounding
• Part 3: Boise UU Fellowship Should Engage in Reparations
• Part 4: What We Mean by “Reparations”
• Part 5: Foundational and Helpful Resources