September Shared Plate

For the 2022-23 church year, First Unitarian dedicates our monthly offerings to organizations led by youth and/or committed to youth leadership development. Throughout the year, our YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists) high schoolers will help decide which organizations will be our monthly shared plate partners, consistent with their values and prioritizing the issues our youth care deeply care about.

For the month of September, we share our offering with Sunrise Movement PDX. Sunrise began with a group of young people heeding the call to create a space in Portland’s climate justice community for youth to come together and uplift each other’s voices. They strive to empower generations to become active and take leadership in this movement. Youth vs ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) is a project of Sunrise organizers fighting for a rapid and just decarbonization of our state’s transportation. 

At the June 2022 General Assembly, we were pleased to partner with Youth vs. ODOT to co-host one of their biweekly youth strikes demanding that ODOT, the Oregon Transportation Commission, and Oregon’s governor fund youth futures, not freeways. Our shared offering will support the collaboration between Sunrise Movement PDX and Portland Youth Climate Strike for their mass action this Fall.