Social Action Coordination
Leader works with the Leadership Team to engage members in service and advocacy for justice as it is rooted in our biblical tradition. She encourages work on the quadrennial priorities of United Methodist Women national office for the greatest potential impact for change. The 2016–2020, priorities are:
- Criminalization of communities of color, with a focus on disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline.
- Maternal and child health with, a focus on ending maternal mortality in the United States and around the world.
- Climate justice, with a focus on United Methodist Women members' personal and collective choices through the 13 Steps of Sustainability and holding corporations accountable for polluting and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Challenging economic inequality, with a focus on securing living wages for all.
Conference Social Action leaders shall promote and interpret the biblical basis for social action and the position of The United Methodist Church on social issues, using the Social Principles (The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2016) and The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church, 2016. She will:
- serve as a member (or members) of the Leadership Team;
- work with the Leadership Team and United Methodist Women national staff to create a four-year plan of action on one or more of the national issue priorities;
- work closely with district Social Action leaders to plan district-level work on the issues, including district educational events, district-wide research on local concerns and discernment of how to respond locally;
- serve as the main contact to catalyze local and district work, to gather insights from the districts, to enable districts to learn from each other and help them to locate resources from United Methodist Women and encourage them to attend Leadership Development Days, as well as offering skills training in service and advocacy around conference priority issues.
- work with the program coordination leader/vice president and district social action leadership to plan an annual or bi-annual state legislative event together with ecumenical partners, if appropriate, focused on United Methodist Women priority issues and agenda;
- resource conference communicator for the website, print newsletter, emails and other communications, and enlist district counterparts to do so;
- serve on the following committees: Charter for Racial Justice, Program and others as assigned; and
- perform other duties if assigned, such as:
- assist in the planning of at least one United Methodist Church-sponsored event each year, including a specific education and action on your issue priority, according to your four-year plan.
- represent United Methodist Women on your conference committee working on justice issues (e.g. Church and Society or other). Bring the voice, priorities and concerns of United Methodist Women, and explore areas for collaboration. This may include other conference teams as well.
- know other justice leaders within your conference, and with the Leadership Team seek to build alliances with other committees and caucuses, such as Religion and Race, Status and Role of Women, racial/ethnic caucuses, Hispanic/Latino ministries and others. Consider how such alliances can advance your four-year plan around your issue priorities (e.g. collaboration on resolutions to your annual conference, education and strategy development on one or more issue priorities, etc.) and advance conference goals.