Across the country, communities are being criminalized for surviving, whether through migration, protest, poverty, or identity.

Systems of policing, incarceration, detention, and deportation punish people rather than addressing the conditions that create harm. They divide communities and reinforce inequality rather than nurturing safety and healing. Criminalization is a tactic used by the powerful to divide and control, and it is not keeping us safe.

We believe in redemption, not retribution. Care, not cages. No person is disposable, and true safety grows from housing, community, dignity, and care, not punishment.

Side With Love organizes alongside movement partners to challenge systems of criminalization and to build communities rooted in healing, accountability, and collective well-being. We offer political education, support for solidarity, and connections to movement partners who are imagining and building something different.

Together, we work toward a future where justice means restoration, where safety is rooted in community care, and where every person is treated as sacred.

Take Action

• Side With Love’s campaign on decriminalization and immigrant justice
• UU Solidarity Initiative: The UU Solidarity Initiative is a nationally coordinated effort of UU and UU-adjacent organizations to provide resources and opportunities to build strong communities of solidarity with immigrant communities who are under attack. Our core members currently are BorderLinks, Unitarian Universalist Association, UUA Side With Love, UUMA, UURISE, UUSC, UUSJ, and the UU State Action Networks.
• Solidarity Sessions: Solidarity Sessions are an opportunity for folks working for immigrant justice to connect with one another and learn about the most recent changes in immigration laws and policies that impact the types of immigration relief available and who is eligible for that relief. Hosted on the first & third Fridays of the month at 11am PT/ 2pm ET.
• Toolkit: UUs Who Show Up for UUs Who Show Up: Guidelines for Arrestee / Defendant Support: UUs have been engaged in social change efforts, including nonviolent civil disobedience, for many generations. Today, it seems that UUs who resist injustice are being arrested and detained at increasing rates. This is due, in part, to an enhanced partnership between corporations and the state in criminalizing dissent. The sustainability of UU activism, as well as the sustainability of UU activists, well may depend upon the capacity of UU entities to provide a spectrum of support for those at the frontlines.

Learn

• Toolkit: Six Questions Congregations Need to Answer About Community Safety: Meaningful, effective response requires us to engage in faithful, values-based risk assessment and discernment that recognizes our unique landscape and community. This worksheet is an invitation for your congregational leadership and members to have a resourced, grounded, and accountable analysis of your congregation’s capacity to nimbly and resourcefully respond to any crisis.
• Abolition, Transformation, and Faith Formation: The central hub for resources related to the 2024-2027 Congregational Study Action Issue (CSAI) Abolition, Transformation, and Faith Formation. View the monthly themed conversations on abolition and find additional readings and learning materials.
• Workshop: Abolitionist Visions on Climate Justice: Imagine it’s 2050 and we’ve achieved all of our wildest hopes for climate justice…what does it look like? The abolitionist movement imagines a future without police and prisons, drawing on deep convictions, faith, imagination, and hope to do so. The climate justice movement is diverse, vibrant, and equally hopeful: but do we UUs have a vision of what a just climate future is? Without a clear vision of a world where all can thrive, we run the risk of prioritizing short-term gains, false solutions, legislative goals disconnected from cultural shifts, and distractions that divide our focus.
• Defund Fear Justice Activist Common Read Curriculum: This six session small group ministry style curriculum is great for groups interested in learning more about what calls to defund police and policing have to do with our Unitarian Universalist faith AND how to take concrete It includes six lessons with resources and reflection prompts for independent engagement, each paired with a group discussion guide. We created it in 2021 for the UUA Common Read of Defund Fear: Safety Without Policing, Prisons, and Punishment by Zach Norris, but the curriculum is evergreen and does not rely heavily on the book.
• Other trainings and workshops on decriminalization from Side With Love

Spiritual Nourishment

• Spiritual Nourishment materials from Side With Love
• Spiritual Practices for Challenging Moments—Resources for uncomfortable/spiritually challenging moments, curated by Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, with practices, music, and reflections.
• Spiritual Practices & Social Justice—Learn to be an effective agent of change and transformation by practicing regular connection with your core principles and beliefs. Drawn from the UU College of Social Justice’s service trip study guide.
• Braver/Wiser—Sign up for weekly messages of courage and compassion, complete with a timely prayer for the week ahead. Hear from the contributors about what helps them when the hurt of the world overwhelms, lifting up the sacred in everyday life.
• Risk, Courage and Discernment: Spiritual Preparation—Resource to help individuals and congregations interested in effective justice actions, grounded in collective liberation, accountable partnership, and leadership of those most impacted.
• Minns Lectures, Spring 2024: “Praying for Abolition” by Rev. Jason Lydon with response from Prof. Vincent Lloyd
• These collections of quotes, readings, prayers and more are focused on people in need of sanctuary. Share them in worshipful ways, online and in person.
  • Prayer for When You Reach Out to a Potential Partner
  • Prayer for When You Want to Do a Spiritual Thing But Are Really Nervous
  • Prayer for When You Truly Do Something Amazing
  • Prayer for Resilience of Love’s Resistance
  • A Song For Resisting the Criminalization of People Who Migrate
• Other sources of worship materials:
  • Compassion for Refugees collection (WorshipWeb)
  • Black Lives Matter collection (WorshipWeb)
• Small Group Ministry: A Call to Faith in Turbulent Times by Rev. Marta Valentín
• Small Group Ministry White Supremacy Teach-In, curated by Rev. Annie Gonzalez-Milliken