Sunday, June 5 Forum: WA UU Voices for Justice and Northwest UU Justice Network

Presenters: DD Hilke and Julia Cochrane

BUF Conference Room – 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Come talk with representatives of WA UU Voices for Justice and Northwest UU Justice Network at BUF on Sunday, June 5. This is an interactive workshop where your justice passions, goals and challenges set the agenda. UU justice leaders DD Hilke and Julia Cochrane respond with tools and services you can use, and can help you make connections to other UUs working on your justice issues. Whether you are working for justice within your congregation, lobbying the state legislature, or striking out individually or with secular, interfaith or tribal allies, this forum has something to offer you, and you likely have something to offer these networks of UUs working for justice. BUF’s social justice offering on June 12 will support these UU organizations.

DD Hilke began her life as a Quaker, later discovering more music and equally satisfying justice and spiritual practices in UUism in her early thirties. After 30 years of working in museums, crafting and evaluating exhibits, managing creative teams and ultimately reinventing a children’s museum, DD turned her creative and management skills to nonprofit work. Since 2011 she has served as the founding Executive Director of Northwest UU Justice Network which connects and supports UUs working on more than 50 justice issues. DD is a member of Woodinville UU Church where she sings in the choir, is a recent Past President and an active member of WUUC’s advocates for social justice.

Born in New York City and educated in architecture and math, Julia Cochrane came to Port Townsend, Washington 30 years ago. For the last twenty-two years she has worked for the Port Townsend School District and parented 37 teenagers. Her civic and justice contributions include welfare rights organizing and serving as a Housing Authority Commissioner. She also has fought exporting fossil fuels through the Salish Sea and increased militarization of the peninsula. Julia is a board member of Washington UU Voices for Justice and currently serves as co-chair of Quimper UU Fellowship’s Social Justice Council. Julia was recently tapped for an 18-month term as a UUSC Justice Building Innovator. In that role, she will tour Washington State and meet with congregational justice teams.

May 22, 2016, in the BUF Conference Room, 9:15 a.m. – 10:15 a.m: Kiira Heymann, Core Faculty Member of Explorations Academy

Explorations Academy is unlike any other independent school in the Pacific Northwest. This fully accredited high school has served students of Whatcom and Skagit counties for over 20 years. Rooted in experiential, field-based learning, the program provides students with opportunities to explore diverse subject matter, build positive relationships with peers and adults, and engage with the world around them in meaningful ways. At this Sunday’s forum, Kiira Heymann, a member of the “core faculty,” will share important highlights from the school year and lead a discussion around the kinds of skills, experiences and aptitudes that define education today as we prepare students for a complex, challenging, and exciting tomorrow.