August Events from Side With Love – First Unitarian Church of Honolulu

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Image description: The Side With Love logo with “Side With Love” in orange block letters next to a hand drawn black heart.

August calls us into the harvest of what we planted this summer.Last month, faith leaders from across the country traveled to Newark for the Road to Delaney Hall: a Welcome Day, a Day of Action, and a Farewell Day held in solidarity with the fight to evict GEO Group, close Delaney Hall, and end ICE imprisonment for profit. Those who gathered in New Jersey didn’t just show up for a single day; they built a template for what solidarity looks like when it’s sustained: arriving with intention, bearing witness together, and sending each other back out recommitted to the work. That is the model we carry into August.

This month, we’re inviting congregations to take that same spirit and turn it both inward and outward: inward, through continued discernment and skill-building, and outward, through solidarity summits that connect our communities to the frontline fights still very much underway.

On August 5, we continue the work begun in July’s Tune Up to Show Up training with the Democracy Defense and Community Safety Training, going deeper on the skills congregations need to protect their people and their public witness at this moment.

And on August 10, we gather again for The Gathering: Declarations of Democracy Series — Healing & Repair, continuing the work of naming what democracy has excluded and building, together, toward what it must become.

Finally, we’re excited to announce the dates for Tending SOIL 2027. Tending SOIL is Side with Love’s leadership program for Unitarian Universalists doing justice and organizing work in their congregations who want to work with others to more faithfully and strategically engage in the transformation of the world through liberating Love. Through SOIL, congregational or regional teams of 3-5 participants will strengthen their Skills, develop their Organizing Plan, practice Interdependence within and beyond their congregation, and deepen their understanding of Collective Liberation (ie, SOIL!). Learn more at our info session on September!

Scroll down to find this month’s full slate of events, trainings, and ways to stay connected or view this update on our blog.

Let’s keep gathering. Let’s keep choosing love, not as a slogan, but as the shared, public, transformative practice it has always been.

In solidarity, The Side With Love Team

August Events

New Resources

Immigration Justice Update
Tune Up to Show Up: A Skills & Risk Assessment Refresher – Recording

The Gathering – Declarations of Democracy: Healing & Repair

August 10 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT: Register nowAs the US marks 250 years, this fall The Gathering will examine the limits and possibilities of American democracy and our sacred call to shape a multiracial, interdependent democracy where everyone can thrive at Side With Love’s monthly event to strengthen your spirit, make sense of the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others!

This month’s focus: Healing and Repair panel with Caitlin Breedlove (UU the Vote), Rev. Vahisha Hasan (Movement in Faith), and QuianaDenae Perkins (Black Women of the Chalice). Rev. Verdis LeVar Robinson will root us in song and prayer.

Upcoming Sessions in the Series:

Creating Climate Justice with Green Sanctuary 2030

Each month, congregations are invited to join our drop-in office hours to ask questions, learn what other congregations are doing, and get the support you need to create climate justice in your community.Green Sanctuary Office Hours

August 5 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT: Register now.

Offering shared learning and mutual supports, the new Green Sanctuary 2030 process and community of practice are here to support any UU working on climate justice. To prepare for our time together, please review our short Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation Video and FAQ.

Love is the Framework for Climate Justice: August Community Meeting

August 19 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT: Register now.

Unitarian Universalists are people who love. Climate Justice is how we practice loving our world. Elio Farley, Side With Love Climate Justice Fellow, will kick off our fall Green Sanctuary community meetings by grounding us in Unitarian Universalist organizing frameworks. Together we will learn practical tools for approaching love as our strategy, ethic, and spiritual practice. In these times of fires and floods, we must courageously love.

Upcoming Sessions in the Series:

September 16: Creating Hubs of Climate Resilience and Community Care
October 21: Standing Rock Anniversary
November 18: Fractal Practices for Faithful Climate Justice

UU the Vote: Ignite Solidarity, Reimagine Democracy

Solidarity Summits Solidarity Summits are regional interfaith justice training and practice gatherings designed to strengthen the connections, skills, and capacities needed for this moment. Download the Solidarity Summit Toolkit to learn how to host a Solidarity Summit in your region.

Aug 5: Solidarity Summits: Transforming Electoral Organizing into Long-Term Democracy Infrastructure

How do we turn election-year energy into lasting community power? Whether you’re hosting a Solidarity Summit, encouraging your congregation to attend one, or simply curious about this new initiative, join us for a conversation about the theological and strategic foundations of the Solidarity Summit model. Hear from Summit hosts about their plans, learn how congregations can participate, and explore how these gatherings help build the relationships, skills, and infrastructure needed for long-term organizing beyond Election Day.

Community Defense and Safety Training Series

The Democracy Defense and Community Safety Training series is designed to expand our capacity for election protection and neighborhood defense. We will share concrete safety tools and practices for our collective wellbeing. Drop in to one or each of these trainings!

Resource: Immigration Justice Update

TPS for Haiti is still an open fight. USCIS has kept issuing short-term work-permit extensions since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but none of them resolve the underlying threat, and S. 4814 still sits in the Senate awaiting action. Immigrant justice, community safety, and democratic repair are threads of the same work, woven together across one long summer of showing up.Interested in working on immigrant justice? Connect with the UU Solidarity Initiative and sign up for updates!

If you weren’t able to join us in Newark, you can still act in solidarity right now: donate to Faith in NJ to sustain their organizing, and call your Senators this week to demand passage of S. 4814 extending Haitian TPS. A script and more information are available at uusc.org/save-haiti-tps.

Resource: Tune Up to Show Up: A Skills & Risk Assessment Refresher – Recording

Since 2025, the US has seen a huge increase in protests, direct actions, and public witness as mass numbers of people show up in sustained, coordinated resistance to fascism. At the same time, we’ve seen the Administration respond to these movements in increasingly aggressive ways, from violently confronting people in the streets to overcharging for minor offenses and pursuing grossly disproportionate sentences.In this context, how should our risk calculus change? How can we gauge which actions to participate in? What baseline skills and habits should we practice to keep ourselves and our communities as safe as possible?

Whether you’re newly participating in justice movements, or you’ve got years of experience in direct action, organizing, and mutual aid, this webinar will help you understand the specific risks and opportunities of this moment and reinforce best practices for showing up grounded and ready. Watch the recording.