Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA

A diverse, welcoming community of open hearts and minds since 1948

VOICE

Information

VOICE, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, is a broad-based, non-partisan citizens' power organization of 50 diverse faith congregations. The group organizes people and money around social justice issues such as immigration, affordable housing and healthcare for the benefit of disadvantaged residents in Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William and counties as well as the City of Alexandria.

Archives or Add'l Group Website: http://www.voice-iaf.org/
State Northern Virginia
Members: 68
Latest Activity: Jul 29, 2012

"Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement" (VOICE)

VOICE at UUCA

UUCA was instrumental in the founding of VOICE in 2008 and continues to be one of the most active member institutions. UUCA hosts many VOICE activities and UUCA representation at a public action is typically 10% of the total attendance.

Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles is a member of the Executive Committee of the VOICE Strategy Team. Robert Buckman and Jacomina de Regt are also members of the Strategy Team and Robert leads the Arlington Action Team.

Strong UUCA support for VOICE expresses the congregation’s commitment to social justice ministry and for engaging hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart with racial, religious and multi-cultural diversity.

VOICE is funded by dues paid by member institutions (congregations, temples, mosques, union local, business groups, schools, health centers, etc.) and grants from foundations.

For more information on VOICE, visit the organization's website at http://www.voice-iaf.org/ . For a specific question, please contact Jacomina de Regt at jacominaderegt@gmail.com or (703) 525-7358.

Current Issues

Affordable housing is a major issue in Arlington and Alexandria as rising land prices and re-development forces erode the limited stock of low-income housing. This affects not only the service workers who cannot afford to live in Arlington and must commute long distances from outlying counties, but also long-time resident families who want their working children and aging parents to be able to continue to live in their home communities. Environmentalists are concerned over the congestion and greenhouse gases generated by commuter traffic. Business owners must contend with productivity issues without a stable, local base of employees. Thus, the stakeholders for affordable housing include the powerless as well as the powerful, a broad coalition of victims with a common cause.

Other VOICE action issues include: the housing foreclosure crisis in Prince William County, investing in youth in the Fairfax County Route #1 corridor, improvements for seniors in McLean and Falls Church, and low-income dental care.

Learn more of how VOICE is organizing around all of these issues at: http://www.voice-iaf.org/what-we-do

Past Accomplishments

VOICE, with the strong leadership support of UUCA, has accomplished much since its founding acton in 2008. Read and learn the details at: http://www.voice-iaf.org/whatwedo-accomplishments

Put These Dates on Your Calendar

Monday, 1 October 2012: 700-person VOICE Foreclosure & Bank Accountability Action in Prince William County (Senator Warner & Top Bank Executives have confirmed to attend)

Friday, 26 October 2012: Registration deadline to attend VOICE 3-day Training at BWI near Baltimore, Thursday evening November 15 through Saturday noon November 17.

Fall 2012: 600-person Affordable Housing Action in Arlington, date and venue pending

Discussion Forum

Affordable Housing in Arlington, County Board Meeting July 23, 2012

The Arlington County Board Room was full on the evening of July 23 when the Board considered comments and voted to approve development plans for Columbia Pike. Half the room stood in solidarity with VOICE when two VOICE leaders delivered powerful…Continue

Started by David McTaggart Jul 29, 2012.

Affordable housing needs the power of your presence at VOICE action this Saturday, March 24

Are you having difficulty finding affordable housing in Arlington,…Continue

Started by VOICE Mar 18, 2012.

Founder of the IAF 1 Reply

1/27/12 Wash Post, great article about Alinsky's tactics. Coming from Chicago and being of an ancient age, I can remember some of his tactics especially at O'Hare Airport and the airport authority trying to put in pay toilets. Continue

Started by Marcy Leverenz. Last reply by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles Jan 27, 2012.

On the Ramp Up to October 30th 3 Replies

Looks like a huge national movement is in progress to demand that banks make amends for the mortgage and foreclosure crisis.I think that the October 30th VOICE action can be seen in this larger context, and adding to it, to demand that the banks…Continue

Tags: VOICE, housing

Started by jill herndon. Last reply by jill herndon Sep 17, 2011.

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Comment Wall

Comment

You need to be a member of VOICE to add comments!

Comment by Moya Marlene Atkinson on September 23, 2010 at 5:01pm: Oops, I didn't complete my last comment. I was trying to say that I read Robert Buckman's summary of VOICE accomplishments January-June, 2010, as well as everything about VOICE that's on the web, but couldn't figure out how to become a member of the UUCA VOICE group. I hope someone will show me how.
Moya Atkinson

Comment by jill herndon on September 23, 2010 at 12:27pm: Robert Buckman summarized VOICE Accomplishments January-June 2010 in his blog on September 11, 2010. Here is a link to it, so we bring it into our history here for people coming by later this Fall. Click here to get to the blog.

Comment by jill herndon on September 13, 2010 at 4:51pm: Here is the collection plate for Sunday 9/12 :

From: "Beth Enriquez"
Date: September 13, 2010 11:10:24 AM EDT
To: ,
Cc: "Bill Peters"
Subject: Voice Contributions 9/12/10 Service

Good morning,

Bob Gayer has tallied the Voice contributions for Sunday, 9/12/10. Total contributions were $3,849.00. This includes $735 in cash from the plate (50%), $3,570 in checks designated to Voice, and $279 in cash in voice designated envelopes.

Comment by jill herndon on September 10, 2010 at 6:39pm: http://www.uucava.org/profiles/blogs/learn-about-community-1?xg_source=act...

Comment by jill herndon on September 9, 2010 at 7:02pm: I think it is useful for anyone coming new to VOICE to find our history, members, and recent activities. I do not know of any system traffic stats that would tell us how many people come here to read -- except that this Group has about 50 members. All members have come to this page to become members.

Benefits of membership include the messaging function which sends messages to each member's personal email/mobile number.

We can also link from here out to blogs and photos and videos that are not "here" but can be included through links into our history, discussions and comments. These can be materials from any other web source including IAF. I think this site provides a welcome shopping cart that way -- a front door to other VOICE resources.

VOICE also uses other tools for social networking on this site,including blogs under the authorship of the VOICE persona.

And finally, this site is a Public Internet-wide Group Page that will turn up in searches for people -- such as our other Interfaith communities in VOICE -- who want to know what we are doing.

It is of course, as useful as VOICE members make it.

Comment by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles on September 9, 2010 at 4:17pm: Is this still a group people find useful? Let me add my VOICE voice here.
A few updates -
Sept 5, the first of the 4 September Share-the-plates in Sunday morning offerings, brought in close to $3,000 for VOICE.
This week, Robert Buckman and I joined other VOICE leaders from the 8th congressional district in a very good meeting with Congressman Moran and three of his top staffers.

It was wonderful to be with four of our church youth, and quite a number of UUCA VOICE leaders (including Rev. Carlton!) at the Aug 25 Iftar at Dar Il-Hijrah mid-Ramadan. A great way to be in relationship, and show solidarity.

Remind people that engaged involvement with VOICE is a way to support the Muslim community in Northern VA.

Comment by VOICE on April 19, 2010 at 12:22pm: VOICE Solidarity Action with Immigrant Youth:
Sunday, April 25th, 2-4pm

V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) invites you to a solidarity action on April 25th with the young adults participating in the “Trail of Dreams”, four brave students who have been walking from Florida to DC in order to bring awareness to the lack of opportunity for higher education for undocumented youth. These students represent millions of young people who were brought to the U.S. by their families when they were young, and through no fault of their own, inherited the title of undocumented immigrant.

Come hear their stories and the stories of young leaders from the Arlington Diocese, as well as the perspective of professionals that work with immigrant youth and their families.

The event will take place next Sunday from 2-4pm at Church of the Nativity in Burke, VA, 6400 Nativity Lane. We would like everyone arrive by 2pm and be seated by 2:15pm so that we can start promptly at 2:30pm.

Comment by jill herndon on February 3, 2010 at 9:52pm: Subject: V.O.I.C.E Alexandria ACTION with City - Feb 20th @ 8:45am

V.O.I.C.E Alexandria Action with City Council & Mayor

Date: Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Time: 8:45am - 10:15am, action starts at 8:45am sharp

Location: We'll start at Old Presbyterian Meeting House (Fellowship Hall), 318 S. Royal St, Alexandria, VA
and walk over to City Hall, 301 King St, Alexandria, VA

Focus: We will be challenging the city council and Mayor to ensure that issues of residents who were relocated (see Not Home for the Holidays, 12/21/2009, Washington Post) and remaining Bland residents are resolved.

--
Jennifer Knox
(608) 334-4507
www.voice-iaf.org

Comment by VOICE on February 2, 2010 at 7:29pm: Upcoming Training Calendar:

IAF National Training:

Sunday, March 21st @ 5 pm—Saturday, March 27th @ 12 noon,
Boston, MA

Monday, May 17th @ 11 am—Friday, May 21st @ 3 pm,
Drew Seminary, Madison, NJ

Tuesday, July 6th @ 12 noon—Tuesday, July 13th @ 3 pm,
Chicago, IL or Los Angeles, CA

Metro IAF Local Leadership Training in Baltimore/DC/VA Area

Thursday, April 22nd @ 5 pm—Saturday, April 24th @ 12 noon

Thursday, October 21st @ 5 pm—Saturday, October 23rd @ 12 noon

Local Introductory Training:

VOICE Introductory Training: Monday, March 1st 7 pm—9 pm
Old Presbyterian Meeting House,
318 South Royal Street, Alexandria

Comment by VOICE on December 17, 2009 at 7:49pm: Thank you for your support of VOICE over the fourteen months since its first action in October 2008. The accomplishments of VOICE to date would have been impossible without you and your fellow VOICE participants.

Do you remember the excitement when we joined with 2,300 other VOICE enthusiasts in Dumfries last year? There were 27 public officials in attendance, including one candidate for U.S. senator from Virginia, one state senator, three college presidents, three bishops, and the chair persons of all four local governments.

In the spring, we influenced the Arlington County Board to preserve funding for affordable housing, ESOL training and safety net programs, to provide additional funding for the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic, and to help fund the low-income Macedonia apartments. Beyond Arlington, we forced an improvement in the deplorable conditions at the Bella Vista slum apartments at Culmore; forced long overdue plumbing and fumigation work at Bland public housing in Alexandria, and stopped the Prince William County Board from zeroing out any mention of affordable housing in is strategic development planning document.

We met with Governor Kaine on a Monday evening in July. We discussed dental care for low-income adults in Virginia and delays in immigration applications processing. Subsequent conversations persuaded U.S. Senator James Webb to meet with affected persons at the Dar Al-Hijra mosque.

In October of this year, we made plans to hold follow-up conversations with the Northern Virginia state delegation and to hold an action in Richmond early in the new ear. Stay tuned.

Organized people and organized money working persistently and consistently over time. That’s the simple formula for success. Simpler yet, it was the one-on-one conversation repeated hundreds of times, the so-called “radical tool,” that united 47 diverse faith congregations in one common ministry for social justice.

We are using this same radical tool within our own church community to strengthen our bonds of relationship and trust. To soulfully share and listen to each other’s stories of who we are, who we want to be, and what we want our church to be is spiritually transformative. How many conversations will you commit yourself to having in January? And in every month throughout 2010?

The plate offering from all Christmas eve services will be distributed between VOICE, Beacon House, and the Holdeen India Program. Be assured that your generosity at that time will enable much good work and will be greatly appreciated.

Please join the VOICE Group on our new church website. Doing so is the easiest way to receive announcements of upcoming VOICE events and to join in our conversations. Here’s what to do:

Follow this link http://www.uucava.org/group/voice to the VOICE Group on our church site and sign in at the upper-right hand corner. Then, click on the invitation to “Join V.O.I.C.E.” immediately to the left of the box that now shows your name.

Sincerely,

Your UUCA VOICE Core Leadership Team

Democracy is an act. It is an act that requires participation, organization and dedication to the highest principles. It is an act, and a series of actions that require us to continuously verify our commitment to civil rights and social justice at every challenge.
Martin Luther King