Beacon House

Founded by UU minister Rev. Donald Robinson in 1991, Beacon House continues to provide children ages 5-18 in Edgewood Commons affordable housing, NE Washington, DC, with a safe, nurturing, and life-expanding community in which to increase their academic achievement, discover their talents, and to grow into healthy adults who achieve their greatest potential.

Through our Beacon House liaison team at AUUC, we offer service opportunities that include donations of school supplies, holiday gifts and warm clothing. Most years, Beacon House is voted as an outreach collection recipient by the congregation at the AUUC annual meeting through which our congregation provides monetary support as well.

To join our Beacon House liaison team, please contact Nancy D. or Marsha W. Email justice@accotinkuu.org

Check back here in November to learn more about AUUC’s Holiday Gifts for Beacon House Children and Teens Program.
Learn more about Beacon House

CROP Hunger Walk

This community-based interfaith event raises funds for local and national hunger-fighting agencies as well as well as the international relief and development efforts of Church World Service. The Burke/Fairfax area CROP Hunger Walk involves about 20 congregations and organizations and is held annually on a Sunday early in November. The walk is about 3 miles long and is stroller/wheelchair accessible; therefore, it is great for a variety of ages. 

Hypothermia Shelter

For many years, AUUC has hosted a hypothermia shelter each winter (normally in January) for ~30 of our area’s homeless population, and everyone is invited to participate.  Doing this requires a set-up crew each evening to ensure the building is ready to receive our guests and a clean-up crew each morning to ensure the building is ready for our renters. In addition to providing a warm place to sleep, we serve dinner each evening and provide breakfast bags for the morning.  This requires people to bring prepared meal items to the church and others to arrange/serve the food and clean the kitchen after the meal.  We also provide clothing and toiletry items for our guests. This is a family friendly event and older children (around 10) are welcome to participate in the shelter any night under parental supervision.   For information, contact Ed K. or info@accotinkuu.org.

No Child Goes Hungry/Accotink

AUUC partners with Halley Elementary School in nearby Lorton to provide 35 children with meal packs that are distributed to the students every week by school counselors. Like many students in Fairfax County Public Schools today, these children receive free or reduced lunch during the week, but face challenges of hunger and food insecurity 7 days per week. Our meal packs contain nutritious, non-perishable foods, and include items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Additionally, AUUC encourages adults to volunteer as mentors to individual students at Halley Elementary School. Prior to being connected with a student, volunteers complete an FCPS mentor training program that prepares them for this meaningful experience.

In the spring, AUUC sponsors a collection of gently used children’s books to give to Halley students to read over the summer and then keep in their home libraries.

Learn more and donate food items for meal packs

Partner School in India (Mawlat)

Each year, AUUC sponsors at least 23 of the poorest children in the Mawlat Unitarian Upper Primary School in northeast India. Having the school through the upper primary grades gives children the chance for more education. To proceed past this level, a child’s family must pay school fees, travel, and boarding costs. This is prohibitive for most as the village is very poor. Sponsorship has no responsibilities; the village does not have internet and is remote. There are occasional travel opportunities. These are publicized in “This Week”.

We ask sponsors to donate $40 for each student (but any amount is very welcome!) to cover the cost of books, desk repairs, a subsidy to the low-paid teachers, a subsidy of protein for lunch and incidental expenses for a year. This is the Social Justice Committee’s only international project. To learn more, contact Marsha W.

Peace Promotion - Season for Nonviolence

Each year we support the Season for Nonviolence (Jan 30 – Apr 4), a time of peacemaking and consciousness-raising opportunity, inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fairfax Student Peace Awards

Through our Social Justice Committee, AUUC has been a sponsor of the Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County since 2007. These prestigious awards are given annually to local high school students and student organizations to promote and reward peacemaking efforts. Each year our 30 local high schools are invited to select a junior, senior, or student organization to receive the Peace Award for their school. The past two school years, 27 schools selected recipients who were then honored with their families at an annual ceremony held in March.

To read the inspiring profiles of these remarkable young people and their contributions to peace and peacemaking, visit http://fairfax.studentpeaceawards.org/student-profiles/

Several AUUC members are active members of the Student Peace Award Committee and work with the schools to solicit nominations. To help with the Peace Awards as a volunteer or find more information, please contact Nancy D., Lisa H, or Dotty S. Email justice@accotinkuu.org.

Get Out the Vote and Voter Registration Initiatives

UUA and Accotink voting efforts include voter registration, voter turnout, and combating voter suppression, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods. Democracy and the right of all people to have a vote are at the heart of our Eight Principles. The work is nonpartisan and involves taking concrete actions. As part of this effort AUUC members and friends sent thousands of handwritten postcards encouraging voters to verify their voter registration status and vote.  In addition, many have participated in phone and text banks.