FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE COUNCIL 2026 CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE NOMINEES
The Change for the Future program takes designated funds collected from our Sunday Offerings and distributes them to four different nonprofit groups each year, each awardee for three months during the year. Church members will vote (either in-person or virtually) for four of the following Change for the Future candidate organizations at the 2026 Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday, January 25, 2026.
Please stop by their tables in the Social Hall from 12:45-2:00 on January 25, or read more about them below.
Name of the Organization: The Children’s Hour
Name of the Project: Busses For Schools to attend Globalquito: The Children’s Hour is presenting Globalquito, a children’s global music concert, broadcast, and arts education event at the Albuquerque Museum, in partnership with the nonprofit organization, Globalquerque. This event will have capacity for just over 200 students to join us in person. We would use these funds to provide busses for the elementary classrooms who attend.
First U sponsor: Christina Yovovich
Name of the Organization: International Association for Human Values (IAHV)
Name of the Project: The Art of Living Prison Program is an empirically validated, evidence based intervention approved by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The techniques taught to inmates have been shown to reduce stress, lower anxiety, improve sleep, decrease behavioral incidents, and decrease recidivism rates. See more at www.prisonprogram.org
First U sponsor: Samantha Miranda
Name of the Organization: Faith Roots Reproductive Action
Name of the Project: The abortion fund provides practical support—including transportation, lodging, and meals to individuals receiving abortion care in New Mexico. Recently, we began funding medical costs when patients are lacking only a few hundred dollars and might be turned away due to lack of funds. For individuals navigating racism, poverty, gender oppression, and anti-immigrant policies, accessing basic medical care is already a challenge. Many of our callers are coming from states where abortion is banned and they can no longer receive services in their home state. We offer a streamlined, trauma-informed approach to care that prioritizes the safety and dignity of each caller.
First U Sponsor: Liz Davidson
Name of the Organization: Saranam
Name of the Project: Requested funding will support housing costs at our northeast Albuquerque campus apartments, where families live for up to two years. Every August at our northeast campus, Saranam welcomes a new cohort of 10 families into the program. Families move into safe, stable, and fully furnished transitional housing stocked with household items, cleaning supplies, and food, and receive a small monthly cash allowance, basic living supplies, and food subsidies throughout their stay. Having basic living needs covered, families are able to focus their efforts on education, career development and acquiring life skills for independent living. The northeast campus has 20 apartment units.
First U sponsor: Nicia Rae
Name of the Organization: Inhora
Name of the Project: Community Education Project: we need videography equipment for interfaith and cultural community education related to end of life. This project related to social justice because of inadequate supports for the dying, high care costs, caregiver strain (1/4 of the US adult population), isolation of our elders, lack of affordable housing for certain populations, not enough healthcare providers to meet the needs of the community, overmedicalizing of the natural dying process – and more. Our videos would address these topics to bring education and culture change through interviews with partners like end of life doulas, hospice workers, grief counselors, community resource experts, financial planners, religious leaders, etc.
First U Sponsor: Social Justice Council
Name of the Organization: La Cosecha Community Supported Agriculture
Name of the Project: We want to fund the work we are doing with food benefit recipients who receive SNAP and WIC to tell their story, have a voice, and present lived experiences demonstrating the difference that government funded food benefits makes in the lives of their families.
First U sponsor: Lauri Andress
Name of the Organization: Roadrunner Food Bank
Name of the Project: Roadrunner Food Bank spends just under 98 cents of every dollar received for its food budget on getting food to people, including the cost of its fleet of trucks that not only delivers food to pantries like First U’s, it also travels locally, regionally and to other states to get the best food values it can find. Funding from First U’s Change for the Future would go to the expenses of increased and better quality food purchases.
First U Sponsor: First Unitarian Food Pantry
Name of the Organization: Minara Muslim Community Center
Name of the Project: Funding will be used primarily to purchase food items to feed the homeless. We spend approximately $250.00 per week to specifically purchase food items and water and at times toiletries to be directly distributed to the homeless.
First U Sponsor: Dale Potter
Name of the Organization: Contigo Immigrant Justice
Name of the Project: This funding will allow Contigo Immigration Justice to serve elders ready for citizenship, parents applying for residency and young adults who rely on DACA to work and remain safe. It will strengthen our capacity to meet rising demand and will provide direct support to families who are working to secure their future in Albuquerque during a period of profound risk and instability.
First U Sponsor: Elly Van Mil
Name of the Organization: The Yerba Mansa Project
Name of the Project: The purpose of our request is to guarantee that Spring and Fall semester field trips are available for our public school students who value and thoroughly enjoy spending time in an outdoor classroom with qualified teachers and herbalists. It is an ideal opportunity to inform students of the importance of this watershed area and how it supports all of the plants and animals in the Bosque. Our education program coordinator, Laura Shank, prepares all of the necessary paperwork for teachers who are interested in making a trip to the Bosque.
First U Sponsor: Edna Loehman
