Unity Partnership

  • Home
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Board Members
    • Affiliates
    • Sponsors
  • Calendar
  • Membership
  • Events Blog
  • Editorial Corner
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Board Members
    • Affiliates
    • Sponsors
  • Calendar
  • Membership
  • Events Blog
  • Editorial Corner
  • Contact Us

Unity Partnership Events & News

Welcome to the official Unity Partnership blog! This blog reflects events and activities that we sponsor or participate in in support of our mission--including Law Enforcement, Youth Engagement, and Community Outreach.  We occasionally include worthwhile news and opportunities that reinforce our mission. Please browse through these articles to see how we engage with our communities. Our members often participate in events sponsored by other organizations which promote greater cultural awareness and social change.  We will also include links to these events as well. 

Unity Partnership Supports SMILE Project

9/4/2018

0 Comments

 

The DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church shares its commitment to social justice with and interfaith potlucks to immerse the culture of DuPage UU Church in the myriad racially-based injustices that exist in our community.  We translated our passion into action by developing the SMILE (Students, Mentors, Internships with Local Employers) project from a model we learned about from a group of Proviso Township African-American ministers.

Our SMILE project engages high school students with mentors in workplace environments.  Students intern with their mentor for 16 hours per week for a total of 4 weeks, learning aspects of a business they are interested in, at no cost to the mentor. Students are paid an honorarium by the Social Justice Committee with funds raised by the DuPage UU Church congregation.  Contributions came directly from members and from a variety of fundraisers.

Unity Partnership actively supported the SMILE project by offering two internships with local police departments.  The student interns accompanied officers on “ride alongs,” and observed basic police procedures. The officers also modeled appropriate dress and demeanor in the workplace. Both the students and the officers reported that the experience was positive.

In keeping with the local departments and Unity Partnership’s goal of increasing diversity, all the SMILE project interns were young people of color. We hope to add additional departments next year, and again match students who express an interest in policing. We hope that other churches and groups will follow our lead and set up their own SMILE projects.  We know that a positive relationship with a committed mentor at a critical point in a teen’s development can truly be transformative.
​

Cheryl Clayton
Co-Chair DUUC Social Justice Committee
Second Vice President, Unity Partnership
0 Comments
    Change begins with ordinary people...

    Categories

    All
    360youth
    Backyard_party
    Board
    Bowlero_bowling
    Calendar
    Community_outreach
    Events
    History
    Implicit Bias
    Information
    Law_enforcement
    Martin_Luther_King
    Mission
    News
    Non-violence
    Protests And Rallies
    Regina_brent
    Shop_with_a_cop
    Youth_engagement

    Archives

    August 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    August 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017


    RSS Feed

Creative Commons License
Unity Partnership Web Site by Unity Partnership is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.