Dear UU Nashua members & friends,

The Outreach Collection Team wants to make our UU community aware that we will not be collecting any further for the month of January for the Southern NH Rescue Mission (SNHRM).  In addition, any donation you have given on January 1 or January 8 will be given to the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, the new designee chosen by our committee for this month’s outreach collection, for its new Day Warming Shelter and additional breakfasts for those clients utilizing it.  If you have given money this month and do not want it given to the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, please contact Ericka (uucnoffice@uunashua.org) for a refund.

We are making this change after hearing concerns and complaints from some members of our UU community about some of the policies and practices of SNHRM.  We took these concerns very seriously, reviewing their public website and talking with the Executive Director, and then met as a committee, with Reverend Allison joining us.

Our committee’s conclusion was that there was too much of a difference between our UU approach to serving those in need, including those who identify as transgender or nonbinary, to ask fellow church members and friends for donations to the SNHRM.  It should be strongly noted that this decision is not a statement about the importance or quality of their work but rather about a difference between our core values and theirs.  The Executive Director, Lloyd Curtis, has offered to talk with anyone who has questions and to offer tours of their new woman’s center on Tolles Street. At least one member of our team plans to take him up on the offer and tour the new woman’s program, and we’d invite others to reach out to Lloyd Curtis at (603)889-3421 with any questions.

Finally, the committee regrets any distress that has been stirred up by the decision to select SNHRM as our Outreach recipient.  I (Bob Keating) was the person who asked SNHRM to apply, based on my long-term, although not in-depth, knowledge of it, my relationship with recent directors, and a wish to offer support for their new program in our own church neighborhood.  I regret not researching the programs more so as to save the difficulties for SNHRM and our congregation.  I pledge to do more research, even when I think I know an agency.

Please contact anyone on the Outreach Collection Team with any questions (uu-outreach@uunashua.org).

Thank you,
Victoria Agnew, Allison Annand, Bob Keating, Kate Messner