Economic Justice

Working for Economic justice. Balancing direct service, education and advocacy, this committee focuses on economic justice issues. Sign-up sheets for all our activities can be found on the Social Justice Table during the Coffee Hour following Sunday services. Our activities include: 

• Education Efforts. These focus on helping our community to consume and invest in a socially responsible manner.
• Annual Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar. Each year we hold a Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, featuring jewelry, handbags and gifts from around the world. The gifts are selected by Trails to Bridges, Inc., an organization that ensures fair compensation for the people that make the items. The 2009 Bazaar raised $813, which was donated to Growing Power.
• Guest House Shelter. We provide supper for 65 or more men at the shelter several times a year. Volunteers select an item from our menu—entrée, salad, bread, dessert—and deliver enough food for 12 men to the Guest House. Five or six volunteers stay to serve the meal. Volunteer dates are also available for helping staff the clothing dispensary.
• Cathedral Center Shelter. We provide a light meal for about 40 women and children at the shelter on two weekends yearly, usually in spring and near Christmas.
• Autumn West. We provide a home-cooked hot breakfast for about 20 people at this transition home for formerly homeless people with mental health issues, on the first Saturday morning of each month.
• Interchange Food Pantry. The third Sunday of each month is Samaritan Sunday, when food or money collected at First Church is donated to downtown Milwaukee’s Interchange Food Pantry.
• Just Music Benefit Concert: We host an annual concert featuring over 20 musicians performing songs of justice, equality and compassion. With over 100 people in the audience at the 2009 benefit concert, and a grand total of $1,100 raised, we consider this event a big success. Proceeds are donated to the Guest House in support of their programs for Milwaukee’s homeless adult men.
• Classical Recital: We host an annual recital featuring a few local musicians performing music that follows a particular theme. 2010’s recital featured songs with a Mother Earth theme—all songs were written by or about women, and composers included Clara Schumann, Lori Laitman, Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber. Proceeds from freewill donations went to the Sojourner Truth House, a Milwaukee shelter for battered women and children.
• Fund/Clothing Drives. In 2008, our congregation participated in a postcard campaign, which helped establish a Housing Trust Fund to provide more housing opportunities for people with limited incomes in Milwaukee. In 2009, we provided more than 100 pairs of long underwear for men and children at the Guest House and Cathedral Center.
• Forums and Workshops. In 2008, the Rev. Terry Provance, Executive Director of Oikocredit, explained how microcredit operates and how local churches can get involved. Oikocredit was founded in 1975 by the World Council of Churches, and currently makes loans through more than 400 cooperatives. In 2010 we will host a Fair Trade Forum.
• Economic Justice-themed film screenings. Free and open to the public, these events always make for interesting discussion following the film.