Foothills Unitarian 2021 Annual Report

2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Ministers 2020-2021 Board of Trustees

Rev. Gretchen Haley, Lead Minister

Sue Sullivan, President

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron, Associate Minister

Richie Nelsen, Vice President

Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink, Assistant Minister

Walter Nash, Treasurer Andrea Delorey, Secretary

Staff

Mary Klecan

Katie Watkins, Director of Finance & Operations

Linda Kothera

Eleanor VanDeusen, Director of Family Ministry

Doug Powell

Lauren Farley, Family Ministry & Engagement Coordinator Kelsey DiAstra, Creative & Communications Manager

970-493-5906

Foothills Unitarian Church

hello@foothillsuu.org

1815 Yorktown Ave,

foothillsuu.org

Fort Collins, CO 80526

Staying True to Our Vision 2021 was a year of adapting church again and again to meet brand new needs that didn't match times before the pandemic and weren't quite the same as in 2020. We offered more options to engage with worship, small groups, justice, and service - online, in-person, and hybrid - so we could continue to meet people where they are.

We constantly updated COVID Safety protocols, adjusted events based on changing realities, and we were awed by the gracious and generous flexibility of our congregation.

We responded to the shifting needs of our culture - not just in terms of the pandemic - but also to the emerging anti-LGBT, anti-science, and anti-history voices in our local school district and across the country. In partnership with other faith leaders, the Foothills ministers urged the Poudre School District remain committed to a science, fact, and inclusivity-based approach to policy. Leaders from all of our justice teams began meeting regularly to enhance existing and launch new intersectional initiatives. We restarted 8th/9th Grade Our Whole Lives, a sexuality education class that affirms all gender identities and sexual orientations. Sanctuary Everywhere, the Foothills Justice Ministry that accompanies asylum seekers as they build new lives in Northern Colorado, began supporting a family of over 15 from Nicaragua. Our congregation also unanimously passed a statement of conscience supporting notfor-profit, single-payer, universal healthcare at our Spring 2021 Congregational Meeting.

Through it all, we stayed true to our bold vision.

Foothills Unitarian Vision Statements Guiding 2021

1. Relationship: Foothills is a vital part of the lives of its people, providing abundant opportunities for relationships across differences that provide joy, care, and belonging for all.

2. Spiritual Deepening: We are actively engaged in a process of lifelong spiritual deepening that allows us to live lives of meaning and purpose in a world that needs our Unitarian Universalism.

3. Involvement: We understand that being a part of Foothills requires us to give abundantly of our time, and this deepening involvement helps us to identify and grow our individual gifts.

4. Ownership: We each give generously and gratefully of our financial resources in ways that foster a deep ownership of the impactful work we support.

5. Social Change: We recognize and dismantle prejudice and oppression in all their forms, including within ourselves, allowing us to be more effective and trusted partners to marginalized communities in Northern Colorado and beyond.

6. Sustainability: Foothills is a leader in Northern Colorado in developing sustainable, innovative, intersectional approaches to caring for our earth and its people to ensure a greater flourishing of all life.

7. For Northern Colorado: We do the work to make Unitarian Universalism accessible to all in Northern Colorado.

Worship Throughout 2021, we repeatedly adapted to ensure everyone near and far had a way to worship with Foothills Unitarian. We relaunched in-person services while continuing our online offerings. Our worship team innovated a new intergenerational service format outdoors at a park to welcome children safely back on Sundays. We redesigned our Podcast - The Foothills Deeper Pod - to create another way for folks to receive a cohesive experience of Sunday's message. We relaunched choir rehearsals, experimenting with ways to stay safe and sing together.

1,041

51

confirmed unique Sunday Service

participants in Deeper, a January -

attendances

May weeknight gathering to explore worship themes

246 attendees at our first in-person

271 | 38,000

Water Communion since 2019

videos created | YouTube views

$77,230

102

offered through Share the Plate, which

people partnered in making worship

is split evenly each Sunday between

happen by leading Zoom breakout

Foothills and a community partner

rooms, joining the hospitality team, offering a chalice lighting, and more.

2,000 | 14 podcast downloads in the first 90 days after revamping and relaunching | countries where people listened

132 Sunday services offered

8

297

memorial services - four in-person,

newcomers welcomed

two virtual, and two hybrid

Ongoing Innovation In 2021, we not only adapted worship services to meet the moment; we innovated programs outside of Sundays, too! We provided spiritual practices over text and email. We offered Zoom yoga and hybrid T’ai Chi Chih, meditation, and mindfulness classes. We even had a church-wide playfulness competition - The Foothills Ultimate Fun Face-Off - that had challenges that could be done together, alone, in person, or online, so everyone could join the fun!

33

28

graduates of the brand new online

participants in Party of One, which

version of BaseCamp created by Rev.

offered support to those who have felt

Sean to make the newcomer program

isolated during the long-haul of the

more accessible

pandemic.

356

167

small group participants in 2021. We

competitors in FUFF (The Ultimate

offered small groups in three different

Foothills Fun-Face Off) in which two

formats - online, in-person and hybrid -

teams "battled" in fun activities as part

to ensure everyone could be included.

of our The Play Button Series.

75 | 92

183

participants in Beloved Conversations

folks joined at least one of our three

| participants in Journey Groups

spiritual practices offered over text and email - a new offering in 2021 to make spiritual grounding and exploration more accessible and digestible.

FUFF Team Captains

Family Ministry Family Ministry found new and creative ways to serve families throughout the pandemic and offered rapid responses to family needs, including parent support groups, the Family Room text subscription, and Gratefulness Camp during the unexpected Poudre School District break leading up to Thanksgiving. We created a new 10 am intergenerational service to bring families back to church with time for all ages to worship together and in-person groups for children and middle schoolers. We also partnered with La Familia for the 8th year in a row, providing 120 local kids with Christmas gifts!

267 children and youth participated in our programs in 2021!

Kids brought their pets and stuffies 120 kids attended at least one of our 69 students, educators, and

THREE in-person, outdoor Kids Camps - many attended multiple! 25 church youth served as counselors!

to our Blessing of the Animals.

school staff attended Blessing of the Backpacks.

YUUth GrUUp is booming with 15 high schoolers participating regularly in weekly activities and 15 Middle Schoolers attended

We offered a beautiful online

our Coming of Age Intensive.

Blessing of the Babies for 5 families.

service to the Food Bank and Foothills garden.

Caring Ministry We saw an unprecedented and ongoing increase in caring needs in 2021. The rhythms of 2021 have looked different than in previous years. We even brought in six ministers from across the country for our annual Q&A service to help us grapple with the most pressing questions of this challenging time.

We provided over 600 acts of care in 2021.

We have 13 We filled 14 meal trains.

active Caring Listeners.

50 people participated in We added a

Tangled Blessings (a

memorial support

small group for grief) and

team.

the Kitchen Table (dropin caring time with Rev. Elaine).

We delivered 61 caring kits.

Serving Teams Faith Family Hospitality Foothills Unitarian was honored as Family Housing Network of Fort Collins' 2021 Partner Organization of the Year. As a founding congregation of Faith Family Hospitality (a project of the Family Housing Network), this was our 9th year providing temporary housing in our church building to families experiencing houselessness. We also work with FFH's social worker to help families connect with appropriate supports, and we are proud to support FFH with our financial resources. We were hosting families full-time from early in the pandemic through May 2021. In June 2021, the families went back to rotating between churches.

38

82

people hosted in our building - 8

volunteers helped host, including

families with 11 adults and 27 kids.

preparing meals & staying overnight.

Thank you Marla Nelsen for your leadership in coordinating Faith Family Hospitality!

Mobile Food Pantry In partnership with the Food Bank of Larimer County, we continued to offer a mobile food pantry twice a month in the church parking lot throughout 2021. January through September, we provided a drive-through pantry. In October, we switched to a market-style pantry. We are proud to have been part of the massive Larimer Country Food Bank effort that served 37,500 individuals in 2021.

22

195

mobile food pantries in 2021.

Foothills folks on our Food Bank Team.

The Foothills High School YUUth GrUUp serves at the Food Pantry.

Thank you Courtney Butnor for your leadership in coordinating the mobile food pantry!

Racial Justice In May 2021, our congregation voted decisively to adopt the 8th Principle of UU values and guidance that was initially proposed by our fellow UUs of color, who are urging individual congregations and our larger faith movement to renew our commitment to creating an anti-racist, anti-oppression, multicultural beloved community in our congregations, our communities, our country, and the world. With this adoption of an 8th principle, we pledge to hold ourselves accountable to this commitment and fulfill the potential of our first seven principles for all people.

Our new 8th Principle states: We covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by building a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.

Passing the 8th Principle was only one of many steps taken in 2021 towards being an explicitly anti-racist church.

198

$7,234

people involved with racial justice

raised through the Auction Special

through a training, social change team,

Appeal to provide critical mental health

or book discussion group.

support for BIPOC community members in Fort Collins .

107

85

people participated in Common

people attended a workshop on the 8th

Conversation, a community-wide

Principle and building Beloved

exploration of the ideas in Caste by

Community with Paula Cole Jones.

Isabel Wilkerson.

25

16

participants in our anti-racism

members of Intersections - a group of

Wellspring intensive small group with a

social change leaders working to more

focus on My Grandmother's Hands by

explicitly address social change and

Resmaa Menakem and somatic

social justice at the intersections, share

abolitionism, leading the way for other

knowledge/lessons learned, provide

UU congregations to offer this format of

support to each other, and improve

Wellspring with an anti-racism focus.

communication/cross-pollination.

Additionally, we strengthed our partnership with BIPOC Alliance, continuing as their fiscal sponsor, providing office and event space, and working to deepen our understanding of and response to the needs of BIPOC community members. BIPOC Alliance is the runner-up for the 2021 Organizational Human Relations Award for the city of Fort Collins. The winner of the 2021 award is ISAAC, which we were instrumental in seeding. We acted as the fiscal sponsor of ISAAC's Emergency Immigration Fund from it's creation in 2017 until earlier this year when they achieved the capacity to be fiscally independent.

2021 saw great growth in Climate Justice engagement and creative activities. Foothills Climate Justice Ministry (CJM) hosts monthly climate cafes led by a trained facilitator where all are welcome to share and process climate grief and fear. CJM offered virtual sustainable suppers with vegetarian recipes, hosted movie nights, co-hosted the tree-themed Earth Day worship service and surrounding activities, and started a new Facebook Group to keep more folks up-to-date on climate calls to action.

CJM responded to the disappointment, frustration, and anger many climate activists felt following COP26 by building awareness around how a culture of consumerism damages the environment through a Black Friday Boycott. CJM has also been committed to an intersectional approach, reaching out in collaboration with our racial justice and other justice ministries and cultivating an emerging relationship with the Hughes Land Back.

52 people participated in Climate Justice in 2021.

hosted a harvest festival with food grown in the

started a tree equity

restarted the Foothills garden

project, planting two fruit

(which provided pumpkins for

trees at La Familia

carving at Halloween Church!)

Foothills Garden.

Some of our beloved trees will be affected by the building expansion. (Thankfully, the Oak Tree on the patio will be staying!) We hope that for each tree we lose during the expansion, a Foothills community member will sponsor planting a tree elsewhere (even their own yard!). Look out for more details on sponsoring a tree coming in 2022!

hosted a small ceremony with a sustainable decorating ritual to honor and say thank you to the trees we will lose during the expansion.

Community Resourcing We shared $65,000 with our community partners doing important work, including support for LGBT+ youth, suicide prevention, voting rights, disaster relief, and more.

Seeding Change in Northern Colorado We are a church that meets the challenges of now by planting seeds for the future. In 2017, the Foothills Community responded to the unprecedented election of Donald Trump by giving over $200,000 more than previous years. At the time, we knew we were responding to the likely impacts of the new administration on immigrants, people of color, women, climate justice, and personal wellbeing. Yet, we didn't fully realize just how much that giving in 2017 would prepare us to meet the crises of 2020-2021.

With initial fundraising from the Foothills and community and an agreement for Foothills to be the fiscal sponsor, the Emergency Immigration Fund (EIF) - a fund that now exists under the umbrella of ISAAC launched in August 2017. We helped EIF grow into the primary crisis support for immigrants in Northern Colorado during the pandemic, with over $800,000 given out in 2020-2021. All of this was possible because in responding to an overwhelmingly dire present moment, we looked out toward the arc of what our community is about. We raised supports and funds for a vision in 2017 that enabled a more impactful future. In 2021, EIF has achieved growth and stability that allowed the fund to transition to fiscal independence. EIF is now led by members of the immigrant and Latinx communities. As we learned in 2017, where we invest now - where we seed and nurture change - directly impacts our ability to rapidly respond to needs when they arise and to realize our bold vision.

This is one reason we are so glad to partner with The BIPOC Alliance as their fiscal sponsor and to share the resource of our building to provide the organization with office and event space. Just as we saw with ISAAC and the EIF, nurturing organizations that respond to the needs of the present - and are led by those who are part of the communities they serve - prepares us to react rapidly when needs arise and to sow sustainable change in our beloved community.

Sanctuary Everywhere In 2021, we restarted the part of Foothills' Justice work, Sanctuary Everywhere, that accompanies asylum seekers as they begin their lives here in Fort Collins. We are now supporting a family of more than 15 from Nicaragua. We also continue to support a family we first met in 2019, and we are preparing for the potential start of a village to companion refugees from Afghanistan. Sanctuary Everywhere villages support our families in everything from securing release from detention to obtaining work permits, from housing to food, from clothes to obtaining driver's licenses and transportation. In turn, our villagers and lead team are supported through a supervisory reflective practice from a clinician at La Cocina, focused on better understanding and responding to the effects of trauma.

12 Foothills members serve across three Sanctuary Everywhere teams - Core, Village & Legal.

Sanctuary Everywhere partners with 7 community organizations.

Thank you Ticie Rhodes, Sarah Parrish, Anne Fisher, Ingrid Justin, Susan Moore, and Paige Noon for your leadership with Sanctuary Everywhere!

Vaccine Equity Work In early 2021 as vaccines began to be available, we saw in our church community how hard it was to access vaccines and how confusing it was to sign up for appointments. We imagined that this would be even more true in communities with less access to health care, for those who were not retired, for those who are undocumented or have other reasons to fear our formal systems, and for those whose first language was something other than English.

We reached out to our partners – The BIPOC Alliance, ISAAC, Fuerza Latina, La Cocina, and The Family Center – and worked with them to establish a new alliance - The Vaccine Equity Coalition with their leadership and expertise at the center. We secured initial funding for their work and raised the profile of their role as leaders in public health. We hope that this alliance and its work in vaccine equity will have lasting effects on public health long past the pandemic.

2,700

1,411

people registered for vaccines through

vaccine doses given at 5 community

the Spanish-language call line.

clinics hosted by BIPOC Alliance, La Cocina, Fuerza Latina, and ISAAC.

5,000+

$5,000

Latinx households contacted through

contributed directly from Foothills

text and social media about upcoming

Unitarian to jump-start the Vaccine

vaccine clinics being offered through

Equity Coalition and improve access to

Larimer County, Salud Health Clinic,

the COVID-19 vaccine in BIPOC and

and The Vaccine Equity Coalition.

Latinx community.

344

3

first doses of the vaccine given at 3

Promotoras (health educators) trained

mobile home park clinics hosted and

and deployed by La Cocina. La Cocina

staffed by Fuerza Latina.

also trained and deployed a new community organizer.

And these numbers don't capture the enormous effort involved in organizing outreach, translating county documents and other health notices into Spanish, addressing vaccine hesitancy, second dose reminders, community updates on new variants, and more.

Our work helping form and support the Vaccine Equity Coalition led to us being honored with BizWest's COVID 19 Health Care Heroes Ally Award.

Thank you to all our Foothills healthcare workers! A special thank Courtney Butnor, Leah Schulz, and Doug Whitman, who were critical in launching this vaccine equity partnership.

Finance Update Income

2021 Income Sources

Source

2021 Projected

Pledges

$669,046

Weekly Offering

$84,000

Donations

$50,000

Fundraising

$26,237

Program Fees

$10,970

Transfer of Funds

$37,770

Other Income

$82,000

3.9 % 1.1 % 2.7 % 5.2 % 8.7 %

8.5 %

69.7 %

Pledges Weekly O ering Fundraising Program Fees Other Income

Donations Transfer of Funds

We managed expenses very well

Total Income

$960,023

1% under budget

in 2021, but reductions in attendance throughout online and unfulfilled pledges also left us

Other Income - Rentals, Grocery Cards, ERC, Endowment, Misc.

Transfer of Funds - Use of restricted (PPP, MDF, Courageous Love, etc.)

with unexpectedly reduced income. We anticipate between $5,000 and $10,000 of released savings may be required to end

Expenses

the year even.

Category

2021 Projected

Personnel

$752,654

2021 Expense Categories Program Supplies

$38,806

Office Supplies & Technology

$23,348

Consulting Services

$32,597

Building Use

$51,827

UUA Fair Share

$24,006

Community Resourcing

$48,705

2.5 % 5.3 % 3.4 % 2.4 % 4.0 %

5.0 %

77.4 % Personnel

Program Supplies

Office Supplies & Technology

Expense Totals

$971,943

Consulting Services

.5% under budget

UUA Fair Share

Building Use Community Resourcing

2021 Net: $(11,920)

Finance Update

Expenses Expense

2021 Projected

2021 Budget

2022 Budget

Personnel

$752,654

$758,328

$813,877

Program Supplies

$38,806

4% over

$37,247

$47,620

$23,348

7% under

$25,171

$37,178

Consulting Services

$32,597

19% over

$26,400

$40,300

Building Use

$51,827

4% over

$49,891

$47,570

UUA Fair Share

$24,006

$23,000

$24,000

Community Resourcing

$48,705

$46,500

$52,500

Expense Totals

$971,943

$966,537

$1,063,045

Office Supplies & Technology

Budget Nets

1% under

4% over 4% over .5% over

$(11,920)

Thank you to our lay finance team (re-established in 2021): Erik Martinson and Tom Rhodes.

Building for Courageous Love Funding & Financing Our Future Building

$2,800,000

$4,251,685

Project Schedule $1,718,348

Category

Anticipated

Possibly Delayed

Pledges Received

2nd Project Review with City

Pledges To Be Collected

September 2021

Complete

October 2021

Complete

November 2021

Complete

November 2021

Complete

November 2021

Complete

of FC

FNBO Loan Offer 50% Construction Docs

Total Available Funds Currently: $7,051,685

Completed

95% Construction Docs

Total Approved Budget: $7,300,000

Completed

Please note: Loan + total pledges is greater than the total budget. This is because the remaining pledges will come in

City of FC Planning Dept Hearing

between now and the end of 2024, and takes into consideration our bridge funding.

City of FC Planning Dept Decision

Budget Reported in May 2021

Current

Costs Incurred Prior to 2021

$214,823

$234,640

Church Responsible Costs

$726,783

$781,215

Construction Estimate

$5,749,813

Contingency Total Invoices Paid to Date

Category

*City of FC Project Review

December 15,

Round 1

2021

*Sub-Contractor Bids

December 2021

*Contractor Cost Update

December 22,

Scheduled

Started

Scheduled

2021

*City of FC Project Review

January 15, 2022

Scheduled

City of FC Recording

January 2022

February 2022

$5,970,177

Permit Submission

January 2022

February 2022

$610,000

$313,968

Permit Available

March 2022

May 2022

None

$607,545

Construction Begins

March 2022

May 2022

Construction Complete

February 2023

April 2023

Total Anticipated Budget: $7,300,000

Round 2

*Denotes updated since last report.

Invoices

One invoice received and paid in the last 4 Weeks: Ewers Architecture, $74,175 City of Fort Collins (Permitting), $3,000 PCD Engineering (Commissioning), $405

Building for Courageous Love

Narrative Updates Project Design

Building design is in the final stage. Ewers Architecture provided 95% complete Construction Documents on November 2, 2021, which include 103 drawings sheets and 268 specification pages. 100% complete Construction Documents are scheduled for completion in early December 2021. These drawings will be used by the builder, Pinkard Construction, to solicit final contractor bids for the Project Construction Cost. These drawings will be used by Pinkard to submit to the City of Fort Collins for a building permit to begin construction. The asbestos consulting firm, RLH Engineering, is preparing bidding documents which will be completed near the end of November 2021. Bidding documents will be issued to multiple asbestos remediation firms to solicit bids for remediation.

Major Activities in December 2021

Pinkard will use the 100% complete Construction Documents to solicit final bids and prepare the Project Construction Cost to Foothills.

RLH Engineering will receive bids for asbestos remediation and will submit them to Foothills for our consideration in selecting a remediation firm. Work will likely occur in February 2022.

Other pertinent Updates

We are in the process of submitting our final energy model as required by the City’s Integrated Design Assistance Program (IDAP).

When that is complete we will receive our first incentive payment, which will be approximately $7,000.

We have surpassed several milestones in the City Planning/Permitting process, and the schedule outlines the next steps.

Board and church member, Richie Nelson, has volunteered to provide strategic advice and assist in the setup of wholebuilding wi-fi!

We have contracted with several other groups, each of whom went through a bid process in selection: Ewers Architecture - Design Pinkard Construction - General Contractor RLH Engineering - Asbestos Mitigation RockFan - A/V Installation PCD Engineering - Commissioning

The BET, architects, and general contractor representatives meet every 2-3 weeks to discuss progress and potential setbacks/budget effects.

An art team, comprised of passionate congregants, has been established to outline the role and policies regarding art in the building as well as create RFPs for artists to complete works to complement the new space by the end of 2021, so artists have a full year to work on them. There is currently no art budget.

Learn how the building expansion supports our vision!

Thank you to the Building Expansion Team: Peg MacMorris, Jerry Hanley, Chris Bettlach, and Margaret Cottam

Other Notable Achievements

Auction $25,837

$18,603

total amount raised.

amount raised for Foothills Unitarian.

$7,234 of the amount raised for Foothills will go directly toward supporting the next steps in developing Foothills Music Ministry.

$7,234 will provide critical mental health support for BIPOC community members in Fort Collins (in partnership with BIPOC Alliance).

Thank you to the Auction Team: Sue Bloomfield, Patti Cochran, Heidi Schaub, Lindsay Tearman, and Kay Williams

Over the last few years, a group of church members has been gathering as the History Project to tell the story of our congregation, beginning with the seeds sown in the late 1800s. We are thrilled to announce The History Project has finished Volume 1, is almost done with Volume 2, and is preparing to publish in 2022!

History Project Members: Ben Manvel, Bill Miles, Bob Bacon, Bonnie Inscho, Ed Meek, Jennifer Crane & Lynn Young

In March, the Board of Trustees, in recognition of her 22

On November 23rd - at his first service

years of invaluable service to this congregation, paid

preaching in-person since the pandemic -

heartfelt tribute to Eleanor VanDeusen, Foothills’ Director

we celebrated Rev. Sean's 5th

of Family Ministry, and affirmed the granting to her of

Anniversary with Foothills Unitarian.

three months or up to 14 weeks of paid sabbatical leave.

Open Arms Through It All We welcomed 297 newcomers in 2021, built a new partnership with UU Church of Ogden, and reaffirmed our commitment to resourcing other UU churches and the Unitarian Universalist movement. As part of the latter, we created a more formalized system (including suggested donations) by which other congregations may use our video content.

Partnership with UU Church of Ogden Over the pandemic, the UU Church of Ogden (who currently does not have a minister) has been joining us for the 3rd Sunday of every month (more frequently during some months). We have also been providing support in children's/family ministry for their part-time religious educator. UU Church of Ogden has come to the conclusion that they do not have the capacity to continue online services in the same ways they have through the pandemic, and given that it is unsafe in Utah to return to in-person, they began seeking alternative pathways forward. This prompted us to think about what a more lasting partnership between UUCO and Foothills might look like, one that would be more than simply their attendance on Sundays.

Rev. Gretchen, Rev. Sean, Eleanor VanDeusen, and Amy Gage met with UU Church of Ogden's leadership team. They talked about sharing systems of pastoral care and membership, ways that they could help support our online services, and other ways this could be a meaningful partnership for both sides. They are now working with their church community directly (they have 60 members and a $90,000/year budget) to think about their next steps.

A Look Back Through Photos

Wall of Disappointment January 2021

Foothills Ultimate Fun Face-Off Flash Mob Easter Family Fun Day

May 2021

April 2021

Church Open House

Chalice Camp

July 2021

August 2021

Auction Team September 2021

Halloween Church October 2021 10 am Intergenerational Service at the park September 2021

Christmas Eve December 2021

Foothills Journey Forward We are not moving into a world that is all exactly as it was before the pandemic, and we are not moving into a world that is exactly as it was in 2021 - we aren't even moving into a world that is the simple addition of these two together. This world remains emergent and evolving, and requires our willingness to stay adaptive, and creative - especially as we embark soon on the next phase of our building expansion! We invite you to revisit the graphic below (originally published Summer 2021), which shows Foothills' winding journey forward over the next year and offers affirmations to help you ground in each phase of the journey.

Vision Interpretation for Implementation January 2022 Vision Statement

Foothills is a vital part of the lives of its people, providing abundant opportunities for relationships across differences that provide joy, care, and belonging for all.

Interpretation for 2022

Our ministry speaks into the center of people's lives in ways that are nourishing, challenging, and transformative. We invite people in, and we challenge them to grow, serve, and give, believing that people give more if it means more. Relationships are our primary unit of transformation. Through practices of mutual support, trust, and accountability, we tend to and transform personal, social, and intergenerational pain and we heal.

We are actively engaged in a process of lifelong spiritual

Every person is invited into a clear path of engagement that fosters lifelong spiritual

deepening that allows us to live lives

deepening and maturity. Spiritual maturity as a Unitarian Universalist is to be drawn into

of meaning and purpose in a world

partnership with courageous love and be faithful to its call. Together we learn to discern

that needs our Unitarian

not just what we are called to do, but even more, who we are called to be.

Universalism.

We understand that being a part of

While we are often overly-busy or overwhelmed, we are also hungry for meaning and

Foothills requires us to give

purpose. We long to serve in ways that make an impact and that are connected to our

abundantly of our time, and this

gifts. Every person, at all ages and stages is invited to share their time, energy and

deepening involvement helps us to

skills. We don't volunteer at the church, we are the church.

identify and grow our individual gifts.

is set in the context of our ministry and mission.

We each give generously and gratefully of our financial resources in ways that foster a deep ownership of the impactful work we support.

We recognize and dismantle prejudice and oppression in all their forms, including within ourselves, allowing us to be more effective and trusted partners to marginalized communities in Northern Colorado and beyond.

Everything we do together

Giving generously of our financial resources, to enhance the well-being of others is an essential part of the path of spiritual deepening. Generosity means different things to different people, and to each of us at different stages. When we give from our deepest values, and our sense of gratefulness,we will have the impact that reflects these values.

Our work is the aspirational work of building the Beloved Community, dismantling white supremacy, addressing systemic inequality, and healing rather than passing on trauma.

It is personal, and internal, and requires a spiritual grounding in the context of community. We do this work through commitments of partnership with organizations led by those most impacted by oppression and inequality. These partners are a primary source of accountability and authority.

Foothills is a leader in Northern

We are living in the midst of a climate crisis, in the middle of an ongoing global

Colorado in developing sustainable,

pandemic. We actively seek methods of adaptation, grounded in emergence and

innovative, intersectional

collaboration, learning from nature, indigenous wisdom, and we ground ourselves in

approaches to caring for our earth

local relationships.

and its people to ensure a greater

sustain each other through community, and care, recognizing again that this is long-haul

flourishing of all life.

work. We grieve together, and we rage together, and we learn together.

We are willing to lead, and also to step back, and follow.

We

We meet people in their real lives. We are in reciprocal relationship with the wider We do the work to make Unitarian

culture, the impact of the pandemic, of climate change, and of systemic racism, and by

Universalism accessible to all in

the changing community of Northern Colorado (and beyond). We engage principles of

Northern Colorado.

consent, inclusivity and accessibility. We partner in the movement of Unitarian Universalism in our call to serve the emerging future and future generations.

There are no “them” in our church. Our church is 100% “us.” From our justice work to our community service, from offering transformative programs for adults to cultivating the next generation of children to embrace progressive values, everything we do is supported by your generosity of partnership in service and in financial giving. You are the reason that together, we can realize our bold vision and live our mission of unleashing Courageous Love in Northern Colorado and beyond. We are so grateful.

With love and in partnership,

The 2021 Foothills Unitarian Team

If you feel called to support our work as we enter the new year, please visit foothillsuu.org/give.

visit foothillsuu.org/love