As part of our social justice initiative, UUCC, along with Cookeville Mutual Aid Collective (CMAC), will meet on Sat., Dec. 4, at 1:00 p.m. at UUCC. The group is currently pen pals with several inmates at Putnam County Jail. While meeting Saturday, we will write and/or sign cards and letters for these and many other inmates.

If you would like to help with this project or learn more about UUCC, CMAC, or the Prison Ministry, plan to attend. You need not be a member of either UUCC or CMAC or have any affiliation with anybody or anything.

As defined by Joel Izlar, “Mutual aid is when everyday people get together to meet each other’s needs, with the shared understanding that the systems we live in are not meeting our needs and that we can meet them together, right now, without having to pressure power structures to do the right thing. Mutual aid is an idea and practice that is based on the principles of direct action, cooperation, mutual understanding, and solidarity. Mutual aid is not charity, but the building and continuing of new social relations where people give what they can and get what they need, outside of unjust systems of power.” Izlar is with the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia.