The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie (UUFP) has a long-standing commitment to working on human rights and environmental and social justice issues in our neighborhoods and around the world.

The UUFP Social Justice Committee (SJC) keeps the Fellowship membership abreast of current social and environmental issues and sponsors forums, movie screenings, workshops, and letter writing campaigns for the membership and the community at large.

Past and present UUFP/SJC projects include CROP Walk, Mitten Tree, and the Fair Trade Bazaar. We also provide a monthly meal to the homeless at the Hillcrest Homeless Shelter and collect personal items for its guests.

For four years, the Committee hosted the “Coming Home Program,” a 20-week program designed to welcome previously incarcerated individuals back into the community and to help them navigate the personal and practical aspects of reintegration. We received cooperation from many local congregations in this work, as well as grants from the Jeannette F. Schlobach fund of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley; the New York State Convention of Universalists; and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Thanks to the efforts of the Social Justice Committee, our congregation is a charter member of New York UU Justice (NYUUJ),  a statewide advocacy network of UU congregations working for social justice in New York State.

Ours is one of over 200 UU congregations in the country to adopt the Eighth Principle, which reads: "We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”