Our Social Action Committee is regrouping. I’ve been chairing it for several years, during which we’ve had a series of speakers, read and studied “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, continued our long-standing visits to work with college students in the B.U. Partakers Program, participated in the Alternatives to Violence (AVP) program, donated to the Holiday Prison Gift Project at MCI Concord, coached in the Parents Teaching Parents program, and offered a weekly art program at the Northeastern Correctional Center in Concord. Many FUUSN members have volunteered over the past years. It is one of our pillar Social Action programs.

I am hoping that someone who is enthusiastic about the ever-challenging criminal justice system will come forward to take an active leadership role. Lynn Holbein, who has led the art program for fifteen years has moved out of Newton, and Ann Woodbury who has chaired the Partakers program now lives on the North Shore (although will continue with the FUUSN team), Betsy Simmons has led the AVP effort. There are significant changes in the system coming, for which we must advocate – ending solitary confinement, advocating for a national search committee to find an outstanding candidate for Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, continued implementation of the Omnibus reform bill of 2018. I wish I had time to call each of our volunteers and urge you to consider a leadership role.

If you’d like to talk with me, call me at 617-969-2758.

Nancy Wrenn