In October 2014 the Emerson membership passed a resolution establishing a Charitable Outreach Fund within the Endowment Fund. Decisions on recipients of Charitable Outreach dollars are made by the congregationally elected Charitable Outreach Committee of five Emerson members. One of the recipients, Texas Impact, expressed appreciation. Excerpts of their letter are shown below.

February 11, 2017

Dear Friends,

This report is to update you on Texas Impact’s health justice work in 2016, made possible in part through Emerson Unitarian Church’s generous support, as well as to update you on health policy developments at the state and federal levels and key opportunities for faith community leadership in 2017.

Thanks to the leadership of Emerson UU, Texas Impact had the resources to generate new and greater faith community leadership around health care in 2016. Emerson’s early commitment of significant funding leveraged support from other denominations and the Episcopal Health Foundation to support communications; development of faith-based resources; and the vital work of community organizing….Texas voices will be needed to push back against damaging federal proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a workable alternative and to block grant Medicaid. 

Texas Impact’s first annual Health Justice Sabbath (HJS) created a focal point to reopen congregational discussions about health care…About 100 congregations participated in HJS events ranging from Sunday school classes to blood drives and health fairs. Emerson member Gabe Gelb generously provided special funding for media assistance, and HJS received TV and print attention across the state…. The Obama Administration drew a “line in the sand” with Texas, refusing to renew certain kinds of federal hospital funding unless the state took steps to insure more people…churches and other community organizations would be important partners in influencing legislators, and advocates began working strategically to organize constituents in a number of potentially key legislative districts.

The changing policy environment impacted Texas Impact’s health justice activities in many ways (see the report Rocks in the Water: The Unseen Cost of Losing Federal Support for Uncompensated Care at (https://texasimpact.org/Uncompensated-Care)

[In 2016] Donald Trump’s surprise election knocked the foundation out from under legislative efforts [so that] advocates are now fighting on two fronts—protecting existing coverage at the federal level, and pushing back against nearly $2B in proposed cuts at the state level.

It’s clear that Emerson UU’s support in 2016 was key to preparing Texas faith communities to engage in this year’s policy struggles—and your support in 2017 is vital… 

Emerson’s leadership in advancing Texas Impact’s work with congregations turned out to be all the more important….[as] day after Donald Trump’s election, a group of state and national health funders rescinded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants they had made to Texas Impact and our coalition partners to work on health advocacy in the 2017 legislative session…

…Through our UU Texas Impact board member, Rev. Chuck Freeman, we are resourcing advocacy efforts of UU members throughout the state. We also are working with Texas Impact organizational members in the Houston area including Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston; New Covenant Presbytery; the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church; the TX-LA Gulf Coast Lutheran Synod; and others.

We are deeply grateful to Emerson UU for your visionary support for Texas Impact’s health justice work. We look forward to continued partnership!

Love,

Bee Moorhead,  Texas Impact Executive Director