Working Together for Justice and Mercy

Photo cutline: Sonja and friend Susan Felt serve meals at a Phoenix refugee center.  Drawing on the ministry of Jesus Christ to confront injustice and oppression.

·     My social justice sphere has centered on youth mental health issues and the loneliness epidemic, in which I have provided sermons and programming.

·     I held an information session for our youth when they were bullied at the 2023 Pride Parade in downtown Phoenix. I’ve organized the pride parade attendance for the last three years.

 Practicing the radical hospitality of God.

·     I assist with IHELP, a local program in Tempe that provides overnight sleeping space and evening meals on the Desert Palm campus.

·     I assist with various efforts to house, direct and feed the refugee population.

·     I’ve assisted with the retooling of the Desert Palm website so that Desert Palm could become an A2A, Accessible to All, institution.

·     I provided an intergenerational moment on the church’s A2A status, which included demonstration of our Braille bible to the congregation.

·     My participation in Clinical Pastoral Education taught me a base understanding of radical hospitality to all people, whatever age and stage of life they’re in.  

Identifying and working to overcome explicit and implicit bias in the life of the Church. 

·     I am a participant in the November 2024’s antiracism training provided by the Southwest conference.   

Understanding community context and navigating change with a community. 

·     Because I work with youth, I elected to become certified in Mandatory Reporting, which provided training for the parameters of reporting of adults or youth in abusive situations.

·     I became a Certified Youth Mental Health Aid Responder in 2023. The certification is good for two years. This deepened my understanding of the youth mental health crisis and enabled me to respond confidently to situations brought to me by our youth.

·     I sponsored visits to our youth by experts in eco-grief in light of climate change and grief in general given the high rates of anxiety and depression.

Engaging in mission and outreach.

·     I marched with the Desert Palm youth and adults at the NAMI fundraising walk.

·      I attended the 2023 MLK breakfast and march as a representative of Desert Palm.  

·     I attended and publicized a meeting on the use of pronouns for Desert Palm and the wider community.

Building relationships of mutual trust and interdependence. 

·     I have worked on two storytelling projects with Arizona Interfaith Power & Light and have hosted its representatives for a meeting with Desert Palm’s youth.

·     I have facilitated discussions with Desert Palm’s caregiver support group.