Justice Actions

Updated 1-28-2026

URGENT! HOPE Community Center requests help

  1. COMMUNITY JUSTICE ACTION: 50501 Orlando’s Progress Hub Every Thursday night, 6-8pm | ICE Out of Orlando This Saturday, 12pm
  2. INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE ACTION: Ongoing mutual aid needed for Caribbean peoples devastated by Hurricane Melissa | Joy MCC Food Pantry ongoing collection | Make your voice heard! The 5 CALLS app is a great tool to make it easy to call often on many issues. IT WORKS!
  3. JOY JUSTICE ACTION: Milk District Salon Mark Wright Ahern in concert, Saturday, Feb 7, 7pm | Pride Parade- See how we show up with the LGBTQIA+ community

Keep scrolling down for more details on how you can participate in any or all of these justice actions!

Individual JUSTICE ACTIONS

HOPE CommUnity Center urgent requests

1/20/26 – Message from Executive Director Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet:
Dear Hope Supporter, I am writing to you today with urgency and with deep gratitude. Over the past several days, our immigrant community in Central Florida has been impacted by a dramatic escalation in ICE activity that is placing families at serious risk. As someone who has supported Hope CommUnity Center, we want you to have clear and accurate information about what is happening, how we are responding, and how you can stand with our community during this critical moment.

What We Know
Since last week, we have confirmed:
• A significant increase in ICE agents operating in Central Florida
• A 900% increase in ICE holds at the Orange County jail related to immigration enforcement
• Through coordinated ICE Watch efforts, approximately 60 raids documented in a single day last Friday
Credible information indicating that a large commercial warehouse near the Lake Nona/Orlando airport area is being considered as a potential detention site. While this has not yet been confirmed, I visited the location immediately to better understand the situation and assess the potential risk to our community.
Our team began responding the moment we learned of these developments.
How Hope Is Responding
Even in the face of fear and uncertainty, our community is not facing this alone. Hope CommUnity Center is leading a coordinated local, state, and national response that includes:
• Know Your Rights trainings across the county
• Family preparedness and safety planning workshops
• Legal observer trainings, with more than 300 community members attending this week
• A press conference on MLK Jr. Day alongside Rep. Maxwell Frost, Rep. Anna Eskamani, Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, and Commissioner Nicole Wilson
• Ongoing coordination with federal, state, and local elected officials
• Direct support for families calling us in fear of being stopped, detained, or separated
• Engagement of faith leaders, community allies, and trusted messengers to share accurate information
• Vigils, rapid-response coordination, and direct services for those most impacted
• Across all of Hope’s programs, our staff are fielding urgent calls from community members who are scared and seeking guidance on their constitutional rights and how to protect their families.

How You Can Stand With Us Right Now
Our community needs allies more than ever. There are two powerful ways you can help:

1. Volunteer or Serve as a Legal Observer
We urgently need legal observers, volunteers for Know Your Rights events, and community members willing to support families and share information.
If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to Kundai Chakona mailto:kchakona@hcc-offm.org, our volunteer coordinator. 

2. Make a Donation to Support This Emergency Response
Your gift today will help sustain emergency trainings, legal observer coordination, family preparedness efforts, and direct support for immigrant families navigating this crisis.

Donate

For more than three years, supporters like you have made it possible for Hope to respond in moments like this. Today, we are asking for your partnership once again. The scale and intensity of what we are facing requires immediate action, sustained resources, and a strong community standing together.

Thank you for believing in the dignity, safety, and humanity of immigrant families. Thank you for showing up when it matters most. And thank you for helping us ensure that no one faces this moment alone.

In solidarity,

Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet
Executive Director
Hope CommUnity Center
p: 407.880.4673 ext. 242
e: fsousa-lazaballet@hcc-offm.org

Hurricane Mutual Aid Relief – Ongoing Need

Help Deliver Lifesaving Aid & Supplies to Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, The Bahamas

Donate Emergency Response Funds

Click these links to donate:

UUSC or World Central Kitchen

Community JUSTICE ACTIONS

50501 Progress Hub

Every Thursday, 6–8pm
Relax, Recharge, Refresh & Learn more effective ways to Fight Fascism!
Location: 1U Gore Hall | Hosted by: 50501 Orlando

  • Grow community and connect with other engaged members & friends. 
  • Potluck weekly – 1st Thursday always VEGAN 
  • Learn from Resistance Classes
  • Practice Relaxation Techniques
  • Read & Swap Books
  • OrlandoFiftyFiftyOne@gmail.com

ICE Out of Orlando

Saturday, January 31, 12–3pm
Part of a National Peaceful Protest • Powerful Message
Location: E. Colonial Drive near Fashion Square Mall

We are gathering peacefully and powerfully to defend our neighbors. Please stay on the sidewalks and stand with us as we say enough is enough:

-ICE OUT of our communities
-ICE OUT of our schools and churches
-We DEMAND due process
-Stop terrorizing, dehumanizing, and tearing apart immigrant families
-Stop wasting taxpayer dollars to jail immigrants with NO criminal records in the Orange County Jail

Our communities deserve dignity, safety, and justice—not fear—and most of all DUE PROCESS! We deserve to safely protest against our government. Show up. Speak out. Protect each other.

Joy JUSTICE ACTION UPDATE

Milk District Salon Concert

Saturday, Feb 7, 7pm
His concert showcases his remarkable versatility, crossing genres from classical and spirituals to Broadway, pop, and R&B, offering an evening of dynamic storytelling, vocal brilliance, and musical soul.
Location: 1U Gore Hall

Buy your tickets here: https://bit.ly/1UmarkVoice

1U at Orlando 2025 Pride Parade

Bringing our values to the wider community

We show up! At this year’s LGBTQIA+ Pride celebration, we shone a light on our UU values… The response from thousands of revelers was rewarding, as they recognized a faith community that welcomes and values them. Our minister, The Reverend Margalie Belizaire led the way as we uplifted our multi-faceted values of justice and inclusion, with signs boldly declaring many of our core UU beliefs: All Genders are Whole and Holy, Love is Love, Women’s Rights are Human Rights, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change is Real, No Human is Illegal.

More Individual JUSTICE ACTIONS

Joy MCC Food Pantry

Bring non-perishable food items to give to the Joy MCC Food Pantry. Collection bins in Gore Hall. Ongoing need and collection.

Calling our representatives is a way to take daily action. 5 CALLS app presents a direct way to learn the basics on many of the current issues, too, without being overwhelmed by television or social media feeds.

5 Calls – 5 Calls is an easy and effective way for U.S. constituents to make a political impact.

50501 Virtual Action: Click on this link to find different ways you can take action online anytime.

Resistbot – Resistbot is a chatbot that turns your texts into faxes, postal mail, or emails to your representatives in minutes.

Immigration Links: This is a list of agencies and organizations that provide services to those involved in the immigration process in the US. The list was compiled by Abiding Presence Faith Community.

The UUSC launches the Resistance Network: a mobilization hub designed to take immediate action when civil liberties, democracy, and human rights are at risk. The threats we face are vast, but history shows us that resistance works when we act together. The Resistance Network is an opportunity to live our values as Unitarian Universalists and take collective action.

Democracy Forward – “The fight for democracy is the fight for people. Democracy Forward uses the law to build collective power and advance a bold, vibrant, democracy for all people.”

Community Resilience Hub: This is a UUA website page where information is curated for UUs to meet this moment.

Side With Love Action Center Weekly Update: This is our go-to place for analysis of critical issues in this political moment, immediate actions you can take, and helpful resources to deepen knowledge and practice of our collective work to side with love.

Important Things You Can Do…

Trust that LOVE is greater than hate.

Stay informed. Focus on what is real and share accurate, useful information. Guard and support your trusted sources of information.

Encourage democracy. Support democratic leaders and groups working for social justice and to preserve American values.

Resist evil. Speak up and Side With Love, every chance you get.

Provide help and support to those in need. Identify people and groups who need help, and seek ways to help as much as possible.

 Expand skills and knowledge. Educate and train yourself and others in useful skills. Side With Love (see below) is a wonderful resource in this regard

SHARE 1U’s posts, events, etc. on your timelines to let others know about us and our offerings

Other Important Things You Can Do

Participate in our Democracy! Become a member of LWVOC. Or you can opt in to “alert lists” emails.

Pride Chamber of Commerce – “We are the LGBT Chamber of Commerce dedicated to the business equality movement in the Greater Orlando area and beyond. The Pride Chamber’s strategic focus is to serve as a resource to small businesses and large corporations, and bridge the gap between them. We welcome you to get engaged in our mission to strengthen equality in Greater Orlando’s business community.”

Join or support Greater Orlando NOW (National Organization for Women) – NOW focuses on six priority issues: • including reproductive rights • ending sex discrimination/constitutional equality • promoting diversity and ending racism • economic justice • stopping violence against women • LGBTQIA rights)

Connect with UUSJ (Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice) for actions, involvement, more.

And, Remember Your Community is Here

Sign up for emails from our social justice group:   1ujustice@googlegroups.com

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram

Join our 1U Justice facebook group.

Read our blog at 1ublog

As You Show Up for Justice In Person or Online

  • KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AT THE BORDER/AIRPORTS NEW
  • Emergency Planning – English
  • Emergency Planning – Spanish
  • Peaceful Protest Checklist
  • Take care of yourself and fellow travelers. Nurture yourself and your networks so you can stay balanced, strong, and safe.  
  • Respect your limits and boundaries and those of others. Understand that each of us, individually and in groups, has to manage this turmoil in our own way and at our own pace.
  • Stay vigilant. Know that your actions and resistance may have a cost, and identify what risk you can tolerate.
  •  Pace yourself. This is a marathon, not a sprint — a relay race.
  • Take precautionary measures such as:
    • Delete Me makes it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data online.
    • Possibly moving away from X (Twitter) and WhatsApp, and toward Blue Sky social and Signal messaging apps as alternatives as a security measure.
    • Keep in mind that your social media posts, comments, etc. will be recorded in history and can easily be found in an internet search. So, think beyond the heat of the moment before posting.

To suggest additions to the events listing or the organization listing, or to make corrections, please email minister@orlandouu.org.