Social justice group raises awareness, gives opportunity for action

(The Trailblazer Times ) A new social justice awareness group has arrived at MidAmerica Nazarene University. The Love Alliance is a national non-profit organization with a chapter on the MNU campus that strives to bring awareness about social justice issues to the local community. Each month the group focuses on an issue, attempts to educate students about the issue, and offer everyone a chance to take action.

Many people are becoming more aware of issues relating to social justice. The Love Alliance is an organization that seeks to bring awareness and resources about these issues to groups around the country. According to their Web site, the Love Alliance aims to take social justice beyond a trend by working to integrate justice into who an individual is rather than something he or she is involved with for a short time.

The Love Alliance strongly asserts that each individual has the innate ability to use their gifts and resources to substantially impact injustice in the world.

Eager to make a difference, the Love Alliance group on campus began their efforts in September as they sought to remember the poor and homeless. The month ended with a benefit concert for the homeless. Future topics they plan to focus on include sex trafficking, cure of cancer, and helping the poor both locally and in third world countries.

According to Mike Davis, ASG Vice President for Spiritual Life, the focus this year is to start as many outreach ministries as possible.

The next topic the Love Alliance is planning to address is fair trade. Their plan to bring awareness and educate the students about fair trade includes a round table discussion and a seminar on Oct. 30 at 10:00 am. The seminar will discuss why fair trade is important.

The Love Alliance is partnering with 10,000 Villages, a shop that sells fair trade merchandise, and at the end of the seminar they will hand out fair trade chocolate bars and encourage students to participate in "reverse Trick-or-Treating." The idea is that groups of students will go around on Halloween giving out fair trade candy and informing people why fair trade is important.

According to Davis, having a social justice group on campus is important. He chose to partner with the Love Alliance because they offer a wide variety of resources and they are free to use.

"We can raise $50 or $100 as students. If we can give it to a larger company, they can take those resources and make a bigger difference," Davis said.

The Love Alliance is always looking for people to become involved. They want as many students as possible to participate in the various activities. They hope that the people not only become more educated about the topics, but also participate in the events to make a difference.

Junior Jacob Nelson, who has been involved with the group, is excited about this year because more people are involved.

"It's cool to see people who wouldn't think about these things becoming educated," Nelson said.

If you are interested in learning more about the group or finding a way help, contact Mike Davis at msdavis2@mnu.edu. (Sears, Bethany)

Original Article Located at: http://media.www.trailblazertimes.com/media/storage/paper1266/news/2009/10/08/News/Social.Justice.Group.Raises.Awareness.Gives.Opportunity.For.Action-3796620.shtml