Since late 2020, LEYM Friends have gathered online for Interest Group sessions on peace, justice, and earthcare. This page collects those sessions by topic, with recordings, slides, and handouts, so that meetings and individual Friends can use them any time. If you organize an event for one of our affiliated groups and want it on our calendar, or you need Zoom hosting, please visit the LEYM Event Planning page.

• About the Interest Group project
• Building peace and justice work in your meeting
• Racial justice and equality
• Indigenous peoples’ justice
• Earthcare and climate
• Digital issues awareness
• Food justice
• Peace, democracy, and everyday witness

About the Interest Group Project

Interest Group sessions began in December 2020 as online discussions led by Friends from across the Yearly Meeting. This short video introduces the project.

Building Peace and Justice Work in Your Meeting

Stimulating Do-able Justice and Peace Work in Our Monthly Meetings: 2025 Workshop Series

LEYM Peace and Justice Committee, April 2025

Two online workshops for monthly meetings wanting to start, revive, or sustain their peace and justice work, drawing on the firsthand experience of meetings that have done so. For questions, see Contact Information or the original announcement, which includes a flyer.

Session 1 (April 6): Forming, developing, and sustaining effective justice and peace work without committee “overwhelm and burnout.” Slides from the session (PDF).

Session 2 (April 27): Finding unity and resources needed when deciding on justice and peace work priorities. See worksheet (PDF), and full slides (PowerPoint).

Letter Writing as a Witness

Joann Neuroth, Red Cedar Meeting · Interest Group Day, December 2020

Red Cedar Meeting began a “letter writing witness” patterned on Amnesty International’s campaigns, supporting individual Friends to write in response to news reports of unarmed Black people killed by police, in fulfillment of the meeting’s minuted intention to “notice, mark, mourn and protest” racial injustice.

Racial Justice and Equality

What Can We Say Together?

June 11, 2022

Friends read anti-racist work and minutes from across the Yearly Meeting, looking for common threads and patterns. A summary was brought to Annual Meeting for further prayerful discernment.

Learnings and Hopes for Anti-Racism Work

January 8, 2022

LEYM peace and justice advocates exchanged learnings and hopes for anti-racism work, shared examples of what monthly meetings have done, and explored microaggressions and how people are working to notice and counter them. Resources shared: Teenagers Discuss Microaggressions and Racism (video); Your Black Friend (animation); and the MTV Decoded video series.

Healthcare, Healing, and Anti-Racist Standards

November 13, 2021 · Valencia P. Walker, MD, MPH, and Rev. Carrie Finegan, Nationwide Children’s Hospital

An interactive presentation on how racism affects healthcare, how anti-racist standards prevent it, and how we can apply those standards in everyday life for advocacy, activism, and healing.

Sexism Is So Yesterday – or Is It? Becoming Anti-Sexist

Ann Sprague, Ruth Ann Wilhelm, and Joel Ottenbreit, Detroit Meeting · Interest Group Day, May 2021

An exploration of internalized masculine images of God and male religious authority, their effect on spirituality and on Quaker practice, and what it means to be anti-sexist, including how equally men and women are represented in meeting life.

Abolition as a Quaker Practice

Megan Mueller Johnson and Megan Wilson, Ann Arbor Meeting · Interest Group Day, February 2021

A breakout on prison abolition, how it connects to the Quaker Peace Testimony, and how to work toward it in our meetings and lives.

Anti-Racism

Carolyn Lejuste and Lee Sayles, Red Cedar Meeting · Interest Group Day, December 2020

Red Cedar Meeting found that minuting its collective intention to become an anti-racist faith community stimulated exploration of next steps and new discernment. The leaders described the steps that helped and the questions raised, and invited other meetings to share their own process.

Indigenous Peoples’ Justice

Michigan’s First Peoples’ Social and Environmental Justice Campaigns

April 9, 2022

A spokesperson from the Anishinaabek Caucus described their environmental campaigns, including opposition to the Enbridge Line 5 across the Mackinac Strait, legislation for clean water, and the campaign to protect native plants such as manoomin (wild rice). Stacey Ettawageshik of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence presented the campaign to stop sexual assault against women in Indian Country, including by workers in natural gas pipeline camps. Small groups then reviewed Quaker resources for supporting Indigenous neighbors’ justice campaigns.

Worship Sharing on Connections to First Nations Peoples

February 19, 2022 · Andrea Pierce, Anishinaabek Caucus

Offered as part of the Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting Winter Program. Friends worshiped and shared on their connections to First Nations peoples and concerns, and reviewed resources for learning about and supporting Indigenous neighbors’ justice campaigns.

Decolonizing and Angelic Troublemakers

Beverly Ward, Tampa Meeting and DeLand Worship Group · Interest Group Day, February 2021

Quakers seeking to learn and act on the truth of Quaker history with Indigenous peoples. Handouts: session slides and the Social Impact Assessment principles guide (PDF).

Earthcare and Climate

Coffee and Climate Chat: 2021 Earthcare Actions Among LEYM Friends

December 11, 2021

An informal chat in which Friends shared what their meetings and worship groups had done to care for the Earth that year, to encourage one another’s work in the year ahead.

The 3rd Battle for Lake Erie

October 9, 2021 · Mike Ferner, Lake Erie Advocates

A close look at the causes of pollution in western Lake Erie and the efforts underway to address it. Slides from the session (PDF). Learn more at Lake Erie Advocates.

How to Make Your (Meeting) House Carbon Neutral

John Williams, Ann Arbor Meeting, and Dave Goeddeke, Detroit Meeting · Interest Group Day, May 2021

An overview of carbon neutrality and how meetinghouses can work toward it as part of planetary stewardship. Ann Arbor described five years of conserving energy, buying clean electricity, educating members, and setting up an Environmental Improvement Fund; Detroit described plans for a low-energy new meetinghouse with solar panels. Much of it applies to other meetinghouses too.

Climate Change and Social Inequality

Joel Ottenbreit, Detroit Meeting · Interest Group Day, December 2020

How low-income communities, people of color, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, older and young people, and women can be more exposed to climate risks, and why the victims of climate change bear the least responsibility for the emissions behind it.

Digital Issues Awareness for Friends

A Saturday workshop series in early 2023, presented by Bill Warters, LEYM Digital Communications Facilitator.

Data Brokers and Modern Surveillance: Dangers for Marginalized People

March 4, 2023

Our online practices leave trails of data that companies rely on for profit. After reviewing the kinds of data collected, the workshop explores how it is used to the detriment of marginalized groups, including facial recognition, license plate readers, and electronic monitoring, and how citizen groups are pushing for laws governing police surveillance technology. Slides for this session (PDF).

UnFriendly Persuasion: Digital Dark Patterns Awareness

February 11, 2023

Dark patterns are interface design tricks that push users into actions they did not intend, to benefit the business. This workshop raises awareness of common design tricks and helps Friends stay on course on the modern web. Slides for this session (PDF).

Mis/Disinformation Awareness for Friends of the Truth

January 14, 2023

What happens when we rely on social media and the web for nearly all our information? The session explores what misinformation and disinformation are, why they are shared, how they spread, and how Friends take part through clicks, likes, and shares. Slides from this session (PDF).

Food Justice

Food Security, Food Justice

March 12, 2022 · Timothy White and Hallie Carrine, Mid-Ohio Food Collective; Ilana Warner, North Columbus Friends Meeting

An overview of food sovereignty, food security, and food justice, followed by concrete strategies for advocacy and action, from community-based work to broad movements for systemic change. Slides used in the presentation (PDF).

Useful links shared during the session

• Michigan Legislature (bill search)
• Pennsylvania General Assembly
• Food Bank Council of Michigan
• Feeding Pennsylvania
• USDA Food and Nutrition Service (also has recipes and fresh-food suggestions)
• Pittsburgh Food Bank recipes (developed around foods typically found in food distribution)

Peace, Democracy, and Everyday Witness

Gerrymandering: Ohio’s Reforms of 2015 and 2018

Paul Helbling, Broadmead Meeting · Interest Group Day, May 2021

The reforms passed by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018, the new rules for drawing districts in 2021, and grassroots efforts for accountability and transparency in the Ohio Redistricting Commission and General Assembly.

Bridging Divisions

Karen Tibbals, Rahway-Plainfield Meeting · Interest Group Day, February 2021

The division in our country runs deep. How can we bridge the divide and help move our country, and the world, toward peace?

Quaker Values in Business

Susan Loucks, Pittsburgh Meeting · Interest Group Day, February 2021

How Quaker business owners bring their faith into growing and maintaining a business.

Foundations for Many Generations

Mey Hasbrook, Kalamazoo Meeting · Interest Group Day, December 2020

Inspired by Isaiah 58:6–12 and the call to be “repairers of the breach,” a circle for listening to Spirit’s leadings, naming how our concerns are linked, and bridging generations.

Open Youth Discussion

Jonah and Ellerie Brownfain, Birmingham Meeting · Interest Group Day, December 2020

Young Friends shared their own perspectives on politics, the environment, and other issues of concern.

Would your meeting like to host a session or suggest a topic? Contact the LEYM Digital Communications Facilitator through Contact Information. For current Peace and Justice and Earthcare resources, see Resources for Peace & Justice and Resources for Earthcare.

Last reviewed September 2026.