Calling all faith leaders: Join NAACP’s National Health Programs Department to celebrate ‘Day of Unity’ at your church on July 14, 2013

Calling all faith leaders: Join NAACP’s National Health Programs Department to celebrate ‘Day of Unity’ at your church on July 14, 2013

Second annual event welcoming faith leaders to preach about HIV/AIDS as a social justice issue

     BALTIMORE, MD. – The NAACP National Health Programs Department humbly and prayerfully ask you to join them and Black church leaders from across the country for the second annual national “Day of Unity” on Sunday, July 14, 2013 to preach about HIV/AIDS as a social justice issue with your congregations.

As a cornerstone of The Black Church & HIV: The Social Justice Imperative initiative, the Day of Unity is designed to unite pastors nationwide on one day to preach from the pulpit and create a movement that will inspire communities to take action to stop the social injustices that have led to the unequal impact HIV is having in their neighborhoods.

We welcome all members of the Black community to participate in the Day of Unity. Participation ideas, sermonette ideas and talking points are available for faith leaders. Please contact Rev. Keron Sadler at ksadler@naacpnet.org. or  (410) 580-5619

NAACP’s The Black Church & HIV: The Social Justice Imperative initiative was born out of an 11-City “Let It Rise” faith tour in 2011 which was created to conduct research about how church leaders could be advocates in the social justice fight against HIV/AIDS in the Black community. Following last year’s completion of the pastoral brief and manual to encourage faith leaders to engage in HIV advocacy, the NAACP has conducted trainings across the country to share best practices and strategies among faith leaders.

About the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our five “Game Changer” issue areas here.

About The Black Church and HIV: The Social Justice Imperative Initiative

NAACP partnered with the Black Church to launch a movement to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in the Black community through the initiative, The Black Church and HIV: The Social Justice Imperative. In the past two years the initiative created an Activity Manual  and Pastoral Brief to be used in conjunction with the seminary training that are being conducted around the country. Through 2014, the partnership is poised to: reframe HIV as a social justice issue; train senior faith leaders in the 12 most highly-impacted U.S. cities; enlist the executive leadership of the mainline denominations in the Black Church to educate their congregations about the HIV crisis; integrate the manual into curriculums at theological seminaries and promote the initiative nationally through public relations. For more information about the initiative visit: www.theblackchurchandhiv.org.