Our History

UUSC’s justice work today builds upon our legacy of action spanning over 80 years.

In 1940, the Unitarian Services Committee — the predecessor of UUSC — was established to coordinate humanitarian efforts and offer aid to European refugees during World War II. As a Unitarian minister and social worker living in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Reverend Waitstill Sharp and wife Martha were called to assist refugees in Prague, traveling abroad and contributing whatever they could to help persecuted peoples escape war.

Since then, UUSC has lived out a dynamic and rich history of bolstering grassroots-led movements for change in the United States and around the world. From organizing exploited migrating workers in Texas in the 1940s, providing economic support to Central American communities in the 1980s, addressing the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s, and working to stop the impacts of climate change in the 2000s and beyond, UUSC’s history has consistently centered the needs and solutions of communities experiencing oppression and injustice.