J. J. Hill and Obama School

The Obama School Ministry Team serves the scholars and staff at the elementary school located directly across the street from Unity Church. Obama School is currently closed for renovations this outreach ministry team is supporting J.J. Hill until Obama reopens in 2025. Get in touch with the team by contacting Nancy Heege at [email protected].

Vision and Purpose for the JJ Hill-Obama Outreach Ministry Team [2024 - 2025] 
Our four goals detail our vision and purpose and how we hope to make a difference:

1. Enhance the learning of JJ Hill/future Obama scholars.
2. Assist the faculty and staff at the school.
3. Provide support to the JJ Hill school community as it transitions and establishes itself in the Unity neighborhood.
4. Create and maintain a leadership team that supports positive volunteer experiences at the school.

Team News

March 2025
Unity Church members are currently in the process of reviewing our Ends Statements. The second statement says, “Ground ourselves in personal practice and communal worship that grows our capacity for wonder and spiritual deepening.” Each Sunday during the Embracing Meditation, the ministers bring our attention to those “whose primary spiritual practice is caring for children.” 

Unity volunteers who go to JJ Hill School to work with the children each week are among those who see their work with children as spiritual practice. Our interactions with children are frequently opportunities for growing our capacity for wonder and spiritual deepening. We go there with the intention of sharing our commitments to children and staff, hoping that our values of care and love and our concern for the future of these children and of the city will make a positive difference. In doing so, we “step up and step out,” a phrase we heard in the recent gathering of Unity's ten Community Ministry Outreach Teams. We step up when we commit to spending quality time with the children, and we step out into the larger community of school staff and families. They come to know us, and we are accountable to them. 
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The church has at least a 30-year relationship with “the school across the street.” Next fall, JJ Hill Montessori Elementary School will become Barack and Michelle Montessori Elementary School and will move into the newly renovated building. Our volunteers will continue to be engaged with the school community, present and accountable. We invite you to consider joining us. It’s a spiritual practice! 

Click an image below to view the JJ Hill and Obama School Team brochure!

Join Us at JJ Hill

If you’d like to learn about how you can give a few hours a week and make a real difference, contact us. Email [email protected] or John Christiansen at [email protected].