2022 Equity Challenge
Who is responsible for healing the harm caused by systemic and structural oppression in all its forms? Is it the responsibility of the privileged, whom the system is designed to protect, or the responsibility of the people that have experienced harm? The ownership of healing our communities belongs to us all.
Resilience is a trauma response of marginalized people groups to survive and overcome adversity. Resilience techniques may look different for each person as resiliency is a muscle that can be built over time to empower someone to cope, adapt or change in order to stabilize their environment.
They find within themselves the strength, fortitude and courage to heal their own pain while moving toward equity, equality, justice and freedom. In defining resilience, it is important to specify whether resilience is being viewed as a trait, process or outcome, and it is often tempting to take a binary approach in considering whether resilience is present or absent. However, resilience more likely exists on a continuum that may be present to differing degrees across multiple domains of life.
After spending the first week of our challenge building a foundation together, today’s challenge is meant to expand your understanding of resilience and healing. At United Way, we believe in the power of our community coming together to change unjust systems while giving one another the support and encouragement we need to continue moving forward.
Because even though the inequities are deeply woven into our society, we hold power together, we must never forget, “This is treatable. This is beatable. The single most important thing we need today is to look this problem in the face and say, ‘this is real, and this is all of us.” – Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
Today's Challenge
Read
- Check out this roadmap for Building your resilience (7 minutes).
Watch
- Watch this TedTalk by Sule Kutlay Gandur on The Superpower of Resilience (16 minutes).
- Racial Trauma Specialist Maya B. Galathe gives a TedTalk on The mask of resilience (14 minutes).
Listen
- List to this episode of Brené Brown’s podcast featuring Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry on Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing (1 hour and 12 minutes).
Engage
- Take this Resiliency Quiz from the Resiliency Center (8 minutes).
- What has resonated most with you this week? Share an article, video or podcast you enjoyed on social media using the hashtag #EquityChallenge.
Reflect and Share
- Do you have a personal story of resilience?
- Do you see resilience as being a quality that someone can learn or develop? If so, how?
- What can you do to make yourself more aware of your own thinking and emotions?
- What steps do you think you can take to help our communities heal and become more resilient?