2023 Equity Challenge Day 1: Welcome to the 2023 21-Day Equity Challenge!
I truly believe the only way we can create global peace is through not only educating our minds, but our hearts and our souls.
Pakistani female education activist and world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureateWelcome to United Way for Southeastern Michigan’s third 21-Day Equity Challenge! We are so glad that you are joining us on our collective community journey towards equity and justice for these 21 days and beyond.
Over the last two years, our community has shown up for the challenge (last year more than 8,000 of us!) to further our equity journeys and build lasting relationships. As we begin the 2023 challenge, we honor the work that has been done before us to set the path towards equity in motion and are excited to share this experience with you. We continue coming back to the challenge for it is a special time to unite across our varied lived experiences, identities and sectors to commit together to learning, engaging, reflecting, celebrating and putting action towards building a more equitable community.
Over the next 21 weekdays, you will receive materials curated by our Equity Challenge Community Group. New to this year’s challenge, this group is made up of individuals from United Way and our Community Partners who united to tell stories of what equity looks like in our various communities. Each day, you will receive an email with a few challenge options, like reading an article, watching a video or listening to a podcast. Set aside 15-20 minutes to consume as many of the resources as you would like and take a few moments to reflect on what you have learned using the reflection questions included in that day’s email.
Also, don’t forget to fill out our pre-challenge survey.
We encourage you to utilize this first email to stretch your equity muscle and get in the practice of coming back to your commitment to equity each day. We look forward to embarking on this journey with you and hope to see you at today’s kickoff event!
TODAY’S CHALLENGE
Read
- Check out our catalog of the 2022 Equity Challenge Emails. You may find the first couple of days helpful to ground you before we begin the 2023 challenge. (15 minutes)
- Review our Equity Challenge Shared Definitions sheet. As you look through the definitions, take note of which terms are new to you and which ones you need to learn more about. Consider saving the list to use as a helpful reference throughout the challenge. (4 minutes)
Act
- Share the challenge sign up with three people in your community!
- Fill out the 2023 Equity Challenge Survey.
- Tell us why you’re taking the 2023 Equity Challenge on social media! Use hashtag #EquityChallenge or #TakeTheEC23 and get the conversation started!
- Initiate a conversation about the Equity Challenge with a friend, family member or colleague. Discuss the reflection questions or something you learned from today’s terms list.
Reflect And Share
- Why are you joining the Equity Challenge?
- What do you hope to learn during the Equity Challenge?
- How will you keep yourself accountable to finish the Equity Challenge?
- If you participated in a previous Equity Challenge, what did you learn? How did that impact you?
- How have you showed up for equity since the last challenge? What actions have you taken?
- What do you hope to gain from this year’s Equity Challenge?
- How will you keep yourself accountable to finish the Equity Challenge?
TALK TO YOUR SOCIAL CIRCLE.
Start the conversation. Send the tweet. Share your story. Make the Facebook post. Sharing what you learn and experience with your family, friends, and co-workers is the first step toward allyship.
