You Met the Challenge: The 21 Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge
This past March, our community MET THE CHALLENGE.
Over 800 members of the Greater Topeka community (and beyond!) signed up to participate in this year's 21 Day Challenge for Racial Equity and Social Justice. In addition to participating in the Challenge, our generous allies and supporters raised $6,500 for the Advocacy and Racial Justice work. This amount is almost 1/3 of our total goal for racial justice designated funding this year!The Challenge offered participants an opportunity to read, listen, reflect, and discuss a variety of topics related to race and gender based violence. While the simple act of reading an article, listening to a podcast, or reflecting on personal experience may seem trivial, the results of past Challenges and the feedback we have received in our surveys proves that creating dedicated time and space to build a social justice habit and dive deeper into issues of race, power, privilege, and leadership can have a real impact.
A majority of the 2021 participants were from Kansas, the Topeka area, but our challenge included people from 17 other states!
In addition to individuals, we welcomed community partners who shared the 21 Day Challenge with staff, members, and students:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas
- Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
- Zeta Phi Beta Sorority
- TARC
- Evergy
- Hill's Pet Nutrition
- State of Kansas
- Greater Topeka Partnership
- Washburn University
- United Way of Greater Topeka
The Challenge lasted only 21 days, but the ripple effect will be felt much longer in our community, and beyond.
What 2021 participants had to say:
"I am very excited to be a part of this challenge, and to see so many from the community join to have these important conversations.""Excellent program that provides new insight and understanding.""Very thought-provoking materials!"
Thanks to the leadership of YWCA of Greater Cleveland, YWCAs have had success implementing this program in a wide range of communities. The 21-Day Challenge is designed to meet people where they are on their social justice journey – maybe you are just now becoming aware of such dynamics as prejudice, bias, and privilege, or maybe you are a seasoned activist. There was something new for everyone to learn. Click here to learn more about the background of the YWCA Challenge, and what you can look forward to for next year's Challenge! We hope you join us!