Announcing: Stand Against Racism Challenge

YWCA Utah wants to thank and acknowledge Dr. Eddie Moore Jr., Debby Irving, and Dr. Marguerite Penick for their leadership in the field of racial equity as exhibited in their 21 Day Racial Equity and Habit Building Challenge and the movement they helped to initiate. For the last two years, YWCA Utah’s content has been independently designed, written, and curated by YWCA Utah staff as part of our racial equity and social justice initiatives. The content from each challenge has driven many of our staff discussions and practices and has been offered to the broader community in an effort to advance our collective understanding.

Each day of the Stand Against Racism Challenge you will be presented with activities such as reading an article, listening to a podcast, reflecting on personal experience and more. Participation for 21 days in an activity like this helps us to discover how racial and social injustice impacts individuals, communities and policies. Engaging in this learning will also provide time to connect with one another, and to identify ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.

We hope that you will go into this challenge with an open heart and an open mind, ready to be pushed out of your comfort zone and lean into learning. We know these discussions can be difficult and can bring up powerful emotions, but your commitment to increasing your awareness is what will help move our community forward.

To engage with other people doing the challenge, use the hashtag #YWCASARChallenge to share your reflections on social media. You can also join our YWCA Utah Challenge Facebook group where participants can continue the conversation in a safe space.

This is an exciting opportunity to stand against racism and dive deep into racial equity and social justice while building community.

Why the 21-Day Challenge?

Building on the history, skills, and efforts of our sister organizations in YWCA’s national network to live our mission to eliminate racism; YWCA Utah’s 21–Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge is intentionally developed by our staff for our Utah community, though we’re sure no matter where you are, the lessons will resonate with you.  

This content curation is led by women of color from Utah who have been deeply engaged in anti-racism and racial justice work in our community for years. YWCA Utah’s multi-racial staff Race Equity Workgroup provides significant contribution and insight to developing this work.  

Resources are carefully and intentionally curated from accessible internet sites. While we aim to provide a variety of resources, from academic, to opinion/blog, to popular media, etc., our goal is to provide a doorway into the topic and leave it to you to walk all the way through. We hope through this curated content, all found on the internet, you find yourself clicking on the link and falling down a rabbit hole – learning something new.  We hope you find new resources, question information with a critical and open mind.