Monday, January 3
Welcome to the 21-Day Equity Challenge!
Thank you for joining United Way of Olmsted County’s 21-Day Equity Challenge.
Our Challenge starts now and continues each weekday from January 4 through February 1, 2022.
We have a vision of universal success and prosperity in Olmsted County. To that end, we work with public, private, and nonprofit partners to improve lives and empower every family to succeed by uniting around education, health, and financial stability - the building blocks of a strong, equitable community.
Our hope is that, as a result of the 21-Day Equity Challenge, more people in our community will ask “What must I do?” instead of “What will someone else do?” Participants will experience the content differently and may find some of the offerings to be challenging for their mental or emotional health. We invite you to take care of yourself and take breaks as needed while you move through the content in the Challenge.
Before you get started:
1. Complete our 6-question demographic survey to help us understand who you are and how you found out about the 21-Day Equity Challenge.
2. Download our Challenge Activity Log, a tool to ensure you are taking full advantage of what the challenge has to offer.
3. Add our United Way Equity Challenge email (rd@uwolmsted.org) to your safe senders list by clicking “it’s not junk”.
4. Intentionally schedule 15 minutes of each workday from January 4 to February 1 for you to complete the Challenge. Consider what time of day will work best for you. Remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint!
5. Join us in acknowledging the traditional native lands on which Rochester, Olmsted County, and greater Minnesota were established as a step toward honoring the truth and correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture.
We look forward to officially launching tomorrow! Check your email inbox any time after 9:00 a.m. CST.
In solidarity,
United Way of Olmsted County
P.S. We want to thank Food Solutions New England and United Way of Washtenaw County for inspiring this challenge. Food Solutions New England was the first to adapt an exercise from Dr. Eddie Moore and Debby Irving’s book into the interactive 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, which they launched in 2014. We also want to commend our neighbors in Michigan at the United Way of Washtenaw County who brought the 21-Day Equity Challenge to the United Way network. We couldn’t have brought our version of the 21-Day Equity Challenge to you without them!