The Extension 21 Day Equity Challenge (June) will be hosted by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Professional Development unit. United Way of Central of Iowa rolled out this virtual event in 2020. Thousands of central Iowans signed up to participate online that year. We are using the free content from United Way of Central Iowa and formatting it in a way that we hope, will be user friendly and manageable for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach staff and faculty.

The 21-Day Equity Challenge is a powerful opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community. The experience deepens understanding, suggests ways to take action, and helps launch what we hope will be a lifelong commitment to improving equity and inclusion in our community. The self-guided learning journey examines the history and impact of racism, and how it has shaped people’s lives. The experience deepens understanding and helps launch what we hope will be a lifelong commitment to improving equity and inclusion. Over 21 workdays, we will explore topics, like structural racism, segregation, and privilege, to open up dialogue on how we can be champions of equity in our personal and professional lives.

The experience lasts the month of June 2023. We will kick off the experience with an introductory Zoom call event on Friday, June 2^nd from 10:00-11:00 AM. We will also be utilizing the Canvas platform, ISU’s learning management system, where we will have a space for some collaborative reflection on the 21-Day Equity Challenge content throughout the month. Don’t worry there are no quizzes or tests! We will use the discussion boards to post throughout the workshop experience, sharing your perspectives and learning while interacting with each other, as we watch the videos, read the articles, or listen to podcasts on our own. It does have “Due Dates” listed, but that is just to help you pace yourself. We have created a suggested schedule of sorts for you on Canvas to interact with the 21-Day Equity Challenge content, breaking the sessions down by week to provide time to process the information throughout the month of June, however you can set your own pace for reviewing the material. Each day there is a different equity-related topic, with a few choices of learning opportunities to read about, listen to or view. Most of these are very short around 5 to 10 minutes each. You are welcome to interact with each of the learning opportunities for each of the daily topics, but we ask that you complete at least one learning opportunity per topic. We will also be checking in with each other via Zoom on June 19^th from 10:00 to 11:00 AM and a wrap-up Zoom call June 30^th from 10:00 to 11:00 AM.

We hope you can join us in June! Remember, only 10 to 15 minutes per day, to broaden your understanding of how inequity and racism affect our lives and our community and helps launch what we hope will be a lifelong commitment to improving equity and inclusion.

For more information contact Gayle Coon.