Welcome to our 21-Day Race Equity Challenge!

Across America, we are experiencing a long overdue reckoning with racism and inequity. Child welfare is no exception. This 21-Day Race Equity Challenge is designed to support those in child welfare who want to engage more deeply in race and equity issues and how they play out in our practice area.

The 21-Day Challenge offers a powerful opportunity to establish routine reflection and examination of race and equity issues, particularly as they relate to child abuse and neglect prevention and intervention. Through daily reflections, participants will increase their awareness, broaden their understanding, and shift their thinking and actions. The challenge is to dedicate time and space to cultivate more effective habits of social justice, with a focus on race, power, privilege, and leadership in child welfare. Our ultimate goal is to help launch a lifetime commitment to improving equity and inclusion in our lives and in our work.

To Participate

Register for the 21-Day Race Equity Challenge through Eventbrite. By registering through a third party, the information you provide is confidential and the daily reflection journals you create will be anonymous. You will receive your first email within one hour, and another will arrive each day until the live challenge is complete. The live challenge runs from April 24–May 14, 2023. If you register after the live challenge has begun, all previous daily challenges will be available to you.

What We Will Cover

Week 1 of the challenge focuses on building a shared understanding of how race equity issues manifest in child welfare. Specific topics include a brief history, disproportionality, disparate outcomes, understanding bias and harm, and looking beyond race.

Week 2 focuses on the intersections between systemic racism in our broader society and disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. Specific topics include mass incarceration, LGBTQIA2S+, substance use, housing, and poverty.

Week 3 focuses on strategies and solutions—how we change our approaches to achieve fairness and equity. Specific topics include narrowing the doorway into child welfare, refocusing prevention on concrete supports, engaging kin and community, intergenerational trauma, and cultural humility.