Please add lgbtqequitychallenge@browncountyunitedway.org to your safe sender's list to ensure you never miss a week of information! You will only get emails from us that are related to this challenge. If your work email has a strong filter against external emails or links, please use a personal email address. You may also want to consider using a personal device throughout this challenge. If you have not completed the pre-challenge assessment, please do so here.
About the Challenge
The 9-week LGBTQ+ Equity Challenge will provide resources and information to Brown County residents that will increase their overall understanding of the LGBTQ+ community. All are welcome to take the challenge but please note parts of this challenge are localized for Brown County.
This challenge is an educational opportunity designed for everyone, no matter your identity or current knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community. We believe all participants will find value in this opportunity!
By the end of this 9-week challenge, you will have a better understanding of LGBTQ+ terminology, history, the challenges this community still faces, and more.
Learn more about the challenge below!
How it works
You can spend as much time going through materials each week as you would like. We believe the minimum time required per week would be approximately 20-30 minutes. After registration, you will receive a short, anonymous, pre-challenge assessment. Every Monday you will receive an email that will help deepen your knowledge and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community. On Thursdays, you will get a 2 question feedback questionnaire about the current week's materials. Your feedback is incredibly important to us and will help improve the challenge moving forward.
Each week will feature a different topic related to the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community. You will learn about definitions and terminology, history, intersectionality, violence, education, healthcare, current challenges, and allyship.
The challenge will begin on March 14th and conclude during the week of May 9th.
Additional Resources
The 9-Week LGBTQ+ Equity Challenge includes a lot of amazing materials. However, if you want to take an even deeper dive, make sure to check out our additional resources page! This page will include more articles, videos, and podcasts.
Our additional resources page will also have more information on the local establishments, projects, and organizations that are mentioned throughout the challenge.
Review Past Weeks
If you want to review any of the materials from past weeks, you can do so below!
About Brown County United Way
For nearly 100 years, Brown County United Way has united people, ideas, and resources to create community solutions that strengthen every person and every community in Brown County. You can learn more about our mission and the impactful work we are doing at www.browncountyunitedway.org
Last year we created a diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge. This 9-Week LGBTQ+ Equity Challenge serves as a building block off that pledge. This is just one of many actionable steps we are taking to create a more equitable community for all marginalized populations in Brown County.
Why an LGBTQ+ Equity Challenge?
Brown County United Way fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community. That work calls us to confront challenges and disparities when we see them. As demonstrated in the ALICE data and other research, there is evidence that Wisconsin residents face inequities due to sexual orientation and gender identity in each pillar of our work – Health, Education, Financial Stability and Connection to the Community, which we recognize as the building blocks for a good quality of life and strong community.
While progress is being made to lessen these disparities, we still have a long way to go. Across our nation, LGBTQ+ people are still being erased, ignored, brutalized, and discriminated against. In 2021, a record-shattering 51 transgender and gender-diverse people were murdered in America. A majority of those violent slayings were transgender people of color. Additionally, LGBTQ+ individuals are still not afforded many of the same rights and protections as their non-LGBTQ+ neighbors.
Education is a pivotal first step to creating deeper understanding, allyship, and impactful change. This challenge aims to provide an educational base about LGBTQ+ experiences. We believe this challenge has value for everyone, no matter your identity or current knowledge of the LGBTQ+ community.
This challenge will also highlight some of the amazing progress happening in the LGBTQ+ community in Brown County. Participants will learn about UW-Green Bay’s Northeastern Wisconsin LGBTQ+ Historical Archives, the meaning behind Green Bay's first-ever LGBTQ+ mural, and other amazing initiatives happening in our county.
Who Created this Challenge?
This 9-Week LGBTQ+ Equity Challenge was created through grassroots community advocacy by members of the LGBTQ+ community, its allies, and Brown County United Way's Emerging Leader's Society.
This Challenge is modeled after the “21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge©,” which was conceived several years ago by diversity expert Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. to advance deeper understandings of the intersections of race, power, privilege, supremacy, and oppression. We are grateful to Dr. Moore for publicly sharing and encouraging others to use this 21-day framework as an educational tool, including to advance learning across myriad diverse communities.
Our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Pledge
in order to help end the marginalization of all people in our community
I value the visible and invisible qualities that make people who they are. I pledge to examine my own privileges and biases to ensure I am practicing equity and valuing every community member.
I recognize that my lived experience does not represent the lived experience of every community member. To become a better neighbor, I pledge to continue to educate myself on the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community.
I believe every community member must have equal access to solving community problems. I pledge to live out DEI practices and to act to influence the practices of businesses and our community.
I will be an active supporter, rallying behind all diverse populations in their fight for equity and inclusion.
Together we can take the broadest view of diversity and embrace every person in every community. Together we can create a United Way Forward.
