RALEIGH, N.C. — The United Way of the Greater Triangle is bringing back the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, a virtual anti-poverty program that helps sponsors and supporters individually address issues of race, power, privilege and leadership.
Allyson Cobb is "the powerhouse" behind the challenge, said Devin Desjarlais, a United Way spokesperson.
Cobb, a former teacher-turned-nonprofit-worker, and a Black woman, says leading the challenge is a manifestation of "the work" — helping United Way achieve its goal of ending poverty through a racial equity lens.
"This is just the continuation of what I believe to be my life's work, my life's passion," said Cobb, the United Way's director of community engagement. "I'm just really excited to continue to push the needle, and really begin to encourage people to have these conversations at home, to have them in their churches, in their worship spaces, in the grocery store, in schools.
"That's the way that we begin to really reimagine society," she said.
The challenge, which honors the experiences and perspectives of Black Americans, kicked off Monday. The programming is free and entirely virtual. The last day to participate is March 7 and the United Way hopes to engage more than 1,000 participants this year. More than 600 have already signed up.
Three times a week during the challenge, participants will get a list of activities — reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching videos — that can help them identify steps needed to end systemic oppression. But the goal is also for participants to understand how systemic racism perpetuates the cycles of poverty, part of the United Way's upgraded mission.
"It really allows for the community to get involved and experience the same internal learnings and workings that we as an organization are going through," Cobb said.
This challenge is an extension of the United Way's latest mission to acknowledge the role that racism plays in cycles of poverty and inequity. United Way officially began using an anti-racist approach to their mission in 2020, under the leadership of Nick Allen, chief programs officer for the United Way, and CEO and president Eric Guckian.
"In order to be anti-poverty, you need to be anti-racist," Guckian said. "We feel that a steady drumbeat of constant learning is required for us, individually, if we are going to change things systemically. So this is an attempt to do that."
PNC is the United Way's sponsor for the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge. Sponsoring events and programming like the challenge is part of the company's acknowledgment of the "work to be done," Jim Hansen, PNC regional president for Eastern Carolinas, in a statement emailed to The News & Observer.
"At PNC, we are committed to achieving equity for all," Hansen said. "We applaud the United Way of the Greater Triangle for its efforts to foster this important work in pursuit of a truly equitable region."
At the end of the challenge, participants are invited to "Unwrapped: Racial Equity in 2022," a virtual panel discussion featuring feature racial equity experts To attend, RSVP here.
