CLEVELAND — The YMCA has a challenge the entire month of August called the 21 Day Equity Challenge. The goal is for people to learn more about inequity and the effects it has on people and their communities.

Linda McVey, director of health initiatives for the YMCA of Greater Cleveland, is passionate about the project and working for the YMCA.

“My work at the Y has really been an eye-opening experience in my career,” she said. 

She’s had to have tough conversations with herself and others about the negative effects that inequity has had on communities.

“To see how many people struggle because they haven’t had the advantages that I have. But, knowing also how my upbringing has caused me to look at people in a certain way. And so this is such an important conversation because it gets us to look at ourselves,” she said. 

It is why she cares so much about the challenge and she explained what the 21 days entail. 

“Every three-ish days, a person who signs up will get an email. In that email will be a link to a five-minute video that explains the topic of choice and then some other opportunities to investigate further,” she said. “Links to other videos, links to interesting articles, there’s gonna be some opportunities for live conversation with content experts from around the country and also a very vibrant private Facebook group where people can talk in a safe space.”

The challenge’s theme is “be courageous” and McVey explained why they chose it. 

“The goal of this is to have a safe place for courageous conversations,” she said. “To have the bravery to say you know what, I’ve never really thought about this and how does this really show in my life and what can I do specifically to make a difference so that this is a community where everyone feels that they belong and has a chance to progress and thrive.”

Although the 21 days will begin the conversations, the YMCA does not want the conversations to end after the challenge is finished.

For more information on the initiative, click here.