Until Justice Just Is
YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism and empower women. Because we know that we cannot empower all women without confronting systemic racism, we act every day by raising awareness of the impacts of institutional and structural racism and by building community among those who work for racial justice.
Each April we join our sister associations across the country in the movement to eliminate racism through our annual Until Justice Just Is campaign. The Racial Justice Challenge, a 21-day activation, is the action component for the Until Justice Just Is campaign which raises awareness of systemic racism and how each of us can take action to advance justice.
In April 2024, Until Justice Just Is (UJJI), centered around the theme Building Bridges to Equity, based on the topics for the 2024 YWCA Racial Justice Challenge, — Bodily Autonomy, Women's Financial Empowerment/Caregiving, Gun Violence, and Transportation.
This year’s campaign took place throughout the entire month of April, including a national YWCA Town Hall Summit and the YWCA Racial Justice Challenge, running April 1–29.
Learn more about the challenge - https://justice.ywca.org/challenge/
Join us in April for events and initiatives to inspire and engage our network of activists, advocates, and allies and advance racial justice — together.
Past Racial Justice Challenges
2023: Until Justice Just Is
The advent of Until Justice Just Is provided an opportunity to learn and engage with curated information on racial inequity within the following topics:
- Crossroads of Culture
- Intersection of the Isms
- Junction of Justice
- Lanes of Liberation
2022: We Can’t Wait - Equity and Justice NOW!
Participants in 2022 had the opportunity to learn and engage with curated information on racial inequity within the following topics:
- Critical Race Theory
- Racial Wealth Gap
- The Power of Representation
- Health Equity
Participation in this virtual community of growth helped 1,074 of people to discover how racial and social injustice impact our community, to connect with one another, and to identify ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.
2021: Racism is a Public Health Crisis
In 2021, the campaign addressed Racism as a Public Health Crisis.
Structural racism plays a large role in determining the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and affects people’s access to quality housing, education, food, transportation, political power, and other social determinants of health.
Understanding and addressing systemic racism from this public health perspective is crucial to eliminating racial and ethnic inequities, and to improving opportunity and well-being across communities.
2020: Voter's Rights
The 2020 Stand Against Racism focus featured a social media campaign to raise awareness of the myriad racial justice issues that pose barriers to civic engagement for communities of color, while exploring how the tools of civic engagement can advance the work of justice in your community and empower people of color.
2019: Ensuring Safety & Opportunity for Immigrant Women
In 2019, YWCA USA hosted a policy briefing on Capitol Hil: “Ensuring Safety and Opportunity for Immigrant Women.” In collaboration with YWCA’s across the country, organizations raised our collective voice around the critical racial justice issue of supporting and protecting immigrant women, children, families, and communities.