The 2nd Annual A Bolder Way Forward (BWF) Summit focuses on making Utah a place where more girls and women can thrive in any setting (e.g., home, workplace, congregation, and community). This movement, launched in June 2023, focuses on creating societal change in Utah.

Year after year, WalletHub continues to rank Utah last in the nation for women’s equity, and national and statewide studies continue to show that women and girls in Utah are not thriving in critical areas. Although the needle has moved slightly in a few areas, with its current trajectory it will take three or even four decades to make notable progress. It is time for Utah to embrace a BWF, because when we lift Utah girls and women, we lift all Utahns!

For the past year, 18 areas of focus (spokes) have been organized and determined their vision, goals, and metrics. An additional 12 impact team have been created to assist with issues that permeate across and influence each area of focus. A BWF coalitions have also been established in each of Utah’s 29 counties.

The BWF is framed around systems thinking, which is that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In Utah, we have been working on related efforts for too long using the “parts” strategy; we need to shift and move together as a system. In the last 12 months a BWF has brought on hundreds of partners to assist in this movement and nearly 2,000 advocates.

If we are serious about ensuring that Utah women and girls thrive, we need to create change by 2030, with a check point in 2026. Visit abolderwayforward.org to learn more or become engaged.

This event, hosted at Zions Bank Technology Campus, will discuss the momentum that a BWF has created since June 2023 and will provide ample time for leaders of the18 “spoke” areas to meet with their respective teams. Areas include childcare/pre-K programs, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, entrepreneurship, finances, gender pay gap, health across the lifespan, higher education attainment, home and family, K-12 initiatives, leadership development, organizational strategies and workplace culture, political and civic engagement, poverty and homelessness, sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination, STEM fields, and workforce development.

Come and join us for this second annual gathering to learn more and become inspired to help create change for Utah women and girls.