March 2023 Charity Challenge: Steps For Stonewall

Posted on: Monday 27th February 2023 by Jess Clayton

March Charity Challenge

March… it’s a new month, so here’s our new charity challenge! We’re keeping the focus on getting everyone moving away from their desks, and ensuring that it’s something that’s achievable by as many people as possible. So, in March we’re doing Steps For Stonewall… 10,000 steps per day, every day (or a total of 310,000 steps throughout the month).

Eight of the team at Travel Village Group put in an amazing effort in February, raising £872 for Mind, the Mental Health Charity, by doing 50 squats per day or running 50km throughout the month; so we’re hoping to replicate this success in March.

Selecting the charity challenge each month is our Group Content Manager, Jess Clayton, and she explained why she had chosen Stonewall this month:

We talk a lot about diversity and inclusivity in the Travel Industry these days, and that’s because we recognise that there are people from all walks of life, including the LGBTQ+ community, that work within our industry. Without the work of Stonewall over the last 30 years, there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t be talking about it today. Since their inception, Stonewall have fought for freedom, for equity and for potential; for LGBTQ+ people everywhere. Attitudes and ideals have changed massively since I came out, and I’m so thankful for the work Stonewall does that has meant that I’m no longer “tolerated” but just accepted for being me. Unfortunately that’s still not always the case for some people, and certainly not for people like Brianna Ghey. Her murder (and bullying for being trans leading up to it) shows that there’s still a huge amount of work to do to drive positive change in public attitudes and public policy.
When I’ve mentioned our charity for March to people, the most frequent response has been “What’s Stonewall?”. And that’s made me realise that, whilst we’re hoping to raise some cash for our charities each month, the important thing is that we’re raising awareness of all the amazing people that work hard to protect people; regardless of whether that’s fighting a disease/condition, promoting good mental health or empowering people to be free to be who they are.

Stonewall state:

We are part of a vibrant global movement for change made up of LGBTQ+ people, our allies, families and friends. Over the last 30 years, we have helped create transformative change in the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the UK. Today, we have equal rights to love, marry and have children, and our lives, families and relationships are represented as part of the national curriculum in most of the UK.
Our campaigns drive positive change in public attitudes and public policy. We ensure LGBTQ+ people can thrive throughout our lives by building deep, sustained change programmes with the institutions that have the biggest impact on us, whether we’re learning, working, praying or playing sport. We make sure that the world hears and learns from LGBTQ+ communities, and our work is grounded in evidence and expertise. And we’re committed to empowering people to create change in their own communities.
We face rising intolerance degrading our hard-won rights. But we won’t be silenced. Not until all of us are free to be proud, free to be loved, free to be together, free to be who we are. Our work continues until the world we imagine is the world we live in.

You can support TVG with a donation by clicking on any of our team’s names: Jess Clayton | Jenny Jones | John Warr

Thanks everyone for your support! Keep an eye out for the next challenge!

Share via
Copy link