(upbeat music) - USU's Utah Women and Leadership Project is hosting A Bolder Way Forward Initiative, aimed at helping Utah girls, women, and families thrive.

Director Dr. Susan Madsen is here to tell us more about this important program.

Hi, Susan.

Nice to have you back.

- Great to be back.

- So what is A Bolder Way Forward for Utah?

- So it is a seven year movement, initiative, people call it different things, that really looks at shifting Utah in better ways.

And again, we use the words we're trying to make sure that more girls, women, and their families thrive.

And so it's a societal change effort.

- And this is a big question.

Tell us why it's important.

- Well, as you know, Mary, we've had lots of issues through the years.

We have high levels of domestic violence and sexual assault and child sexual abuse.

We continue for 10 years running to be the worst state for women's equality.

And other things.

We just need to reduce violence.

We need to increase opportunities so that more girls and women and families, I throw families in because what happens to girls and women influence boys and men as well.

And so getting these percentages and numbers down in areas that are bad and up in areas that we need to have more thriving is so important for Utah.

- I'd say.

So how many Utahans would you say are engaged now?

- So we are two years in to a seven year movement.

So this summit that's coming up on June 6th is the launch of year three.

And so we're really looking at 2030 as the time that we wanna shift more powerfully to do things.

We don't have three to four decades to make these changes.

And so right now, as of this year, we have about 6,000 Utahns engaged.

We have 29 counties with county coalitions.

We have about 270 leaders across the movement.

So, you know, we've been setting the foundation for a couple of years, but we're moving now.

- And thank you, thank you for doing that for the important work you do, thank you, and thanks for being here.

- Thanks.

- And if you'd like to know more about USU's program, it is the Utah Women and Leadership Project, A Bolder Way Forward.

The summit is June 6th from 8:30 to 3:30.

Online from 9 to 10:30 at the Zions Bancorporation Technology campus.

Go to abolderwayforward.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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