BWF County Coalition Updates - September 2025

In the Bolder Way Forward Framework, grassroots is key to making long-term societal change, and that means getting the message to every community, neighborhood, and family in Utah. County Coalitions in each of the 29 counties ensure this happens. The following are bi-monthly updates for each county coalition’s progress. Please click on the individual County Coalition webpages (linked below) to learn more. 

Beaver County: There is no update from Beaver County this month. Opportunities to grow the coalition are top-of-mind. A Saprea representative is hoping to connect with individuals interested in training to be volunteer community educators about child sexual abuse, and the County LIC/Local Interagency Council is another option being considered to align with. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Beaver County Coalition, please contact deborah.lin@usu.edu for more information and to discuss opportunities.   

Box Elder County: A monthly newsletter is up and running and spreading information about BWF throughout the county, with highlights around the spokes and areas of focus where spoke representatives have been defined. At the “Box Elder Stronger Together” monthly coalition meeting, BWF is given 10 minutes at the start to share information and identify how they can help partner and amplify the work of the non-profits in the community. Plans for a quarterly gathering are underway to continue to connect and build relationships between members and provide an opportunity to invite new individuals and organizations to engage.  

Cache County: July brought the county coalition together with presentations by Patty Bartholomew, Finance Spoke Representative, and Kelan Combe, who spoke on a USU Extension program, “Empowering Financial Wellness.” North Logan City became a Bolder Way Forward City with a unanimous resolution August 20, made and seconded by male allies on the council. Emily Schmidt, council member and Political Representation Spoke Representative , spearheaded the effort. Administratively, mapping for the county was consolidated to identify coalition members, their roles and contact information, updating the mailing list, identifying potential contacts, mapping organizations, and listing action items. September will bring an in-person meeting to continue to build strong relationships among the members.  

Carbon County: The Carbon County Coalition worked with Jared Haddock, Spoke Representative and County Commissioner, to draft A Bolder Way Forward resolution highlighting both what Carbon County can do and the strength of its people. The resolution will be presented to the County Commissioners on September 17, where Carbon County will be asked to declare October as Bolder Way Forward Month. All spoke representatives and ETV News are invited to attend. They've welcomed an interim Higher Education spoke representative and continue seeking co-leads to strengthen their leadership. To streamline efforts, spoke check-ins will be held every third Monday, aligned with the movement-wide awareness calendar. This ensures each spoke has visibility and support for their monthly campaigns. The first, on September 15, included personal finance and voter registration, while October’s will feature domestic violence awareness and work and family. They are using existing resources on confidence and imposter syndrome to support spokes and committee members. Each member is invited to share their personal “Why” for being involved in BWF, building on individual strengths to drive community change. Looking ahead, they are preparing a “Women of Carbon County” social media campaign to highlight local stories and planning ways to share the fall survey in October to gather community input. Upcoming, they plan to take part in the 12th Annual Eastern Early Childhood Conference (Sept. 19–20 at USU Eastern), with many spoke representatives attending. In October, they will join the Eastern Economic Summit, with their workforce rep and several co-leads participating. 

Daggett County: The smallest county in Utah, Daggett is cooperating with Duchesne and Uintah as they share resources and service providers. See the unified effort below under the Uintah Basin Coalition.  Follow them on Facebook or email Teresa Larsen at teresalarsen@kodiakcounseling.com to learn more. 

Davis County: After over 1.5 years, Stephenie Glissmeyer stepped down as a county co-lead, and her contributions are greatly appreciated. Elizabeth Miller has joined as a new BWF Davis County Coalition Co-Lead, and they have added a Leadership Development Spoke Rep. July 31, they held a morning mixer in partnership with Rising Violet, including a breakfast, a civic engagement presentation, and a visit from Dr. Madsen. In August, they held a virtual Spoke Rep Training to help their Spoke Reps feel empowered and connected. Their Health Across the Lifespan Spoke is coordinating free monthly yoga classes that include information about BWF spokes. They have been invited to present to the Farmington Rotary Club and are finalizing the date. 

Duchesne County: Cooperating with Daggett and Uintah as they grow, see the unified effort below under the Uintah Basin Coalition. Efforts to improve mammography rates in Roosevelt had Natlie LaRose and Misty Kettle on the air on X94 sharing facts and figures. Follow Duchesne through the Uintah Basin page on Facebook or email Teresa Larsen at teresalarsen@kodiakcounseling.com to join. 

Emery County: The Emery County Bolder Way Forward Coalition partnered with Parents in Recovery for their July Meeting. It was an informative meeting which addressed the needs of parents in recovery and what tools they need to be better parents as they seek a better life for themselves and their families. In the August Bolder Way Forward meeting, the focus was on back-to-school. Neal Peacock from the Emery County School Board and James Swank, the Emery County School District Superintendent, spoke on the needs of the school district. Their main focus is to keep kids in school and make school attendance a priority. In September, the meeting will be on Sept. 29, and the Hope Squad, which offers help with suicide prevention, will present with Amanda McIntosh leading the discussion. There will also be a short presentation on abuse prevention. In October, A Bolder Way Forward will participate in trunk-or-treat community events to raise awareness for A Bolder Way Forward. The October meeting will focus on child abuse prevention with Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) on Oct. 27. 

Garfield County: Monthly coalition meetings continue the first Thursday of the month at 4pm on Zoom after a break in July.  Meetings are open to anyone interested in BWF spokes or projects. The first spoke committee has been formed with the Childcare Spoke with Lacy Allen, Judith Geil, and Andria Rice, who made contact with the school district to explore facility options for childcare. They are also seeking to create connections with the Five County Association of Governments, Department of Workforce Services, and Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. The Political and Civic Representation Spoke has a couple of members with Peg Smith and Cheryl Cox who created an event for the September Voter Registration Campaign involving a Commemoration of the Constitution on Constitution Day, Wednesday, September 17th.  It will include sharing parts of the Constitution, identifying the Framers of the Constitution, a reading by elementary students, voter information and registration, and a chance to talk to municipal candidates. Garfield County BWF co-lead Cheryl Cox met with co-leads of the Washington County BWF to explore a Five County collaborative group.  The first collaborative Five County event will be a Living Room Conversations training on November 1st in Springdale. Tickets will be available soon.  

Grand County: Three years after opening, non-profit Moab Community Childcare will expand to a new location this year, enabled by funds from the Rural County Grant. Capacity will increase by about 75% and is expected to fill by the end of the year. A Bolder Way Forward will have a presence at the Moab Women’s Festival, which is supporting BWF Partners Seekhaven and Women’s Business Center Utah. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Grand County Coalition, please contact deborah.lin@usu.edu for more information and to discuss opportunities.   

Iron County: With a table at the Rotary Club’s Annual July Jamboree where there were over 20,000 attendees, the BWF county coalition was able to raise awareness about BWF and the county coalition. Semi-monthly meetings with the co-leads are scheduled to build momentum in the county as they follow up with spoke reps and discuss how to amplify the work of existing organizations through the monthly awareness campaigns. With the addition of a Leadership Development Spoke Rep, the Iron County Coalition hopes to identify their final spoke reps within a few months.  

Juab County: The county coalition recently welcomed Eden Richardson as a new county coalition co-lead who will be over social media. They have been busy at a variety of local events. On July 30 the Juab County Bolder Way Forward Coalition attended the annual back-to-school event at Central Valley Medical Center where they were able to share the mission and goals for women in their county.  They attended the Juab Prevention Coalition meeting and made a plan with The Refuge to hold a Living Room Conversation at the hospital in October. Recently Lisa met with and toured the new Teen Center at Juab High School – they are excited to partner in the future on projects and education at the teen center and are looking into doing a Young Leaders Club.  They are excited to meet and identity more spoke reps with their email list from the summer events. 

Kane County: Kane County Hospital, a BWF Partner and county coalition supporter, was recently recognized as one of Utah’s 100 Companies Championing Women. After a break over the summer, the August monthly county coalition meeting focused on education to align with the monthly awareness campaign, with presentations from representatives of the local high school and middle school. They were able to share the challenges and needs. BWF partner Saprea is scheduled to present at the September meeting.  

Millard County: There is no update from Millard County this month. Focusing on supporting existing Spoke Reps is a priority in Millard County, where there is a distinct division between different parts of the county. To address that, they hope to have better representation from the distinct areas. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Millard County Coalition, please contact myjody@live.com for more information and to discuss opportunities.   

Morgan County: While continuing to seek out leadership for the Morgan County Coalition, spoke representatives for K-12 were actively engaged in sharing August’s Movement Wide Awareness Campaign. Their focus was on steps to help reduce absenteeism in students as parents plan for the upcoming school year. If you would like to learn more about getting involved in Morgan County, contact Amy Anderson at amy.z.anderson@usu.edu.  

Piute County: There is no update from Piute County this month The coalition is connecting with a representative of Saprea about training local volunteer educators in the community. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Piute County Coalition, please contact deborah.lin@usu.edu for more information and to discuss opportunities. 

Rich County: With the busy summer tourist season winding down, efforts continue to seek leaders to build the coalition and connect to women throughout the county. Contact Amy Anderson at amy.z.anderson@usu.edu to find out how to be part of BWF in Rich County. 

Salt Lake County: Salt Lake County and West Valley City both passed resolutions supporting BWF, becoming BWF Partners; the potential impact cannot be understated, as they are the largest county and second-largest city in Utah.  The co-leads held an in-person meeting and would like to focus on bringing in more partners to lay the foundation for the work. A gathering for workplace spokes that included statewide and county spoke representatives helped coordinate opportunities and align initiatives. Coalition members helped with a Utah Food Bank activity over the summer, and faculty, staff, and students from the University of Utah are exploring having a BWF Campus Community.  

San Juan County: The same day Salt Lake County passed their BWF resolution, the San Juan County Commissioners passed a BWF resolution. Their monthly meeting in August was held in Montezuma Creek to reach a new part of the expansive county; others joined online. They are facilitating publicizing a variety of events and looking at tabling where possible. Several coalition members will be taking Saprea’s training to be local volunteer educators.  

Sanpete County: Sanpete County has been busy working on laying the foundation for a successful Bolder Way Forward movement and have identified amazing women to help build the coalition. They have been active on social media, promoting and encouraging events that support and build women. The coalition has reached out to those working to raise awareness about suicide prevention and hopes to support and encourage their efforts. They are joining a local Tuesday Ladies Tea to connect with other women in the county, are working on a presentation to the local chamber, and recently identified a new Leadership Development Spoke Representative who is planning trainings for local women. A student at Snow College hopes to form a BWF college club.   

Sevier County: There is no update from Sevier County this month. Cutbacks in federal funding are affecting the nonprofits involved with BWF in the county, so the coalition hopes to amplify efforts, including New Horizon’s domestic violence awareness campaign in October. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Sevier County Coalition, please contact deborah.lin@usu.edu for more information and to discuss opportunities. 

Summit County: “Save the Date” evites have been sent out for a September in-person meeting to be held at Intermountain Health’s Park City Hospital. County co-leads are inviting speakers from local non-profits, government, and supporters to update the coalition on the needs and activities surrounding the following spokes: Political Representation (tied to the September movement-wide awareness campaign), Entrepreneurship, Child Care, and Domestic Violence. Co-leads are actively inviting their networks to attend, including male allies, with an intention to help identify spoke representatives.   

Tooele County: The county co-leads have scheduled bi-weekly meetings to touch base and keep momentum going. With a change in co-leads, they are reaching out to the spoke reps to get to know them and confirm their interest. They are focusing on supporting the spoke representatives and plan to meet with them as a group to discuss their roles and how to move the needle in Tooele County. A new Child Sexual Abuse Spoke Representative recently joined the coalition. 

Uintah County: To help break the ice and share the vision of BWF, county coalition members are now given lapel pins to wear to events, identifying them as a BWF member in the Uintah Basin and helping to promote the coalition. August brought Yvette Rea and Rochelle Allen from USU Extension to share information about available resources, including Utah Money Matters, a PowerPay course, and the Finance Calendar. The group reviewed the Bolder Way Forward Finance Fact Sheet, which raised important concerns about financial literacy, retirement security, payday loans, and the need for cultural change in how women are supported in planning for the future. In July, an overview of Higher Education Attainment Spoke purpose and key messages, including FAFSA completion, reducing barriers to education, closing Utah’s attainment gap, and K-12 Initiatives were shared along with coalition-specific action steps to share with local schools, parent groups, city councils, and social media channels. Seeking to improve mammography rates in the tri-county area, a mobile mammogram event was scheduled for August with BWF Partner, the Boob Bus.  

Utah County: The Utah County leaders are steadily growing their coalition. They now have representatives for 15 spokes and a new social media coordinator – follow their new LinkedIn page. The five co-leads meet every two weeks and have divided responsibilities among them for spokes, communications, social media, partnership, monthly campaigns, and membership. Three of their spokes have had their first working group meetings. The leaders are using Slack for internal communications. Two spokes are working with the state effort in holding a Poverty Summit and a Child Safe Symposium. Co-leads were tasked with finding out who to contact in their cities about passing a BWF resolution. At present, two cities have been contacted. Representatives from BYU and UVU met with Dr. Madsen and Deborah Lin to discuss what BWF Campus Communities could look like on their campuses. 

Wasatch County: County co-leads Celeste Johnson and Reggan Jastram, along with Leadership Development Spoke leader Kelleen Potter, held a strategic planning meeting to begin outlining the areas where BWF can be the most impactful in Wasatch County. They are working on identifying and consolidating county data to focus and lead the coalition. Preliminarily the areas are as follows: financial education for women; collaboration with the school board on healthy relationship education; partnering with Intermountain Health Heber Valley Hospital to be the first county to achieve the state goal of 81% of women who qualify for a mammogram to complete one; raising awareness of domestic violence; and encouraging involvement with state legislative proposals. Invitations were sent in July for an in-person meeting September 9th to set goals and strategies.   

Washington County: The BWF Washington County Coalition continues to grow their influence in the county. They welcomed a new Leadership Development Spoke Rep, Judith Rognli, who is a leader in her numerous roles. They continue to connect with community leaders including from Utah Tech University, a city council candidate, and Integrated Healing Centers, among others. They recently attended a leadership tour of Switchpoint Community Resource Center where many great connections were made. In addition, representatives attended the Utah Nonprofits Association (UNA) Mini Confab event, presented on leadership at the monthly WIN “WINfluence Circle” gathering, met with the Gender Pay Gap Spoke Coordinator, attended the BWF Marketing Training, and continue to attend spoke meetings for the spokes they don’t have reps for. They have monthly meetings with a 3C group of local women’s organizations, the Interfaith Council of Washington County, and the Five County BWF Coalitions. The 3C collaboration with local women’s groups has connected with 435Events.com to add a Southern Utah Women’s Collab Calendar where women’s groups can post at no cost. Focuses include continuing to find spoke reps, building women’s groups alliances, pursuing Town, City, and County resolutions (after the elections), collecting resources and contacts in Washington County, and strengthening and supporting 5 County Coalition connections and collaborations. They are looking forward to attending the October Leadership Huddle in Salt Lake. 

Wayne County: There is no update from Wayne County this month. The coalition hopes to amplify existing efforts, including New Horizon’s domestic violence awareness campaign in October. If you are interested in supporting the BWF Wayne County Coalition, please contact deborah.lin@usu.edu for more information and to discuss opportunities. 

Weber County: Thanks to a coalition member, the BWF County Coalition is now part of the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce. The League of Women Voters of Weber County has been active and has recently become a BWF partner as well. The coalition is working on having a table at a Civics Festival on September 27 at Fort Buenaventura and is scheduled to present to WAYCOG. They are focusing on results of their survey to find the best fit for those willing to help with BWF efforts in the county and have approached cities about passing BWF resolutions.