Overview
This WIN Challenge project brings together Chaleur Creative, Queer Stability, and regional partners to design, pilot, and scale innovative Culture & Practices solutions that help people—especially women--thrive in the workplace as they are, not as systems expect them to be.
Rather than treating women as the problem to be “fixed,” this work focuses on redesigning workplace cultures, practices, and pathways that currently create barriers related to caregiving, bias, access to capital, psychological safety, and career mobility. Our approach integrates organizational culture change, narrative shift, entrepreneurship support, and access to resources—creating practical, scalable interventions that work across small businesses, nonprofits, and larger institutions.
This project is rooted in Pierce County and designed to pilot locally and scale nationally, leveraging community trust, lived experience, and proven business infrastructure.
Rather than treating women as the problem to be “fixed,” this work focuses on redesigning workplace cultures, practices, and pathways that currently create barriers related to caregiving, bias, access to capital, psychological safety, and career mobility. Our approach integrates organizational culture change, narrative shift, entrepreneurship support, and access to resources—creating practical, scalable interventions that work across small businesses, nonprofits, and larger institutions.
This project is rooted in Pierce County and designed to pilot locally and scale nationally, leveraging community trust, lived experience, and proven business infrastructure.
Our Vision
We envision workplaces where people do not have to choose between caregiving and career, authenticity and safety, or economic stability and dignity.
This WIN Challenge project is about changing the systems—not asking women to survive them.
The Problem We’re AddressingAcross sectors, women—particularly women of color, queer women, trans femme and non-binary people, caregivers, immigrants, and first-generation professionals—face compounding barriers that include:
- Caregiving expectations without workplace flexibility
- Bias in hiring, promotion, and leadership pipelines
- Toxic or exclusionary workplace cultures
- Limited access to capital, networks, and decision-makers
- “One-size-fits-all” DEI or HR programs that fail to create real change
Our Solution: Culture & Practices That Actually Work
This WIN Challenge project delivers practical, human-centered solutions across three integrated areas:
1. Workplace Culture & Practices Redesign
We work directly with employers—small businesses, nonprofits, and institutions—to:
Through Queer Stability and Chaleur Creative, we support:
We elevate new narratives that:
1. Workplace Culture & Practices Redesign
We work directly with employers—small businesses, nonprofits, and institutions—to:
- Identify hidden cultural and operational barriers
- Redesign policies, practices, and norms around caregiving, flexibility, and psychological safety
- Train leaders and teams using applied, interactive, real-world tools (not checkbox compliance)
Through Queer Stability and Chaleur Creative, we support:
- Women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs entering or re-entering the workforce
- Access to business formation, coaching, and early-stage resources
- Non-traditional pathways in tech, trades, healthcare, and emerging industries
We elevate new narratives that:
- Challenge outdated assumptions about productivity, leadership, and “professionalism”
- Center lived experience and intersectionality
- Demonstrate how inclusive cultures drive retention, innovation, and economic resilience
Key Players
Angela Silva
Community & Strategy Lead Angela brings extensive experience in nonprofit leadership, community engagement, and cross-sector collaboration. Her work centers on designing programs that reflect real community needs while maintaining scalability and accountability. |
Chris Brown
Founder, Chaleur Creative Founder, Queer Stability Chris Brown is a business advisor, community builder, and systems strategist with over 15 years of experience supporting entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and institutions. His work focuses on operationalizing equity—turning values into executable systems that improve outcomes. Chris brings deep experience across workforce development, organizational culture, and capital access, with a particular focus on queer-led and women-led initiatives. |
Regional & National Partners
This project is informed and strengthened through partnerships with community organizations, workforce leaders, and funders, including alignment with Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and networks supporting women in tech, healthcare, trades, and entrepreneurship. |
What We’re Delivering Through the WIN Challenge
Over the project period, we will:
- Pilot culture and practices interventions with employers and organizations
- Support women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs through structured pathways
- Develop scalable toolkits, training models, and narrative assets
- Measure impact across retention, confidence, access, and organizational change
- Share learnings to inform broader systems change beyond Pierce County
Why This Is Different
- Not DEI theater – This is applied, measurable, and operational
- Designed with communities, not for them
- Works across business sizes and sectors
- Centers intersectionality, including trans femme, non-binary, lesbian, and queer identities
- Built to scale without losing integrity
