It’s been a challenging year. As a CEO, parent, grandparent and citizen, I worry the next few weeks and months could be even tougher.

On top of a pandemic that is not going away, racial injustices that continue to divide our communities and one of the most contentious elections in our lifetimes – it’s easy to become disengaged and disillusioned.

I’ve asked the people at my company to have hope. But more than that, I’m calling on American Family’s employees and agency owners to be the hope that cuts through the despair we may all be feeling.

How will you act to make our communities stronger?

That’s my challenge to our enterprise, but it’s a challenge for all of us. I’d like to hear from you. Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below about how you’re acting to make our communities stronger. You can tag me in a tweet, too.

American Family’s culture statement commits us to serving as a partner in our communities, striving every day to make them stronger. That’s what we’ve been doing. It’s what we’re doing now. And it’s what we need to focus on in the coming weeks and months.

More importantly, we must continue to act … to come together and do good. There’s plenty of bad weighing us down now. Our communities need us. We need each other.

We can do this, because we’ve been doing this.

When COVID-19 hit, our employees and agency owners donated more than half a million dollars to support relief efforts of nonprofits – all in less than eight days! That’s on top of the $425 million premium relief and tremendous support we’ve provided our customers these past six months. At the time, I called it our ‘Herman Witwer moment,’ and since then, we’ve turned even more moments into a movement.

The pandemic has been hard on our communities. Thanks to nominations from customers, employees, agency owners and others, our Community of Dreamers program remains strong. It’s making an impact across the country – including at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Black Hills, which was able to continue programming and offer more online options to families.

Most recently, we’ve assisted customers and communities in the Midwest following a devastating derecho, in the West as wildfires ravaged multiple states and in the South where an active hurricane season is wreaking havoc. Our enterprise and our people are stepping in and stepping up in all these places – not just because it’s our job, but because these are our neighbors, friends and family.

While a new school year added stress to the working parents of our enterprise, our people responded, too, offering ongoing tutoring to the children of our employees. Their empathy reflects our culture. It mirrors the work to close equity gaps in virtual learning that we’re leading in Madison and Milwaukee.

The challenge behind closing equity gaps requires a comprehensive approach. It includes all facets of our enterprise to work together to tackle difficult and complex issues – while working closely with our communities. It requires allyship and a commitment to increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of our teams. Our communities need leaders like Telisa Yancy to speak out – like she did recently with the Wall St. Journal – and share their perspectives and experiences with the world.

Our communities have been woven into the fabric of our DNA for more than 93 years. As we move through difficult times in our country, the impact we have in those communities is often amplified. That makes me proud. I hope it has a similar effect on you.

I know that – together – we can be the hope that’s so desperately needed right now. We can be the positivity that might be eluding an individual, a family, a community or a demographic. And that kind of hope is something that’s always worthwhile.