A Letter From Our New Executive Director

by Josie Kalipeni, Family Values @ Work’s newly appointed Executive Director

It’s an overwhelming and humbling honor to be invited by the Network, Board, and staff of Family Values @ Work to be the next Executive Director. 

The work of my heart has always been about pursuing justice and liberation for Black people, indigenous people, immigrants, and people of color (BIPOC). As I do this work, I keep in mind my own experiences and that of my family.

I’m an immigrant from Malawi, Africa, and I’m part of an expansive mixed-status family. I’ve seen my mom care for my dad while working and balancing the needs of my siblings and me. In our family group chat, my brothers, sisters, and I talk about what care will look like for our mom as she gets older, how to address microaggressions at work, our fears about the sanctioned attacks on Black people, and how to pool our resources to get out of debt.

I’ve had to work to make ends meet while worrying about the care and wellness of my family, at times ignoring my own health. I’ve been stressed thinking about needing to work when recovery from a surgery took longer than expected. I’ve been the person called on to drop everything to pick up a child on behalf of a parent working late. I’ve used up my minimal savings to be there for my family during an emergency. I’ve had to make the difficult choice of not paying my own rent to buy a ticket from Maryland to Illinois to be there for friends and family in need. I put off getting my US citizenship because I couldn’t afford the time off or the application costs.

So for me, the work we do is personal — and it’s communal. It’s about all of us.

Securing economic justice and liberation for all can’t be solved by addressing one thing. These issues are intricate and complex. Each system that the US is built upon, including its policies and its culture, requires racism, classism, and sexism to work. So when those of us who are marginalized in these and other ways experience hardship, our situations can seem like dominoes: When one part of our life falls, everything else goes tumbling down. 

Our personal resilience, though necessary and vital, isn’t all that we need to effect change. Together, we must use our collective power to demand the freedom to thrive on our own terms. I’ve seen FV@W do just that by engaging in the movement for economic justice for our communities. I’m proud to be a part of that, and, as we anticipate the next of many tipping points at the federal level, I’m excited to envision what comes next. 

As a person of faith, I believe there’s strength in our numbers — and, to borrow from the Bible, that a three-strand cord isn’t easily broken. Here are the three strands that I think will help us continue to succeed:

• Partnerships: We’re a national organization that must continue its relationships with the states, other national organizations, and elected officials.
• Building capacity: Leadership development, organizational development, and campaign development are all core goals that we must strive to meet.
• Building power: People power. Political power. Cultural power. We have them. We must use them.

These BIPOC-driven strategies have absolutely helped us on our journey. If we keep strengthening and expanding them, we can be inclusive of all people, build and democratize power, dismantle the false narratives of scarcity, and lean into our abundance.

I want FV@W to be a space where we can experiment, process, and learn about what makes equity a reality. To do that, we must challenge ourselves to decenter whiteness, dismantle systemic oppression, and apply a reparations lens that values the dignity of our full humanity, even before our economic value is counted.

FV@W will be the organization that has an empowered team and network, and we’ll create the space to be innovative thought leaders. We’ll be the network that organizes ourselves into positions of power and change, and takes courageous but smart risks that always center our people. We’ll be accountable to our network first. And we’ll remain rooted in the communities we represent — because we’re the experts on what we need. 

Our individual liberation is wrapped up in our collective liberation. I’m committed to leading differently and collectively. I’m committed to maintaining and sparking joy in my own humanity and in our work. I’m committed to creating an environment where all of our humanity is seen in the work we do. FV@W will continue to lead with our values. This is about how our family values show up in our work and how our work can bring real family values to society at large, so all can thrive.

I look forward to leading a leader-full movement that centers working BIPOC caregivers and that mirrors all of our lives and lived experiences. I’m grateful for and excited about this opportunity.