Celebrate Our 2020 GameChangers

We’re thrilled to give you more reasons to cheer! Join us December 3 for our GameChanger Awards ceremony where we celebrate our network’s wins and some of the incredible champions of our work. It may be virtual but we guarantee you’ll feel like you’re dancing and clapping in a very crowded room.

Our headliner for the event is Roxane Gay, author, professor, social commentator and workplace advice columnist for the New York Times. We’ll have musical performances by Be Steadwell, Three at Home and the world premiere of the song “Paid Leave for All” featuring performances by some irresistible kids in our network! The festivities are free and start at 2:00 pm ET. 

“We’re delighted to recognize some of the outstanding leaders who are driving social change and policy in the time to care movement,” said Wendy Chun-Hoon, executive director of Family Values @ Work. “The recent elections affirmed a clear mandate on paid leave, with Colorado becoming the 10th state (including Washington, D.C.) to pass paid family and medical leave. President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris have committed to making paid time to care a priority for their administration. Now is the time to celebrate the wins of our network, as we organize to keep up the drumbeat for change that reaches everyone.”

And what a fabulous group of champions we will honor:

• Policy Champion: U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley. She was nominated by the Coalition for Social Justice, FV@W’s anchor partner in Massachusetts, for her unyielding commitment to providing comprehensive emergency paid sick days and paid family and medical leave, in response to the coronavirus pandemic and permanently.

• Worker Activist: Tameka Henry, Make It Work Nevada. Tameka has made a powerful case for paid leave as an ambassador for Make It Work Nevada and a member of the Worker Advisory Group of the Paid Leave for All campaign, testifying in Congress, speaking to the media and organizing in her community.

• Labor Champions: The American Federation of Government Employees and National Treasury Employees Union. After decades of work, thanks in large part to the leadership of these unions, over 2.1 million federal workers now have access to paid leave to care for a new child, as a result of successful inclusion of the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (FEPLA) in the defense authorization bill earlier this year. 

• Business Champion: Good Business Colorado. During the last year, they organized over 100 local Colorado businesses to sign on in support of paid family and medical leave for their state and trained dozens of their members to be spokespeople. 

• Community Partner: United Methodist Women. This national network of 800,000 women in the United Methodist church has done outstanding work to promote a national paid leave program through their Living Wage campaign, using the Zero Weeks film to host discussions and engage members.

Family Values @ Work’s annual GameChanger Awards also highlights the progress of our network of activists in more than two dozen states. Parents, caregivers, and advocates for paid leave, paid sick and safe days, and quality, affordable childcare will join us for celebration and inspiration as we honor the champions who are rewriting the rules to benefit all of us. Registration is free but required – register today!