Celebrating Our GameChangers

“An honor and a treat,” “an amazing testament to the power of your network,” “you all know how to make people feel seen and cherished”––these were among the comments from the record number of supporters and activists who joined us for the 2020 GameChanger Awards. The virtual event featured remarks from headliner Roxane Gay, acceptance speeches from awardees like U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, and snapshots of the work from local leaders.

During her acceptance speech, Rep. Pressley sounded the rally cry for this movement.

“The enactment of family friendly policies, the right to paid sick days and family leave protections are issues of economic and racial justice. Period,” Pressley said. “For too long, workers––predominantly black and brown women supporting their families and households––have been forced to make impossible, really unjust choices, to make ends meet.The status quo was fundamentally unjust, inadequate to begin with. We will not go back to a normal where workers have to choose between earning a paycheck or staying home to care for a loved one. It’s about time we give our nation’s workers the protections and support that they’ve earned, that they deserve.”

Music of love and liberation inspired us throughout the event. We moved, and were moved by, performances from Be Steadwell and Three at Home. And we celebrated the world premiere of the song “Paid Leave for All” by Craig Bravo Miller and Maisha Lani, featuring children from the Family Values @ Work network.

Headliner Roxane Gay took time to address the two countries in America right now, and to offer her simple key to making progress in our fight for true equity.

““In one country,” said Gay, “people are willing to grapple with our problems and willing to face racism and bigotry. We acknowledge that women have a right to bodily autonomy, and that every American has a right to vote, and the right to healthcare, and a right to a fair living wage and work conditions. We understand that this is a country of abundance, and that the only reason economic disparity exists is because of an unwillingness to tax the wealthy proportionately.

“The other United States is committed to defending white supremacy at all costs,” Gay explained. “They see America as a country of scarcity where there will never be enough of anything to go around and so it’s every man and woman for themselves. They are not concerned with the collective because their American way is to believe any success they achieve by virtue of white supremacy is actually by virtue of meritocracy. They see equity as oppression.. But what I do know is change is possible. We simply have to make room in our lives and in our communities for that change to happen.”

The Family Values @ Work’s annual GameChanger Awards highlight the progress of our network of activists in more than two dozen states. In addition to Rep. Pressley, the 2020 class of Champions includes:

• 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.

You can rewatch the fun below.

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