Family Values @ Work hosted virtual town hall: Care Heals Body, Mind, and Soul

FV@W and partners celebrate National Family Caregivers Month with a national virtual event.

NEW YORK — On Wednesday, November 29, 2023, economic and racial justice movement leader Family Values @ Work (FV@W) hosted a virtual town hall, “Care Heals Body, Mind and Soul.” This town hall brought together care consumers, caregivers, policy experts and leaders during National Family Caregivers Month to discuss a path forward for care policies. 

Speakers at this virtual town hall include Becca Bernstein, senior manager of Option B; Josephine Kalipeni, executive director of Family Values @ Work; U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, MA-07; Sonya Renee Taylor, award-winning poet, activist, author and leader; and Teresa Younger, CEO and president of Ms. Foundation, who moderated the event.

“We are thrilled to bring together leaders in the care space for this virtual event,” said FV@W Executive Director Josephine Kalipeni. “We all have to work, often while dealing with caregiving needs and we need access to caregiving policies like paid family and medical leave, bereavement leave, and caregiving leave. We are excited to create the space to talk about the policies we need to serve our humanity.”

“Much of Option B’s work in the last year has been centered around the idea that our current workplace policies do not reflect the research on – or the realities of – loss and life after,” said Becca Bernstein, senior manager of Option B. “We deserve to live in a world where people don’t have to worry about their shift or a slide deck when they’re going through the unimaginable.”

“To achieve gender and racial equity in this country, we must collectively do more to create economic opportunity and security for women and people of color,” said Teresa C. Younger, Ms. Foundation President & CEO. “Paid leave policies should be expanded, bolstered and protected so that no one has to choose between their livelihood and their family. I’m grateful for the work that Family Values @ Work and movement partners do to push this critical issue forward.”

Rep. Pressley opened the town hall by thanking FV@W for hosting the event and expressing gratitude to the caregivers in the audience for the role they play with their loved ones and in society. Pressley shared that she was a caregiver for her mother as she battled leukemia and said that while the responsibility was a burden, she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“Our conversation addressed an issue that is at the core of work-life balance: the need to take leave,” said Rep. Pressley. “To care for a loved one with a serious medical condition, welcome a new child, or handle a personal health crisis, people from all walks of life need and deserve paid leave. We need legislation like my Support Through Loss Act to help fix our broken care economy and continue fighting for families across the country. I am grateful for Family Values @ Work for their partnership and advocacy as we work towards building a just care economy for all.”

“When we allow ourselves to move in the collective, we begin to dismantle and unsteady some of the foundational bricks of injustice and oppression in our society,” said Sonya Renee Taylor. “Our ability to be understanding of one another and be with one another is part of how we dismantle those systems.”

Family Values @ Work is a movement network of organizers and grassroots coalitions in more than two dozen states working to win paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe days, and affordable, high-quality childcare at the state and national levels.