These have not been the easiest years. We’re facing surging fear, hate, and sea levels all at the same time. So it fills me with gratitude to be working together, as we confront the challenges of our time, with people who are building a society that values our interdependence.
At our staff retreat last month, we generated a bold, ten-year vision of a society in which our progress is measured not by profits or technological advancement, but by the depths of our connection and the strength with which we care for one another.
In ten years, this society’s core will be the domestic workforce, who make it possible for families, seniors, and people with disabilities to access the care and support that enable us to thrive and live with dignity. Working together, we will bring about this transformation.
This year, we’ve already seen that vision begin to become a reality:
We advanced domestic worker rights.
- Hand in Hand partnered with the Pennsylvania Domestic Workers Alliance to pass the strongest Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in the country. Philadelphia’s bill ensures workers get contracts and paid time off.
- Ten years ago, it was unimaginable that a house cleaner could cancel all her clients when she got sick or could plan to join her child’s field trip, without losing wages. Today, it is.
We won access to care and support.
- In the face of growing demand for homecare—what many call the “caregiver crisis”—Hand in Hand has been working to ensure access to long-term support for seniors and people with disabilities.
- In California, we won state funding to develop a social insurance program so that people who do not qualify for publicly funded support, yet cannot afford private services, don’t fall through the cracks.
- Our New York Caring Majority campaign won the inclusion of universal long-term care as a part of the New York State Health Act. Hand in Hand is committed to creating model policies and programs that guarantee access to long-term care and living-wage home care jobs in the decade ahead.
We won against big banks & hate.
- Upholding our belief that we are all connected and that all human beings deserve dignity, our members have continued to mobilize nationwide to end the inhumane and racist policies targeting immigrant communities.
- As a part of the Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Campaign, Hand in Hand members pressured major banks like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase to divest from private detention facilities, and we won!
- Now we are demanding that Whole Foods/Amazon stop providing technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Picture the children who, in ten years’ time, will have lived in communities instead of in detention centers.
There are many more highlights—the campaign for a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights; winning $5 million in California for domestic worker and employer education; and expanding our digital organizing nationally.
Next year, 2020, is our tenth anniversary year. As we build towards our bold vision for the next ten years, we are excited to organize employers to win more Domestic W
orkers Bills of Rights on the municipal, state, and national levels. We will be working around the country, through our partner Caring Across Generations, to ease the financial challenges of providing long-term care and support to loved ones. We will be organizing domestic employers, our friends, and our neighbors to build the power necessary to fulfill this vision of a society that takes collective responsibility for, and care of, all of us.
It is no small task to transform our economic infrastructure, our nation’s history of exclusion of domestic workers, and our culture of individualism. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about our work. We hope you’ll be inspired to join us.
Building caring communities will require all of us. We hope you will participate in this powerful grassroots movement and help us build this vision by contributing a monthly or annual donation by December 31st.
