John – Today, we face an uncertain reality that will have profound effects on our communities. And, we want you to know: we will stand together to get through this.

We are held up and powered by generations of domestic and care workers, standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and faced these threats before. Their resilience flows through us.

We all deserve to live in peace, take care of our families without the threat of danger, and have access to the care we need. That’s why we will never stop fighting to ensure that care is at the center of everything demanding our leaders make policy choices that will help everyday people — not the richest 1%.

For all of us at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the path forward is clear.

Our first priority is ensuring the immigrant workers in our communities are protected from increasing criminalization and enforcement measures, and that our immigrant care workforce knows their rights to fight against racist and immoral mass deportation.

We will expand our organizing and power building efforts for Black, immigrant, and women of color domestic workers, because we know that organizing is the foundation of all our work to defend and protect the rights of domestic and care workers.

We will build on the work of our historic Care Can’t Wait coalition — the largest coalition of organizations, stakeholders, advocates, and grassroots groups focused on care in history — to make continued gains.

We will continue to fight for a lasting care infrastructure, including protecting critical agencies for domestic and care workers, like the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services.

We’re not going to shy away from the truth: this work won’t be easy. But, our record on taking care of each other speaks for itself:

• We created the Coronavirus Care Fund to make sure domestic workers and caregivers received the help they needed during the pandemic.
• We launched Families Belong Together to keep children safe and families whole.
• We stood up for reproductive rights, marched for justice, and declared that Black Lives Matter.
• We’ve shone a light on the need for a strong care infrastructure and built huge support to address it.

Each of these actions fortified the safety net of solidarity and compassion that has carried us through the toughest times.

Generations of domestic and care workers have already paved the path we will follow. We are the leaders we need at this moment. Care is still our future: we made our voices heard and we will continue to demand that our leaders take the care crisis seriously.

We won’t stop now, and today more than ever, thank you for all you do.

The NDWA Team