Dear Friends and Allies,

The next round of relief is finally on its way, including more funding for home and community based services and childcare, a child tax credit, and direct payments that will help families who need it most. And each day, we’re seeing the narrative shift towards valuing care work, and recognizing the unacceptable cost of treating it as an individual burden falling most inequitably on the shoulders of immigrant women and women of color.

Much of this is due to YOU - the work that your organizations and activists have been doing for the past year, building on years (and decades). THANK YOU. Please take a moment to celebrate with us!

It’s clear and amazing - while frustrating and heartbreaking - that it took a pandemic to open the eyes of the nation and our policymakers to our care needs. Which is why we cannot stop here. Over the next several weeks, we hope you’ll join in on ramping up our demands for the bolder, permanent investments we need for a care infrastructure that can support us all. It’s a marathon, but one we must see to the end!

- Janet, Antonia, and all of us at Caring Across

Make Care Count

Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Rep. Nikema Williams and Ai-jen joined care workers, disability activists, and caregivers (including our own sandwich-generation Care Fellow, Chandra White-Cummings!) in candid conversations on Facebook Live about how they’ll work to center care in a swift and just economic recovery. Rep. Bowman officially introduced the Care for All Agenda on the call, which has already been endorsed by 35 members of congress, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Cori Bush, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, as well as being backed by over 80 organizations across the childcare, paid leave, worker justice, and disability sectors.

Man Enough

From Valentines Day leading up to National Caregivers Day, we reached 1.1 million people through our #CareWithME campaign with the release of the Man Enough to Care web series. The five groundbreaking episodes, produced in partnership with Wayfarer Entertainment and Justin Baldoni (who you may know from Jane the Virgin), shows what it means to provide and receive care as a man and why shifting away from the gendered nature of care will benefit all of us.

The campaign also featured a powerful twitter chat with The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and activist Ady Barkan that delved into why disabled narratives of masculinity create room  for strength through vulnerability, and a dynamic and moving Black History Month Facebook Live Conversation with Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, and former NFL Player (and Man Enough star!) Devon Still and several caregivers on how gendered and racist narratives leave Black men out of the caregiving picture, and why that needs to change. The Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, also recognized National Caregivers Day (along with many other Members of Congress for the first time!) with a shout-out to the campaign.

Lastly, be sure to check out Devon talking about the series and his life-changing journey caring for his daughter with cancer (who is now 5 yrs old and cancer-free!) on Good Morning America and Good Day NY.

Virtual Lobby Visits

A dozen Field Partners, in partnership with our Care Fellows, led 38 visits in February with Members of Congress - focusing on new members - to ensure that funding for HCBS would be included in the relief package. Most members deeply connected with constituents’ stories, realizing the urgency of their need for support and prompting some to share their own care stories. Now that HCBS relief has been secured, the next step is to make sure President Biden’s jobs and recovery package includes care - and within that, expands HCBS to reach more people to eliminate waitlists while making care jobs good jobs. Onward!

ICYMI: In the News

• Caring Across’ Strategic Advisor, Josephine Kalipeni and Tiffany Younger of Women’s Wealth Gap co-wrote this piece in Morning Consult on why centering Black Women in a caring recovery is so essential. They write: “This is no time to “build back” old systems rooted in white supremacy. We must pursue an intentionally anti-racist recovery, starting by reimagining an economy that works for the millions of Black, brown and immigrant women who sustain it. Our community, and our nation’s well-being, depend on it.”
• Ai-jen wrote in the Nation on why Biden’s role as a caregiver has shaped his own commitment to care as key to rebuilding our nation and our economy after the devastating pandemic and beyond.
• Our poll with TIME'S UP and the Paid Leave for All coalition showed for the first time that the vast majority of people favor comprehensive and coordinated reforms to support caregivers, rather than a piecemeal approach targeting just paid leave, or childcare, or long-term services supports separately. Our families need it all, and voters want it all. Time for our electeds to deliver!

Our Team is Growing

Since we last wrote to you, we’ve added a number of awesome new members to our team! Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters to get to know them more - but in the meantime, here are some quick intros (and some favorite foods!). Feel free to join us in saying hi and welcome.

• Malcolm Harris, our new California Campaign Manager, who loves Pho!
• Connor Sullivan, our new Development Associate, and a big fan of samosas
• Ifetayo Harvey, our new Social Media Manager, who can’t pick just one favorite food :)
• Rocío González, our new Senior State Policy Associate, loves cheese enchiladas
• Rebekah Azaylia Alexander, former Care Fellow and our new Individual Giving Manager, worships her mom’s pasteles and empanadas - both highly addictive treats! She’d also like to add that it’s your generosity that ensures our team can continue to hold our lawmakers accountable to supporting The Caring Majority - which means all of us. Support her work in her first month (and us) here with a gift of $10 or more today! ;)

One Final Note ♥

We’d be remiss not to note how it has been one year and one day of us officially living in a global pandemic. We are holding space in our hearts for all of the lives lost and for all those who have lost loved ones, and the countless other ways in which so many of us have endured greater solitude, loss, hardship and wholly avoidable injustice. We wish everyone time, space and support for continued grieving and healing, because we know that it takes time - and hope that we're at a turning point. As the world begins to open back up, let it be with the tenderness of this prescription for a hug and heard-learned wisdom to fuel transformative action.