Dear Friends and Allies,

Spring is around the corner, and care is in the air! In the State of the Union last week, President Biden mentioned care 16 times, and reaffirmed his commitment to investing in care at every stage of life.

As we leave Black History Month and enter Women’s History Month, we’re reminded of how care touches every facet of our lives, and intersects with issues of equity and justice. Read on to find out how we’re making sure that care is not just part of the conversation - but IS the conversation.

- Antonia and all of us at Caring Across

Humans of HCBS

If you happen to be in Times Square or Downtown DC, look up and you might see us! Until March 14th, our month-long “Portraits of Care” campaign features people with disabilities, aging adults, care workers and family caregivers of diverse races, genders, abilities and ages, and shows the strength and love in the “Care Squad” to demonstrate why home and community based services (HCBS) are so essential.

Can’t make it there? We’re keeping up the drumbeat online, with State of Care videos from our Care Fellows and activists in response to the SOTU, a video from Ady Barkan talking about what HCBS means to him, and Tiktoks from caregivers like @lifewithgrams, @ourfilipinograndma, @yelleadams and many others. And check out the Care Can’t Wait Time for Action Summit for more.

Spring Into Care

On the heels of President Biden’s renewed call for care investments during the SOTU, Congress is planning to reintroduce Build Back Better this spring. We need to continue to build momentum and remind our elected leaders that Care Can’t Wait, which is why we are launching our “Spring Into Care” campaign this month!

Since March is Women’s History Month, we’re starting with celebration of women leaders in care, featuring activists throughout history and the amazing work of our own Care Fellows (stay tuned on our social channels on Tuesdays and Thursdays for posts highlighting these amazing women!). We’ll then launch a series of digital actions in April leading up to a Moms Mobilization in May in Washington, D.C. right before the expected vote. Keep an eye out for more info on our upcoming events, coming soon.

Caregiver Corner

If you haven’t already, check out our Facebook Live series, Caregiver Corner, hosted by our very own Aisha Adkins. Recent episodes feature the creators of the short film Inherited, and a deep and moving conversation around grief, care, and coping. “Grief and caretaking can be really isolating and lonely experiences and they’re generally private. We don’t realize how common what we’re going through is until we start to share with each other,” says Janine Kwoh, author of Welcome to the Grief Club.

Can’t get enough? Check out this great episode from last year featuring actor and caregiver Yvette Nicole Brown, and keep an eye out for a Women’s History Month episode coming soon!

Making Care Accessible

We’ve partnered with The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and illustrators Kathy Mueller and Noopur Agarwal to release an illustrated pamphlet to help people access HCBS, coming next month. Stay tuned for the release, including a Caregiver Corner featuring our Fellows who guided the pamphlet. And please shoot us an email back if you’d like copies for people in your network.

ICYMI: In the News and Online:

• In February, two Caring Across team members were featured at the 2nd annual HFC CareCon to support Alzheimer’s caregivers: Ishita Srivastava, Chief of Communications and Culture Change, and Lydia Storie, our new Senior Manager of Culture Change.
• Our 2020 Care Fellow Angelena Taylor was featured on the Tamron Hall Show and shared her experience caring for her father after he suffered a stroke.
• In February, Ai-jen joined Atul Gawande on the Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast to discuss love, caregiving, and mortality.
• And last week, Aisha was featured in The Hill’s Breaking New Ground: Innovations in Alzheimer’s Research conference, discussing caring for her mother and the barriers to care that hit Black and Brown people especially hard.

Our Team is Growing

Since we last wrote to you, we’ve added five awesome new folks to our team! Keep an eye on our blog to get to know them a little more very soon - but in the meantime, here are some quick intros (and favorite films) - feel free to join us in saying hi and welcome.

• Lydia Storie, Senior Manager of Culture Change, is a big fan of Casablanca.
• Breana Stanley, Advocacy and Campaigns Program Associate, can’t get enough of Midsommar.
• Callie Bruley, Senior Campaign Manager, loves Uptown Girls.
• Hank Hedland, Operations Associate, had his life changed by Auntie Mame.
• Ajax Greene, Director of Operations, loves Apocalypse Now.

A Final Note

Our campaign is always evolving because of the talented and dedicated people in it, and this month we want to honor three of our colleagues whose leadership is growing. Sadé Dozan is stepping into the role of Chief of Development and Operations, Ishita Srivastava is now Chief of Narrative and Culture Change, and Bobbie Capobianco is now Chief of Staff. We’re so excited to see how they use their expertise, honed over years of working in their respective fields and at Caring Across, to advance and lead the campaign into our next chapter. Onward!