An Unprecedented Crisis of Care: Building Better Workplace Policies for Working Families
Channel: New America
Date: 2021-04-02

When the COVID-19 pandemic—and the subsequent economic collapse—hit, the United States’ longstanding care crisis was laid bare. Without critical public policies to support workers with caregiving responsibilities, more people than ever before, disproportionately women and women of color, are being forced to make impossible choices between caring for themselves and their loved ones and their economic security.

A just and equitable recovery will require creative thinking and new approaches to caregiving policies to ensure that all working people have the tools they need and that those tools help to promote racial, gender, and, economic justice. Now is the time to build upon the last two decades of substantial policy and cultural progress on care at the local, state, and national levels, to show the common ground between workers’ interests and business interests, and to think boldly and creatively about the future.

A Better Balance and the Better Life Lab at New America invite you to a virtual event featuring workers, caregivers, thought leaders, business experts and work-family justice advocates to hear from the front lines about what workers who need to care for themselves or loved ones are facing in today’s profoundly difficult economic climate, and to come together to strategize on a blueprint for progress and policy innovation for the care infrastructure this country needs.

Join the conversation online using #CareCrisis and following @BetterLifeLab and @ABetterBalance.

Agenda:

Opening Remarks

Heather Boushey, @HBoushey
Member, Council of Economic Advisers

Panel #1 - Putting Front Line Workers Front and Center: Worker Leadership in the Fight for Work-Family Justice

Brigid Schulte, @BrigidSchulte (moderator)
Director, Better Life Lab

Dreama James
A Better Balance Community Advocate and fast food worker in Georgia

Virginia James
A Better Balance client and former retail worker in South Carolina

April Kimbrough
Nursing student and paid leave advocate

Tasha Murrell
A Better Balance Community Advocate and Teamsters organizer; former warehouse worker in Tennessee

From Story to Action: Driving Human-Centered Solutions

Jocelyn Frye
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Panel #2 - How Federal Law is Failing Working Families & How We Move Forward: Maximizing the Urgency of the COVID-19 Crisis to Build Permanent Work-Family Solutions

Sherry Leiwant, @ABetterBalance (moderator)
Co-Founder and Co-President, A Better Balance

Dina Bakst, @ABetterBalance
Co-Founder and Co-President, A Better Balance

Marc Freedman
Vice President, Workplace Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Clarissa Martinez De Castro, @CMartinezDC
Deputy Vice President, Policy and Advocacy, UnidosUS

Marcia St.Hilaire-Finn, @BrightStartNoma
Managing Director, Bright Start Early Care & Preschool

Vicki Shabo, @VShabo
Senior Fellow, Paid Leave Policy and Strategy, Better Life Lab

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