Caring Across Generations is a national grassroots movement to improve how we care for elders and people with disabilities in the United States, and to improve conditions for the workers who provide that care. Bend the Arc is part of the campaign leadership team.
A Jewish Community That Cares
In February and March 2012, we rallied the Jewish community behind a proposal by the U.S. Department of Labor to extend the same minimum wage and overtime pay requirements most workers take for granted to America’s 1.7 million home care workers. Here’s why.
We are grateful to the 1,087 people who joined with us during the public comment period to write to the Department of Labor in support of extending federal wage protections to home care workers. We are also grateful to the 161 rabbis who signed our full page ad in The Forward in support of this change, and to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who joined our campaign. Finally, we are grateful to our partners in this effort: Jewish Community Action, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Jewish Labor Committee, Jews United for Justice, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Uri L’Tzedek, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Union for Reform Judaism’s Just Congregations. Together, we are showing that the Jewish community supports the dignity and inherent right of all people to live in a just, fair and compassionate society – and that the Jewish tradition of supporting workers is alive and well in America. Read the fact sheet.
What’s next?
Care Congresses are planned in cities around the country to help move this movement forward, including one in Los Angeles on May 6, 2012, in New York City on June 3, 2012, and in Boston on a June date still to be determined. Related federal legislation is being drafted that we expect to see introduced later this year.
In 2010 we helped pass the nation’s first Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in New York State. Now we are working to achieve the same protection for domestic workers in California. Last June the California Assembly passed the bill with our support; now we’re organizing to help push it through the State Senate and on to the governor’s desk. To learn how you can support passage of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, please send an email to DWcampaign@bendthearc.us
Grantmaking
In addition to our leadership role, Bend the Arc is also the grantmaking arm of the Caring Across Generations campaign. In this capacity, we administer grants through the Care Fund to organizing and voter engagement partners and local Care Councils. As part of our partnership with National Domestic Workers Alliance, we also administer grants for their Strategic Organizing and Leadership capacity building program.
