Family Values At Work

Grassroots Leadership Fighting for Paid Leave and Affordable Childcare

Model and Strategy

Family Values At Work (FV@W) is a national, nonpartisan network of grassroots coalitions in 27 states working toward economic, racial and gender justice, particularly around policies such as paid family and medical leave, paid sick and safe days and affordable, high-quality child care. The network comprises more than 2,000 organizations including labor unions, faith communities, public health professionals, reproductive justice organizations, immigrant rights groups, and advocates for children, seniors, and those with disabilities. FV@W provides a strategic combination of support to its coalitions, including long-term financial investment; technical assistance with strategic planning, organizing, leadership development, communications, and fundraising; policy research, analysis, and writing; facilitating access to policy experts; and peer learning and collaboration. Other key programs include the Family Justice Network, which promotes the most inclusive family definition in paid leave policies and policy amendments; Democracy and Integrated Voter Engagement, connecting voting rights to economic equity issues; Voices of Workers, a cohort of worker activists guiding policy design, implementation, and media narratives; and OASIS, which provides programming and support for progressive women, trans people, non-binary and gender-fluid people in state legislatures. As it celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023, FV@W’s key objectives for this year include:

  • support their State Network to organize 3-5 state policy wins.
  • build a robust federal organizing strategy that prioritizes paid leave and paid sick days legislation and improvements to child care.
  • expand leadership pipeline programs: Voices of Workers, OASIS, and the People of Color Caucus.
  • launch narrative and culture change projects.
  • increase digital organizing programming, including 2 - 3 state campaigns and a national campaign.
  • raise funds to regrant to network members for leadership development, with a goal of regranting $3 million in the next 3 years.

Impact

Over 20 years, FV@W’s member coalitions have been instrumental in winning more than 56 new paid sick days laws and 12 new paid family and medical leave programs, impacting nearly 60 million workers and their families and creating demand for inclusive and sustainable federal and state policy solutions. Over the last two years alone, the FV@W network of grassroots coalitions has won 45 new paid sick days laws related to the pandemic, and fought for updates to nearly 30 existing laws (permanent and temporary updates) in one of the largest expansions in access to life-saving paid leave in U.S. history. Everywhere that offered new access to paid sick leave during the pandemic cut coronavirus caseloads by half, demonstrating the instrumental role paid sick and safe days play in public health and the ability to rest, seek treatment, heal and thrive.

While focused primarily on paid family and medical leave, paid sick and safe days and affordable child care policies, the FV@W network also fights for holistic economic justice policies that support, uphold and reinforce care infrastructure investments such as access to equitable health care and increasing living wages.

FV@W staff serve in key roles in many national coalitions in both the paid leave and child care policy spaces. These include the Paid Leave for All (PL4A) Campaign, where FV@W helped shape PL4A’s collaborative structure and goal to ensure tight coordination among members and commitment to an inclusive, affordable, and accessible national paid leave policy. As they seek to bridge the issues of child care and paid leave, FV@W also has provided leadership for the Child Care for Every Family network, and the Care Can’t Wait table with Caring Across Generations and other national partners working towards a full range of supports across the care economy.

Project image 1

Leadership

  • Josephine

    Josephine Kalipeni

    Executive Director

  • Erica

    Erica Clemmons Dean

    Director of Advocacy and Programs

  • Alexis

    Alexis Jackson

    Development Manager