Families Affected by COVID-19 Urge Long Term Investments for Child Care Providers, Immigrants, and Unemployed
Community Change Acton’s Dorian Warren leads town hall on building a care economy featuring Stacey Abrams and struggling families from across the country
On Tuesday, May 12, more than 15,000 people tuned in to a town hall where Community Change Action Vice-President Dorian Warren led conversations with political leader and social justice advocate Stacey Abrams, and workers and families bearing the brunt of the impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak. You can view a recording of the town hall here.
Parents, those who have lost their jobs, child care providers, immigrants, gig workers, and farmworkers from all over the country gave their visions for what a caring economy would look like. They shared stories of medical debt, closed-down child care centers, risking infection to go to work, and more. They urged Congress and the federal government to include all of us in recovery packages, including immigrants and gig workers. And they asked elected representatives to make a $100 billion long term investment in child care, including increasing wages and benefits for providers.
Community Change Action Vice President Dorian Warren said:
“We are facing a triple threat of our health, economy and democracy, a crisis with consequences that can cascade through generations. But, like we’ve done in times of peril in our past, from the Great Depression to the Great Recession, we can choose what happens next. Trumpists are using the crisis to blame immigrants, China, Obama, anything they think will rally their base. But we have also seen the policy conversation swing towards ideas that were considered radical just a few months ago — ideas such as universal basic income, paycheck protection, universal child care and paid family leave.
This time around, the people struggling to make ends meet in our current system, especially women of color, must be at the tables where we start to create a just, inclusive, and caring economy. That’s why we are having this conversation today.”
Political Leader and Social Justice Advocate Stacey Abrams said:
“The challenges facing families who are working to make ends meet have always been with us, but the global pandemic has exposed the precariousness of what it means to struggle to get by in this country. We must show up for folks who are out of work and those who are being forced to choose between maintaining their health and supporting their families.
We need to include everyone in America’s progress, and we must understand that lines of race and class and gender are still barriers for too many. If we organize, mobilize and vote, we will build a stronger, more caring economy.”
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Community Change Action is a national social justice organization that builds the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that impact their lives.