Care Forward is a Brooklyn-based standards-raising initiative for care workers and women and this is the country’s first neighborhood based standards-raising initiative for domestic workers.
Care Forward, an initiative of the Carroll Gardens Association and We Rise, had an event at JJ Bryne Park on April 28 since President Biden and the White House federally proclaimed April as Care Workers Recognition Month. In association with this event, Care Forward was excited to announce the addition of 250 families who have joined the Care Forward movement to raise the standards for care workers in Brooklyn.
The White House officially proclaimed April as Care Worker Recognition Month with legislation on March 31, 2023. The Care Forward rights and resources for the 250 families in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will allow powerful strides to be taken in the domestic worker industry.
According to Care Forward, the national legislation demonstrates the true multilevel transformation of the care economy.
There are 200,000 care workers living and working in NYC, and most of them are women. Care work in NYC is overwhelmingly done by women, women of color or immigrants, which makes Care Forward critical.
Since Care Forward launched in September, 2021, 75 percent of nannies who have participated have received access to more benefits, overtime and other resources. Its initiatives include a series of training modules where people are given vital tools to help navigate their rights and safety in their work environment.
At the overall launch of Care Forward, on Sunday, September 26, 2021, there were many speakers, a dance group and various activities for kids and adults.
This event for Care Worker Recognition Month was more focused on the workers, according to Ben Fuller Goggins, who is the deputy director at CGA.
New York Presbyterian Methodist Hospital had a table with resources and the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection had information in Spanish sharing workers’ rights.
The opening event was on a Sunday, which made it easier for many more people to attend.
“It is always such a hard balance because none of these workers live in this neighborhood,” Fuller-Googins said. “It’s been hard to find a good middle ground where we can have workers, employers and community members because there is never a good overlap in time.”
CGA gives out resources to care workers about their rights. They help the workers get involved in the organization and they have different workshops, trainings and legal support.
Once of CGA’s partner organizations, Legal Services NYC, was at the event so that care workers could get information that was helpful for them.
CGA refers a lot of worker cases to Legal Services NYC. These can include workplace issues or immigration issues.
“If workers need free legal support, it is good for them to know that is an option,” Fuller Googins said. “A lot of times, particularly immigrant workers and low wage workers, there are not accessible legal resources. When people sign up with CGA, we follow up with them to give them an overview of different programs that we do.”
CGA members will have varying levels of engagement. Some will lead workshops, some will go to Albany on lobbying trips and some will start campaigns. CGA is a culture of mutual support.
“Our whole motto is that workers are the experts,” Fuller Googins said. “We invest a lot in developing leadership skills and different trainings so the workers feel equipped to do outreach, lead trainings and facilitate workshops.”
Assemblywoman Simon was at the launch in 2021 and was also at the event in April. She has been a long time supporter of Care Forward and this local initiative.
The assembly woman advocates on the state level through budget allocation and also through legislation to support domestic workers.
There was a big care summit down in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the executive orders that were passed. This event celebrated that victory.
Doris Tapia, who is originally from Peru and has been a care worker in NYC for 22 years, went down to the White House for the event and was there when President Biden signed the executive order for domestic workers.
“It was so powerful being there in the Rose Garden,” Tapia said. “It was about time the President recognized the job we are doing.”
She was the only person that went down from Brooklyn for the two day event in DC where everyone joined together for domestic care worker month.
An aspect she hopes can be improved for domestic workers is a retirement plan.
“We do this big job but we are not being paid fair enough especially here in Brooklyn,” Tapia said. “Especially here in this big expensive city, everything is expensive. We do not have a retirement plan. Biden is trying to work on the retirement plan.”
She hopes this can be figured out soon.
She also mentioned more access to child care since it is expensive. She sees this as improving soon.
Another aspect to be improved is health care for the care workers. She pointed out that domestic workers mostly do not have documentation, which prevents them from getting health care.
“They need this if they are sick,” Tapia said.
She thinks they deserve days off and in particular paid sick days. She thinks this would be a major change.
She thinks it is important for the workers to get better documentation, health care and for the home care workers to have a secure retirement plan.
Tapia said it’s a big difference for people who grow up in this country to get the retirement plan.
She participated in a program called a day without child care service.
The program was “what would happen if we close for one day.” This was to show the impact that not having care workers would have on the economy and how important they are.
“I think we made the point that the President is addressing that we are very important to the economy,” Tapia said. “If you do not have somebody to take care of your kids, you have to stay home. You are not going to be able to work.”
The girls that she is a care worker for are almost 14 and almost 16. She has been with this family since the oldest was two months old. She has had a good experience with the family.
“That family is very fair with me,” Tapia said. “That is why I have stayed with them so long. They support me doing outreach and when I travel with the organization.”
She is involved in the leadership aspect of CGA. She is one of the lead trainers for the workshops.
A training for domestic workers lasts six weeks. They learn about nutrition, how to communicate with families and workers rights.
“We teach CPR since everybody needs to know about that for an emergency,” Tapia said. “We work with kids and with older people. We need to know in an emergency what we have to do to save lives.”
A powerful moment for Tapia in March of 2022 was when she was in Staten Island when Mayor de Blasio gave the right to have overtime payment.
She thought this was a big win since she had previously gone up to Albany trying to get domestic workers to be treated fairly and this was a step in the right direction.
The legislation that was passed last March that she was present for was Intra339. This NYC human rights law protects home care workers against discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace.
She was excited when she found out about the home care worker month event and thought it meant a lot. She feels like domestic workers are now recognized after being invisible for years.
Chrisena Denis, who grew up in St. Lucia, talked to the home care workers and other attendees at the event.
She let them know that the Care Forward program is here to empower them, encouraged the care workers to speak up and told them they are not alone.
“I was letting them know that the Care Forward program is here to assist them and give them resources that they need to help them move forward and even negotiate with their employers,” Denis said.
Denis, who has been involved with CGA since 2020, started being trained and then later got elected to the steering committee (planning and organizing). She is involved in planning activities.
Denis has been a care worker since 2019. She has worked for families in Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and Downtown Brooklyn and said they have been wonderful.
She had been with the current family for a few weeks and the previous one for a year. She has been with multiple families since 2019 and sometimes initially knew it would be short term.
She got a placement with her first family through CGA. That family put an ad for her on the Park Slope Parents Facebook page, which led to her next family.
Denis has attended Care Forward workshops and has learned her rights and how to advocate for overtime. She thinks Care Forward is a great initiative and she wants as many care workers as possible to know about it.
She thinks during the pandemic people really started to see the importance of care workers.
“I think parents understood the importance of having somebody help you with your kid,” Denis said. “I think house owners understood the value of persons cleaning their home. Now we are being considered essential workers.”
Legislation that has been passed recently has improved conditions for domestic workers.
“The legislation now is giving us the rights to overtime and other rights that we did not have before,” Denis said. “I think the legislation is great and it shows that there is less discrimination and our work is important.”
She believes the legislation has gotten them to help others to see care workers as professionals. Before some were ashamed and now “it is like I am a professional and I like what I do.”
The new legislation will mean that they will be paid for working beyond 40 hours. Anything after 40 hours a week is supposed to be time and a half. Before overtime wasn’t being recognized.
She is educating nannies that they have rights and that they are entitled to be paid overtime beyond 40 hours.
She thinks more workers need to be able to speak up for themselves if they are not treated well.
“They should know how to speak up for themselves because you have to know how to speak in a professional manner to not lose your job,” Denis said. “There should be no retaliation for speaking up. All of that is part of knowledge is power.”
Sometimes she will tell care workers that CGA has lawyers that are available to assist them if a situation arises.
A bad situation that Denis pointed out was that a care worker got Covid from an employer’s child and the parent did not pay her, which she said was unfair to her and unlawful.
“When Covid came into play, if you get Covid your employer is supposed to pay you. I was encouraging her. At least she knew resources were available to her.”
Denis went up to Albany this past February on a lobbying trip with CGA. This was a great experience for her since she found others fighting to improve conditions.
“The congress people we met were open, warm and listened to our issues,” Denis said. “I think change is coming.”
