I am a career direct care worker. I had the great privilege of speaking about the Voices Institute leadership training program at the Direct Care Alliance reception in New York City on September 11, 2008. Here is my speech.
Good evening. I am honored to be here with you tonight to share with you my voice from the frontline. I feel very proud of my years of service in the direct care workforce and I feel very proud of the direction in which the workforce is going.
I turned 30 a few days ago and have been a direct care worker since I graduated from high school. In direct care workforce terms, that would make me a veteran. With the current extraordinary turnover rates, many direct care workers enter this profession only to quickly leave.
I have learned so much over the last decade as a direct care worker. One of the first individuals I supported, Mike, a motivational speaker and educator, has quadriplegia due to a spinal cord injury. Mike and I immediately became a team and had to because we were simply put together without guidance; I was sent to fill an opening in his schedule. Mike taught me a lot about being a direct care worker.
In 2000, I began working with Jeff, a former university development director, who has quadriplegia due to multiple sclerosis. By this time, I was raising my then two-year old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, as a single parent. I had been working multiple jobs and had postponed my college plans, but Jeff and I made an agreement. I would be paid a livable income as his primary aide and would have time before and between shifts to re-enroll in college.
It was a very busy time, but well worth it when I received my B.A. in Psychology, with honors, from the University of Minnesota. I promised Jeff that although I had completed my education, I was not planning to quit working with him. I have now worked with Jeff for over eight years without missing one day.
The individuals I support are like my family.
My family grew this year. The direct care workers I met when I attended the DCA’s Voices Institute are people just like me. As a new leader, I felt that I greatly needed support and cultivation. Through the Voices Institute, I received it, and I felt my life beginning to change from the moment I read my acceptance letter.
Our Voices Institute class participated in several web seminars. These oriented and prepared us well for what would be an intense week of learning and stretching as people and direct care worker advocates. Some of the topics of the webinars were Leadership for Advocacy and Fundraising and Sustainability for State Associations.
Now, I have earned well over a hundred college credits, but I can’t remember when I was ever more enthusiastic about what I was learning than when I embarked on an amazing journey as part of the Voices Institute.
Why exactly was all of this so important to me? During most of my years as a direct care worker, I have believed in the importance of what I do because it enhances lives, but I have struggled. It is very difficult to support oneself and it is more difficult to also support a family on the wages we earn and with the lack of benefits.
We often work in isolation and do not have much of a sense of having a professional community. Respect for the profession and the workers is inadequate. Little support is available to us. For example, if I am sick, I usually still have to go to work because there is no back-up.
Overall, direct care workers are not invested in as professionals. Without drastic changes to the workforce, the availability and quality of direct care will deteriorate further. This IS changing and I can’t express how happy I am about this. I see the Voices Institute as a catalyst for major change in workforce conditions.
As part of the Voices Institute, I found a network of new friends and colleagues. Being united with others who have a background similar to mine, identifying and relating to one another, feeling a kinship and a bond that comes only from common adversity, and acting as mirrors to each other’s strengths and weaknesses as direct care workers and direct care worker advocates was one of the most inspirational times in my life. For an entire week, we were immersed in the Voices Institute curriculum and were gathered together as a collective voice, overflowing with vision and capacity.
Upon graduating from the Voices Institute, we were empowered like never before, stronger, smarter, and better-equipped with tools and knowledge to be effective direct care worker leaders. We explored an abundance of topics, such as community organizing, fundraising, power, leadership, issue campaigns, meeting with legislators, and so much more.
Nothing else exists that can compare with the Voices Institute. I hope that a new class can graduate from the Voices Institute each year. If we do nothing to elevate the workforce, we will remain fragmented and overwhelmed. Those who graduated from the inaugural class are a lot of firecrackers who are now unstoppable. We are part of the foundation of the grassroots movement that will make transformative changes for Direct Care Workers.
True empowerment and professionalization of the direct care workforce require strong direct care worker leadership. The Voices Institute is fostering this leadership. Imagine the difference it will make to someone with a disability when you compare a marginalized direct care worker to one who is celebrated. The power in this distinction is unmistakable. Celebrated and empowered direct care workers stay longer with consumers, provide higher quality services, feel pride in what they do for society, and next to families, are the next strongest allies to persons with disabilities.
With each new class of the Voices Institute, we can come closer to realizing the goal of a strong, stable, and thriving direct care workforce. As is true for my class, each subsequent class of Voices Institute graduates will carry forth this mission and distribute our influence to our communities, our organizations, and our profession.
My class is the beginning of an expansion, and I believe that each one of us has made a commitment to workforce advocacy. Watch what happens when you give someone a chance to know their own power and how they can change the world that they and their consumers live in.
My affiliation with the Direct Care Alliance through the Voices Institute did not end when I graduated. I was so inspired and motivated by my experience that I pursued an exciting opportunity with the Direct Care Alliance: the position of Direct Care Worker Specialist. In my new role, I will have the privilege to assist with the design and implementation of the Voices Institute, the National Direct Care Partnership Partnership, and other Direct Care Alliance activities.
I am really excited to work with the DCA to engage more direct care workers in leadership and to prepare them for the work it entails. There is much work to do, and with the DCA’s promotion of direct care worker leadership, more leaders will join the ranks. They may be leaders who never considered themselves leaders until they realized their personal power.
The Voices Institute has recently agreed to collaborate with my state association to establish a leadership program in Minnesota. Those within my organization recognized the difference the Voices Institute had made for me. I had returned with a bolder, savvier approach toward doing workforce advocacy. It was apparent to everyone that that the Voices Institute would be very valuable to developing leadership in our state.
The Voices Institute has already proven to be an instrumental piece on the course toward strengthening the direct care workforce. The future impact promises to be tremendous. Before my participation, I was a worker leader who was unclear about how to proceed in my organization. There are many others who are just like me, who with this unique program, can become powerful and effective leaders.
It is the workers who are the experts on the workers, so it is they whom we need to hear from. By nurturing direct care worker voices, we will solve workforce issues at their very root.
I am thrilled to work with the Direct Care Alliance, and I thank you for your interest. Enjoy the rest of this lovely evening.
Bridget Siljander
Direct Care Worker Specialist
Direct Care Alliance
