There is no question that the 22 direct care workers who participated in the very successful Voices Institute leadership training retreat in the spring of 2008 became a tight-knit core group of direct care worker advocates. We still discuss the impact that this experience has had on our lives and how we will never forget the incredible growth that took place. As a group, we are building a grassroots movement bit-by-bit with passion and determination.
On October 20, eight of our alumni gathered for our first follow-up conference call. We learned about some exciting things that our group has been working on:
Ray Erickson had just given a speech to close to a 100 people at the Iowa CareGivers Association Annual Meeting.
His wife, Vicki Erickson, had recently sat in on a forum with local legislators for a couple of hours.
Jackie Merkle spoke about her efforts to develop organizational relationships with the Long-Term Care Alliance. One person in her group is working on legislative activities, such as a position paper to try to move forward with legislation. She also shared some frustrations she’s had around trying to generate interest among direct care workers by going through providers, who sometimes are not receptive to her message.
Lorenzo Raffa talked about Maine PASA’s conference, which attracted 1,500 attendees. John Booker, the Chair of the Direct Care Alliance, was the keynote speaker. Vicki Erickson of the ICA spoke about her Voices Institute experience. Roy Gedat, the National Advocacy Director for the Direct Care Alliance, was also present.
Brenda Nachtway, of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association, took her state association at the capitol in Harrisburg. She made appointments to speak with the Secretary of Labor and Industry under Governor Rendell. Her board split up during this visit to the capitol to attend to different business there. She hopes this will continue every other month to promote her organization.
Helen Hanson, of Local 771, Maine Direct Care Workers’ Union of MSEA-SEIU, met with the bureau of insurance in her state to try to get health insurance for Direct Care Workers in Maine. A few days ago, she had the chance to sit down and talk with Governor Baldacci and told him, “if there are budget cuts, you will see my face”. Helen is a dynamic advocate for providing health insurance for Direct Care Workers.
Peg Ankney, of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association, made a trip to Representative Mundey, who is on the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She felt that it was a productive talk, which included 3 other members of the PDCWA. “We all complemented each other with our skills”, she said.
Bridget Siljander, of the Direct Support Professional Association of Minnesota, a chapter of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals, with the help of Lindsay Short of the VI, and Lance Hegland of DSPAM, organized two celebration events to commemorate National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week, which was designated by a Senate Resolution passed in July 2008. It was a wonderful public relations opportunity to inform the community about DSPAM and Direct Care Worker issues. DSPAM is collaborating with the Direct Care Alliance to bring the Voices Institute to Minnesota to develop a statewide leadership foundation.
The remainder of the agenda for this call was:
- Engaging the VI class in issues that affect DCWs.
- Webinars to supplement VI curriculum post-retreat
- Common issues faced by VI class after returning home from retreat.
- Future VI follow-up strategy.
The Voices Institute class was asked to individually join the DCA’s National Direct Care Partnership, and to encourage their associations to join. The Partnership will be a way to support legislation and other advocacy pieces that the DCA endorses. If you are aware of legislation that focuses on DCW issues and/or would like to consider joining, please contact Roy Gedat of the DCA. Roy stated, “Individuals and organizations can sign onto coalition to give our advocacy effort notice in Washington D.C. so policy makers can see that people are getting behind legislation and bills, etc.”
The DCA is also looking for DCW testimony that will be used to share with the Institute of Medicine Report committee, which addresses problems in the DCW workforce.
In order for the VI graduates to plug into the national movement, it will be helpful if we could share information amongst our group and inform each other about conference calls that may be of interest. We can learn so much from each other and by engaging in the happenings in other states.
Jackie Merkle spoke of the importance of DCWs telling their stories. It is through our story-telling and sharing that we can find the common threads that connect all of us as DCWs. We must come together as a collective group in order to have greater advocacy power. Illustrating who we are, what we do, and our experiences will educate our communities and decision-makers in policy and government and beyond. If you have a story to share, please contact Bridget Siljander at bridgetsiljander@yahoo.com. As Jackie so eloquently put it, “You can’t change the story unless you are a part of the story.”
Brenda followed with optimism, saying: “One story might blossom into 30 and get into the hands of legislators who will do something about it.” Helen has collected stories from her membership group to find top concerns. She felt that sharing stories was a great tool to get people to come together. Her association took principals from stories and was able to get candidates to meet with them after the upcoming election. Your voice can make a difference!
The DCA is now recruiting candidates for the next Voices Institute class. All alumni and others who care about empowering DCWs are being asked to recommend good DCW leader candidates by contacting Roy Gedat at rgedat@directcarealliance.org. The DCA would like for state organizations to participate in funding those they send to the VI. The DCA hopes that the VI class will promote this in their states and use the fundraising skills they gained.
Bob Hudek and others talked about the use of web seminars. Bob said that there will be a number of available web seminars to use and that they can also be tailored to fit your organization and scheduled when it is convenient for a group. Pennsylvania is doing a web seminar every other month and may eventually include its membership. Peg remarked, “Once we got connected it was great; everyone went away with new ideas. If can work our schedules out, the timing is hardest thing.”
Some VI alumni have faced challenges since going home and exercising their new skills. John Booker said that this was normal; “It is a natural occurrance that we grow and then get resistance.” He added that we need to touch ground with everyone to support them if we can. “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” he noted, and followed this up with saying that it can be easier trying to capture DCW interest in what we’re doing when we make gatherings fun and celebratory like a party. We have to remember who we are marketing to and market directly to the DCW, remembering their culture– other points he made.
More conference calls will be held regularly. So, stay tuned, VI graduates!
