Voices Institute NLP Graduates New Crop of Direct Care Worker Leaders

DCA board chair Vera Salter teaching members of the 2009 class

“Let the root thrive” was the birthing motto of the Voices Institute inaugural class, inspired by the lakeside location of the DeKoven Center in Wisconsin, where the first graduates launched DCA’s signature National Leadership Program (NLP) to turbo-charge direct care worker leadership and activism.

When I wrote, after the first class graduated, that the inaugural program was one “historic and successful step forward for the movement to empower direct care workers and to fix our broken long-term care system,” I was dreaming of the possibilities. From September 27 through October 3 of this year, direct care workers once again proved their capacity to make the seemingly impossible happen, and to claim the respect they deserve as professionals. The roots are thriving at the state and national level, and the new class of graduates have a place from where to build national policy success.

The progress made by members of the first class in just one year shows the power of the combined voices of workers speaking for themselves about their issues to powerful policy makers and constituents. The VI inaugural class took up the issue of fixing the unfair law that denies home care workers basic minimum wage and overtime protection. Their passion and commitment was evident in the speeches they wrote about Evelyn Coke, the home care worker who unsuccessfully sued for the overtime wages she had never been paid for years of work.

In one of those speeches, Bridget Siljander, then a member of the class and now the coordinator of the Voices Institute, wrote: “Evelyn Coke is a victim and a symbol of a systemic and widespread discrimination against direct care workers. She represents a workforce that is undervalued, and subsequently under-compensated. Direct care workers … work on the frontlines in our health care system and disability services, but are marginalized when it comes to organizational and policy planning.”

VI Coordinator Bridget Siljander, L, with members of the 2009 class

The graduates of the Voices Institute’s National Leadership Program refuse to be marginalized. Many of them, along with elders, people with disabilities and employers who support the DCA’s mission, met with elected officials in Washington D.C., this April. They asked their legislators to include home care workers in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. They also explained that true health care reform cannot happen until the direct care workers who provide the great majority of the care in long-term care are fairly compensated and given the training and support they need to do their jobs right.

In these meetings and others, VI NLP graduates helped move their issue into the halls of power and onto policymakers’ priority lists.

When this year’s class graduated this month, 25 more direct care worker leaders joined their colleagues and allies with new tools and motivation to further the movement for more respect and better compensation, career development opportunities, and training. Now more than ever, as car company executives fly in private planes to collect billions of taxpayer dollars and bankers receive trillions to paper over their mistakes while tens of millions of Americans live in fear that they won’t get the basic health care coverage they so desperately need, we need to hear from direct care workers. Now more than ever we need the multiplying chorus of DCW voices that DCA’s VI NLP is helping to build, to remind us of the value of hard work, compassion, and fellowship toward other human beings.

One of the countless moving stories shared this year was the speech delivered by Mark Cerna of the New Mexico Caregivers Association. Mark talked about the two generations of workers in his family who have chosen and loved direct care work – and lived in poverty as a result of that choice. His father had been a direct care worker until he got sick. At that point, Mark left a well-paying job with benefits as a truck driver to care for his father. That experience made him realize that direct care work was his profession of choice, although the pay was much lower and the benefits nearly nonexistent.

But let’s hear from the workers themselves. Here’s what some of them have to say about this year’s Voices Institute NLP:

Pat Downing

Greetings from Prospect, Pennsylvania.
I never thought of myself as a leader but a follower. This has all changed since I attended the Voices Institute in Racine, Wisconsin.
On September 27, I arrived at the DeKoven Center full of apprehension and wondering why I thought I could ever be a leader. The trainers soon assured me that I was.
This was a very intense training, but we had many moments of laughter and enjoyment. We were taught how to reach deep within ourselves to find the leader in ourselves. Our trainers taught us how to be more confident, how to become a powerful advocate for the direct care workforce. Each and every one of us left on October 3 with the knowledge and a plan to overcome all the obstacles that stood in our way of being powerful leaders.
The Direct Care Alliance is a strong advocate for all direct care workers across the country. We direct care workers need to align ourselves with them and speak out loud and clear to undo all the injustices facing this profession. Yes, I said profession, because we are all professionals and need to be perceived as such.
I urge all direct care workers who may get a chance to attend a Voices Institute to do so. I promise you will return home a changed person.
If we put all our voices together, we cannot and will not fail.
–Pat Downing, CNA

Cindy Ramer

Hi! I’m Cindy Ramer from Denver, Iowa. I am a CNA and a member of the Leadership Council of the Iowa Caregivers Association.

I have truly enjoyed the week I have spent at the Voices Institute National Leadership Program. The DeKoven Center in Racine, Wisconsin is an awesome place!
The experience added some enrichment to the knowledge I already have gained through other training and life experience, and also added new pieces to the puzzle, helping me to grow as a leader.
I enjoyed getting to know everyone, hearing their thoughts, feelings, and stories. We have all made some new friends and some new memories! Thank you for mine!
When I get home, I will continue the advocacy I have already been doing and use some of the things I have learned to improve that.
–Cindy Ramer, CNA

Rhena Whilby-Argoe

On my way to the Voices Institute I was scared, thinking I’m going to be with strangers for a week. But from the time I arrived, I felt at home. Everyone is nice and friendly, willing to help to make our stay here comfortable. And now we are one big happy family.
My experience here is going to help me when I go back to the Delaware Certified Nursing Assistants Association with all that I have learned. First and foremost is my growing edge. I am confident; I dwell on the present and future. I move on.
The experience I gain here will allow me to be a better leader for my organization. I now have positive beliefs. I know to take responsibility to create my life. I have better self-esteem, am capable of doing or asking for what I want without fear.
I have learned that no man is an island. I need help from other member and shouldn’t try to do it alone because I will get burned out. I’ve learned to ask for help, to work with others, and to respect others’ feelings and their opinion.
We are all direct caregivers. We are from different states, but we share the same goals. We all came together, worked together, learned together. We all are now saying it was good for us to be here and we have a lot to take back to our organizations.
Thanks to the training team: Roy, Vera, Brenda, David, Bridget, Leonila, and Bob. You were very inspiring.
–Rhena Whilby-Argoe

David Moreau

I’ll admit at some point – I think it was towards the end of the second day of the 2009 Voices Institute – I was feeling tired and discouraged. Even though I was in a room filled with incredible people, it just seemed as though we were being asked to grow grass in the desert.
Three million direct service providers in our country already, and a million more needed within less than ten years. Just how were we going to advocate for better working conditions for them in a world of anxiety and shrinking resources?
We talked about our jobs and how difficult it is to do them, gently and efficiently, day in and day out, without a lot of pay, support, respect or training. We talked about how we love the people we care for anyway. And this didn’t seem odd to anyone. But how do you put that into a state budget? How do you train four million people to love others at work?
But I listened and participated and listened some more, and the Dekovan Center was filled with the real voices of real people, bursting with energy. We practiced throwing seeds – getting other direct support professionals to join with us in our associations, speaking to lawmakers, writing and telling the truth to the whole world of the true cost of caring for each other.
It didn’t take long for me to feel better. I thought of the plants that do grow in the desert and was reminded how strong they are. We are a strong group – the graduates of the 2009 Voices Institute. We have seeds now in our hands and the skills to scatter them. There’s no telling what we can start growing.
–David Moreau

It is voices like these that inspire me. They remind me that, though we have our work cut out for us, we can accomplish great things if we just keep working together.

Leonila Vega, Esq.
Executive Director, DCA