Family

Family Act Key for Blacks, Coalition Says

WASHINGTON INFORMER — A national family and medical paid leave program must be passed by Congress to ensure all American workers can care for their families without worrying about jeopardizing their income, according to officials at The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, a District-based coalition of more than 200 national organizations that work to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all in the United States.

Published

5 years ago

June 14, 2019

Stacy Brown

By Stacy Brown

A national family and medical paid leave program must be passed by Congress to ensure all American workers can care for their families without worrying about jeopardizing their income, according to officials at The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, a District-based coalition of more than 200 national organizations that work to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all in the United States.

Leadership Conference officials joined others at a Tri-Caucus briefing on the importance of paid family and medical leave at the federal level to achieve racial justice.

A panel experts at the June 5 gathering at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill discussed a wide range of topics, most notably the current federal and state landscape of family and medical leave with a special focus on how the Family Act will make vital improvements for people of color.

The gathering was co-sponsored by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Partnership for Women & Families, Black Women’s Roundtable, Family Values at Work, UnidosUS, United for Respect, and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“We believe passage of the Family Act is key for Black women and men to achieve economic security and prosperity,” said event moderator Melanie Campbell, who serves as president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable.

“As a program that ensures that people can take time from work when they need it to care for themselves and family, the Family Act speaks directly to the needs of Black women and their families because three out of four Black women — 75 percent — are the primary source of income in their family units,” Campbell said. “Also, nearly 30 percent of Black family caregivers are young family members between the ages 18 to 34 and who earn less than $30,000 annually.”

Earlier this month, Connecticut became just the seventh state to create a system of paid leave. Under the new law, minimum wage employees could have up to 95 percent of their pay covered, capped at $900 per week.

New York’s recently-passed paid leave policy offers only a 55 percent wage replacement, which will increase to 67 percent when the law is fully implemented.

“Paid leave is a critical step forward for women’s economic security, especially for low-wage workers and women of color who are an increasing number of primary breadwinners for their families,” Catherine Bailey of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund told the Connecticut Mirror. “We are proud to join the rest of the world and become just the seventh state in the U.S. to create a system of paid leave.”

The need for all states to create a substantial family leave law is underscored by a recent Harvard University report.

“Following decades of decline, maternal deaths began to rise in the United States around 1990 — a significant departure from the world’s other affluent countries,” the report said. “By 2013, rates had more than doubled.”

The CDC now estimates that 700 to 900 new and expectant mothers die in the U.S. each year, and an additional 500,000 women experience life-threatening postpartum complications.

More than half of these deaths and near deaths are from preventable causes, and a disproportionate number of the women suffering are Black.

“Put simply, for Black women far more than for white women, giving birth can amount to a death sentence,” the Harvard report said. “African-American women are three to four times more likely to die during or after delivery than are white women. According to the World Health Organization, their odds of surviving childbirth are comparable to those of women in countries such as Mexico and Uzbekistan, where significant proportions of the population live in poverty.”

This article originally appeared in the Washington Informer.

Stacy Brown

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Bay Area

Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 40 Years Serving Oakland Families

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Published

3 days ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Live music was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, on April 27, at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue and 29th Street. Photo by Ken Epstein.

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50^th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.

Attending the Saturday, April 27 celebration were current and past students, families, faculty, and supporters of the school. The school is located at 417 29^th St., and the celebration was held nearby at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

For more information, go to www.streetacademy.online or call 510) 874-3630 or (510) 879-2313.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

A Safe Place, Bay Area Domestic Violence Community Organization, Opens New Service Center in Oakland

Oakland-Bay Area non-profit, A Safe Place, announces the grand opening of its newly purchased building in Oakland that will be a service center for families that have suffered from domestic violence. The new, two-story building has over six new service rooms for counseling, mental health support groups, legal services, children’s treatment, safe space for community engagement, and partnership activities.

Published

3 days ago

May 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Façade of the new community center for A Safe Place opening on May 10 in Oakland. Courtesy photo.

By Courtney Slocum Riley

Special to The Post

Oakland-Bay Area non-profit, A Safe Place, announces the grand opening of its newly purchased building in Oakland that will be a service center for families that have suffered from domestic violence.

The new, two-story building has over six new service rooms for counseling, mental health support groups, legal services, children’s treatment, safe space for community engagement, and partnership activities.

Domestic violence occurrences and offenses account for a considerable amount of all violent crimes in Alameda County. A Safe Place is attempting to provide a safe place for families to heal. A Safe Place is the only comprehensive domestic violence assistance program including a safehouse, in Oakland.

The grand opening celebration will also serve as a fundraiser to build out healing, therapeutic spaces for children and adult victims and survivors and survivors of domestic violence (male and female).

The new service center will expand the work of the organization, founded in 1976 when a group of women working in San Francisco came together to address the urgent need for a shelter in the East Bay. A year later, they founded A Safe Place (ASP) in Oakland. Run solely by volunteers, they set up a crisis line to offer crisis counseling and information to battered women and their children.

The organization serves over 500 adults and children annually through a host of services including crisis counseling via 24-hour crisis line, emergency motel and safehouse sheltering, mental health services (counseling and support groups).

Under the leadership of Executive Director, Carolyn Russell, the organization has grown from a single program into the comprehensive domestic violence and assistance program. ASP strives to meet the growing and diverse needs of our growing community.

The organization hopes to complete all the upgrades and therapeutic room improvements by August 2024. The public is invited to donate to the effort by using the website at www.asafeplace.org/donate. The organization also accepts in-kind gifts as well as items from the organization’s Amazon Wishlist.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Obituary: Former California Education Superintendent Delaine Eastin Passes at 76

Delaine Eastin, who served as a former state Assemblymember representing parts of Santa Clara and Alameda County — and the first woman elected as State Superintendent of Public Instruction — died at age 76 on April 23. Eastin passed away from complications caused by a stroke.

Published

4 days ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

Former California Education Superintendent Delaine Eastin.

By California Black Media

Eastin passed away from complications caused by a stroke.

Known for her power of persuasion, Eastin used her influence to be a champion for bipartisan issues that helped raise academic standards, lower class sizes, and emphasize the importance of conserving nature and the environment in schools.

Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and fellow legislative colleagues said that Eastin was in demand on the speech circuit while serving as a legislator.

“Few could engender the kind of emotion and passion she delivered in every speech,” Brown said.

State superintendent Tony Thurmond called Eastin a trailblazer who inspired fellow public servants.

“California lost an icon in our school system today. Delaine Eastin’s legacy as a trailblazer in public education will forever inspire us. Her unwavering dedication to California students — from championing Universal Preschool and the “A Garden in Every School” program to honoring our educators by establishing the California Teachers of the Year Awards — has left an indelible mark on our state’s educational landscape,” said Thurmond.