This month, the Living Wages, Thriving Communities campaign brought together state legislators, leaders of human service organizations and policy advocates for a Roundtable discussion about strategies and next steps to push our policies to the next level this upcoming legislative session.
We appreciate the following legislators for attending or sending a representative from their office to provide feedback at the Roundtable, and weigh in on how they can support community providers: State Representatives Lindsey LaPointe, Dagmara Avelar, Nicole Grasse, Laura Faver Dias, Norma Hernandez, Michelle Mussman, and Matt Hanson, as well as staffers on behalf of State Representatives Maura Hirschauer, Yolanda Morris, and Camille Lilly. We send many thanks to these amazing leaders for participating in these conversations and taking the time to listen to the concerns of providers who are at the center of this campaign, and Illinois Partners for Human Service’s work.
The LWTC campaign also held our first Open Strategy Meeting where all endorsers and supporters of the campaign were invited to choose a name for the budget bill we will be working on, as well as weigh in on the bill language and advocacy strategies we will undertake to garner more support. We are proud to announce the campaign’s focus on the following bills:
- Appropriations to continue the Human Service Professional Loan Repayment Program.
- Establishing a Human Service Pay Equity Taskforce to make recommendations to the Governor and the Department of Human Services to stay on top of issues that cause pay inequity and low wages and community providers, as well as issues with recruitment and retention.
- Passing the Human Services Workforce Sustainability Act, which would establish funding guidelines that close gaps caused by inflation and insufficient state contracts, and work to increase wages of workers at community-based human service organizations.
More information and fact sheets about these bills will be made available in the coming weeks. In the interim if you’d like to be involved in shaping the advocacy strategy and campaign goals, we invite you to join the LWTC Strategy Committee here.
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