We are building a family-friendly economy that fully supports the work of child-raising and family caregiving without jeopardizing economic security. We do this by mobilizing families, engaging employers, and shaping policy.
A family-friendly economy will prevent poverty and support the long-term health and well-being of children, seniors, and families in general. In economically challenging times, it is more important than ever to create practices and policies that support more economic stability in families and prevent poverty.
about us
- Our Mission and Values
- Our Story
- Our Board
- Contact Us
We are building a family-friendly economy that fully supports the work of child-raising and family caregiving without jeopardizing economic security. We do this by mobilizing families, engaging employers, and shaping policy.
Our work is based on a set of deeply-held values, expressed in the Family Forward Manifesto:
Value the work of caring for children and others in need of care. Whether that care is taking place in the home or in professional settings, we must value it economically and culturally. This means redefining work to include care, and redefining care as work. It means professionalizing child care and education professions as well as developing policy that makes it more economically feasible for parents to raise children without risking long-term economic insecurity.
Achieve economic equity for mothers and other caregivers. Motherhood should not be a major cause of poverty, and there should not be a wage gap between mothers and others. We need policy that supports mothers' capacity to succeed in the workplace as well as provide needed care for children without ending up in poverty.
Value and support all kinds of families. Families come in all shapes and sizes. Whether two parent or single parent, straight parent or gay parent, nuclear or extended, blood-related or not, wealthy or poor, all families are connected by caring relationships and deserve equal access to economic security.
Engage parents and other caregivers to build a social movement. We will engage caregivers to work for social change by redefining success to emphasize family and community well-being over material wealth, building a culture that values the work of caring, creating communities that realize we all benefit when our members are well-cared for, and developing an understanding of the systemic nature of our seemingly personal challenges.
Develop bold, universally available family policies that will interrupt race, class and gender inequities. Tinkering with the current system may help some families, but it will not touch the lived experience of most. We support bold, universal policies that will truly change the experience of families across income level, racial group, or sexual orientation.
Sharon Bernstein, Co-Founder of Family Forward Oregon, is an educator and sociologist by training, a mother of two young boys, and a community activist. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked for social change from a number of angles. She has taught women's studies, supported school reform in high poverty schools, and conducted social research. She has managed volunteer programs, trained community leaders, and herself served a leader in community-driven projects such as visionPDX, Vision Into Action, and Parents For Paid Leave. Sharon's experience as a parent has solidified her understanding that we can't make social change through our individual decisions alone -- we need to work together for cultural and policy change. Through Family Forward Oregon, she plans to build a movement to reshape the economics of work and family in our state.
Andrea Paluso, Co-Founder of Family Forward Oregon, is a social worker turned community activist. She has Masters degrees from Columbia University in social work and public health and a work history in non-profit program management. She has worked in public schools, community health care settings, and in international development. As a parent, Andrea has been struck by the widening gap between contemporary American families and the policies designed to support them. She is committed to re-defining what it means to be "family-friendly", and to developing policies and communities that support parents and families. She was the spokesperson for Parents for Paid Leave, a grassroots group that worked to pass a paid family leave bill in Oregon in 2009. She also writes for the local parent-activism blog Activistas. She co-founded Family Forward Oregon because she believes a new vision for Oregon is possible and that developing more family-supportive workplaces and communities is an essential part of the way forward.
Lisa Frack is Family Forward Oregon's Board Secretary. Lisa joined forces with the local blog urbanMamas in 2007 to create a parent-activism blog called Activistas. She believes profoundly in the need to modernize workplaces and state and federal policies to ìworkî for todayís families. Armed with a masters degree in public policy, she tackled these issues online - and found a community of Portland moms who also wanted to work for policies that better support families. She also works as an online organizer for the Environmental Working Group tackling toxics policy reform.
Nancy Davis is Family Forward Oregon's Board Treasurer. Nancy is the Executive Director of Zimmerman Community Center and the founder of Isobel's Clubhouse. Isobelís Clubhouse is Central Portlandís family room; a not-for-profit place for families to play and build community. She has served on the board of directors for family-focused organizations as varied as the YWCA, Childrenís Relief Nursery and Childpeace Montessori. Nancy worked in recruiting and economic development for over a dozen years before leaving to create work that links her passion for families, children and strong communities.
Dr. Mary King is a labor economist on the faculty of the Economics Department at Portland State University, where her teaching and research focus on the economic experience of women and members of ethnic minorities. She has a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.
Barbara Dudley is a lawyer turned activist and teacher; a mother and a grandmother. She worked with the Alliance for Displaced Homemakers and wrote the first Displaced Homemakers Legislation in 1974; she represented farmworkers through California Rural Legal Assistance and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. She has been President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild and Executive Director of a New York based Unitarian Universalist charitable foundation. From 1992 to 1997 Barbara was the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA and in 1998 was appointed Assistant Director for Strategic Campaigns of the national AFL‑CIO. Barbara moved to Oregon in 1999 where she has been a partner in a family owned vineyard, Bethel Heights, since 1978. Barbara is co-chair of the Oregon Working Families Party and teaches at Portland State University.
