April 2024

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Dear Reader,

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As our organization celebrates our 40th Anniversary, I find myself reflecting on the ways in which my understanding of our mission has deepened over the decades. And with news of so much violence and tragedy around the world, I have to remind myself of the significance of our efforts. For this, I return to the words of renowned pediatricians Drs. T.Berry Brazelton and Stanley I. Greenspan, from their book The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn and Flourish:

The doctors identified the first and most important need of children as “ongoing nurturing relationships.” Family and Home Network supports and encourages parents as they take time to establish and maintain ongoing nurturing relationships. And in cooperation with others, we advocate for equitable and just policies for ALL families, so more parents who want to spend more time caring for their children will be able to do so.

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In January, we heard that a bipartisan working group of Senators and Representatives had issued an open invitation to send ideas about paid leave. They wrote: "[we are] exploring solutions to expand access to paid leave for all Americans, we write with strong interest in hearing diverse stakeholder input." Please see: invitation message from Congressional working group on paid leave.

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With help from FAHN Board members, I wrote a message to the Congressional working group, calling on them to set aside the focus on “working families” and instead make policies for ALL families. Please read it here: Paid leave for all families. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this, and your experiences with leave policies.

We recently welcomed a new member of our Board of Directors, Willow Duttge Tepper, and she stepped up to lead our 40th Anniversary project. We're looking forward to telling you more about this exciting project very soon!

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You can get to know all our Board members by reading their bios here, and please consider applying to become a Member of our Board of Directors. There are also many other ways to contribute to our work in one of our volunteer roles—dedicated volunteers carried us through the first 40 years, and it’s time to add to our team.

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I hope you'll revisit - or join for the first time - our private online space for connection and community: Family and Home Community It’s an alternative to social media, one that enables us to offer you a calm place for conversations with us and with each other. Please take a few minutes to look around and say hello!

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We are grateful to everyone who donated to our year-end fundraiser. If you can donate today, please do. Any amount helps! We operate on a shoestring budget, and I spent months searching for and implementing new technology tools when prices went up again on the tools we'd been using. (You may have noticed: this ENews is coming to you via a new email system, and I'm struggling a bit with the formatting).

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions of comments. Springtime greetings from me and my youngest grandson!

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all the best,

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Cathy Myers

cmyers@familyandhome.org

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