The Care Campaign

Right now, I wanted to open up and talk about something I found while around the administrative building of my new workplace.  It's called The Care Campaign.  Never heard about it?  Neither had I.

http://carecampaignhome.com/

What is it?  Well, it appears to be an organization dedicated to the effort of raising pay for paraprofessionals and direct service workers in the special needs community.  I'm not sure why I thought you guys might want to hear about it.  I must be momentarily whimsical.

The effort seems to be a coalition effort between organizations which pay these professionals, parents, and of course the paraprofessionals and direct service people themselves.  It has to deal with how the state decides wages for people which are in the employ of companies receiving state funds.  Which sounds complicated, but essentially what it boils down to is that when the State determines how much a person serving your job is worth, per hour, it uses a specific figure.  When they give money to parents and organizations which hire us, they use that figure.  In many organizations, that's simply as much as you can earn. I'm not entirely sure if you can even pay above and beyond that, if you wanted to, and still make use of the money.  If you know the answer, let me know in the comments, and I'll amend the post.

The reason why parents and administrators want you to get paid more is simple.  They know that the job is hard on some days, and they know we don't make much.  If you read the claims that the websites make, direct service members make wages below the poverty line, which- all things considering- wouldn't exactly surprise me.  Companies and parents know that if highly qualified people can't make decent wages, especially to the point where it makes it difficult to survive, then turnover is more likely.  The campaign benefits them as much as it does us.

Like many advocacy groups, what The Care Campaign wants you to do is to educate yourself and sign a petition.  I'm going to do some more research about the group from non-affiliated sites before I suggest that you do this, but I do think you should know that such a campaign is out there.  If they're on the up=and-up you might want to consider signing the petition and telling your employer about the campaign as well.  Remember, it helps them if it helps you.  I've heard rumors that a starving TA doesn't perform as well.

If you know anything more about this campaign, or are involved with it on any level, give me a shout-out in the comments, and I'd love to hear more about it.  Peace.