Episode 258: The Family

As we look ahead to the upcoming election cycle, it’s clear that now, more than ever, civic engagement is crucial. In this episode L. Joy focuses on key issues impacting families during the election cycle. First, she gives us a quick Do Now, then she highlights critical topics such as reproductive rights, the economy, rising costs of living, and community safety, and gun violence with Monifa Bandele, COO and Senior Vice President of Maternal Justice Campaigns at MomsRising Together, and then Ailen Arreaza, Executive Director of Parents Together at the front of the class. 

Monifa Bandele joins L. Joy at the front of the class, and begins by sharing her first civic action with L. Joy in 2013 when they were fighting around stop and frisk in New York City with the Floyd versus NYC lawsuit, which became a federal landmark piece of litigation that looked at stop and frisk and concluded that it was racial profiling. Monifa then shared her civic action with her mother as she led a historic rent strike in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and recalled that experience showed her at a young age that regular people can confront powerful interests and win. 

Monifa explained the work MomsRising has been doing and how they’ve grown to encompass a wide range of issues such as childcare, healthcare, maternal health, reproductive rights, and K-12 education. She emphasized some of the organization’s significant achievements, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which protects pregnant workers from discrimination and ensures they can take necessary breaks on the job, and helped pass the PUMP Act, which mandates workplaces to provide space for mothers to pump breast milk.

Monifa and L. Joy also discussed the critical issue of reproductive justice, particularly in the wake of increasing restrictions on abortion and the broader attack on reproductive rights in many states. Monifa noted that the United States ranks among the worst wealthy nations in terms of maternal health outcomes, with Black and Indigenous women facing disproportionately poor results. They then focused on the efforts to restrict access to IVF and birth control. The underlying goal of these laws, Monifa pointed out, is to control women’s bodies—a continuation of centuries-old oppression, especially with Black women. 

Next, Ailen Arreaza joins L. Joy at the front of the class opening with her first civic action in Cuba when her school organized a parade in honor of Fidel Castro. Her parents were part of the anti-Castro movement and her mother told her not to attend. She overcame her fear and refused to participate in what she saw as propaganda for a dictator. Later, she joined her mother in a peaceful protest against the regime, an action that led to her mother’s brief arrest. This early experience of standing up for human rights, even at personal cost, shaped Ailen’s perspective on civic action and set the stage for her lifelong advocacy work.

The belief that parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world is the driving force behind Parents Together. Alien explains that they meet parents where they are, providing resources and support for everything from managing toddler tantrums to protecting children online while also advocating for policy solutions that lighten the load for parents.

Ailen and L. Joy also discussed the fear-based narratives that often dominate political conversations about parenting. These narratives, which focus on issues like bathroom usage or "parental rights," often distract from the real struggles parents face—like the high cost of childcare, stagnant wages, and lack of paid family leave. Ailen pointed out that these fear-driven conversations divide and distract parents from the real policy issues that could make a meaningful difference in their lives. She stressed that parents aren’t losing sleep over hypothetical threats—they are worried about how to afford basic necessities like housing, food, and education.

Ailen highlighted how Parents Together Action mobilized families to advocate for the continuation of the expanded child tax credit, which made a significant difference in the lives of millions of families with monthly payments of $300 per child, which helped reduce child poverty by half. L. Joy and Ailen also agreed that a national conversation about the cost and availability of childcare is long overdue. 

This episode of Sunday Civics serves as a powerful reminder of the impact of grassroots activism, the ongoing need to advocate for legislative change, and what’s at stake this election season. Find out more about MomsRising Together and Parents Together. 

Do Now:

L. Joy asks us to reflect on what is most important to our families in the context of the upcoming election, encouraging us to think about key issues, such as affordability, the economy, safety, or other concerns that may not be widely discussed, and consider how these priorities influence our voting decisions. The goal is for us to identify the top issues for our family units and use those as a guide when questioning candidates and making decisions at the ballot box.

Monifa Bandele &

Ailen Arreaza

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MomsRising, Monifa Bandele co-leads a national on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people working to achieve economic security and justice for moms, women, and families. There, she directs the organization’s work on reproductive justice, maternal and children’s health, and criminal justice reform--including ending the school-to-prison pipeline, successfully winning better practices and policies at the federal, state, and local levels. Monifa also sits on the policy table leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), as well as the steering committee for the New York-based Communities United for Police Reform. In both coalitions, she represents the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Just in the past decade, she led the launch of two historic and successful legal cases against police misconduct (Daniels v NYC and Floyd v NYC); worked to pass landmark police reform legislation in New York City (Community Safety Act 2013) and New York State (Repeal CRL 50-a bill, Special Prosecutor, and NY STAT Act); and was a contributing writer to M4BL’s Vision for Black Lives.io goes here. Guest bio goes here. Guest bio goes here.

Ailen Arreaza is the Executive Director of ParentsTogehter, a national nonprofit ParentsTogether Action, a nonprofit parent and family advocacy group that represents more than 3 million families, brings parents together to make a difference on the issues that matter most to our kids and families — things like family leave, childcare, and quality education. Previously, Ailen served as ParentsTogether’s Deputy Director, where she helped develop the organization’s content team into a media powerhouse that reaches tens of millions of parents annually. Before joining the ParentsTogether team in 2014, Ailen worked for 10 years promoting fair housing and equal opportunity for the City of Charlotte. Ailen loves to write (in English and Spanish) and her work has been featured in several local and national publications. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, two sons, and her mother, and she is native of Havana, Cuba.