WI Launches We Rise Nanny Training Report

“We Rise shifted people’s mindset from ‘I’m just a nanny’ to ‘I do some of the most important work in society, work that raises children and without which nothing else could function. My compensation should reflect my importance to your family and the world,’” said Ketchel Carey ‘23.

The Worker Institute (WI) launched its report on Mar. 27 in New York City, evaluating the impact of the We Rise Nanny Training program on domestic workers’ workplace standards and their leadership development.

We Rise is a peer education program for nannies that merges workers’ rights education with workforce development and empowerment. The program marks a partnership between WI, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and their NYC Chapter and We Dream in Black initiative, Carroll Gardens Association, Adhikaar, Beyond Care Cooperative and the Community Resource Center. 

“In my 40-plus years as an educator, it was a deeply moving experience to read this report and see what this program has done,” said Risa Lieberwitz, professor of Labor and Employment Law and academic director at WI. 

The report launch included a presentation of the 18-month evaluation’s findings by the report authors Zoë West, Ketchel Carey and Anne Marie Brady, followed by a personal and powerful panel discussion. 

“We wanted to understand the effect of the training on individual nannies’ sense of empowerment and workplace standards,” said Anne Marie Brady, research director at WI. “To what degree did the training affect their participation in organizing and collective action?”

The evaluation found that the We Rise program strengthened nannies’ abilities to negotiate with their employers for higher wages, better working conditions and more secure measures such as written contracts and overtime pay. We Rise's peer and popular education design helped build solidarity for nannies across the industry. It proved an effective tool for organizations’ base-building and leadership development efforts, increasing nannies’ involvement in organizing and outreach. Upon completion, participants earned a certificate from Cornell’s Worker Institute, granting validation and leverage for nannies to ask for fairer compensation and treatment. 

“The We Rise training is not just informing people about the frankly minimal standards that are in the law, but actually trying to lift the floor to create higher standards than what exists in the law,” said Zoë West, senior researcher at WI. 

“The training empowers people to say no and understand that they don’t have to just accept what their employers tell them to do,” said Carey, educational researcher at Appalachian State University.

“We Rise has been a model to support other precarious workers who are living with this day-to-day question: How do I make it?” said Arianna Schindle, director of training and curriculum design for the Worker Rights and Equity team and coordinator of We Rise at WI. “So, another piece is how do we expand what has worked with We Rise to other precarious workers and the care economy so that more workers can feel the power this program has brought.”

The coalition is expanding to include other organizations, including La Colmena and the Connecticut Worker Center.

“To see that we’re walking in the footsteps of our ancestors is something so powerful, and every day we get to create history in a new and powerful way,” said Allison Julien, organizing director of NDWA’s We Dream in Black initiative. 

Doris Tapia, a lead trainer in the We Rise Coalition, was asked by the 14-year-old girl she cares for, “What animal would you be?” Tapia replied, “A butterfly”. But the girl had a different vision. “‘I don’t think you are a butterfly, I think you are a bee. Because a bee… you pollinate your peers,” said the girl. “And I think she’s right,” said Tapia. “Because I give all the knowledge I have with much love. And whatever I learn, I give to you—all my skills. I think, ‘If I did it, you can do it,’ and that’s why we’re here. We are a family, and we are going to keep going.”

The crowd replied: “We rise! We rise! We rise! Nos levantamos! Nos levantamos!”