Yesterday, the Justice Center held their annual awards presented to direct care staff in OMH, OASAS, OCFS and OPWDD. It was a very moving ceremony recognizing several outstanding individuals in human services.
What most direct care staff do every day is herculean and then you add COVID into the mix and you have another layer of extraordinary work.
When others were running away from the chaos of COVID, these people were running in to save the lives of many of our most vulnerable New Yorkers. We can never do enough to recognize their great work except to give them more money and support.
Has there ever been another time in New York’s history that the Human Service sector has shown their worth? We need to compensate them for their extraordinary efforts. We may be in a backdrop of a fiscal crisis but we also know that without our hard working human service workers, many of our loved ones would be in hospitals, correction system or homeless at much greater expense to New York’s taxpayers.
Let’s never forget their worth and let us all commit to supporting increased compensation for our human service workforce.
Thanks to Denise Miranda and the Justice Center staff for their leadership in recognizing the human service sector workforce
Listed below is a short video about the workforce and a proclamation from Governor Cuomo acknowledging September as Direct Care Worker Recognition Month in New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36p2O8N1i-I&feature=youtu.be
