The Providers’ Council is turning 50 in 2025! In celebration of this milestone, the Council will be running a series of Throwback Thursday posts throughout the year commemorating some of the Council’s most important milestones in its first 50 years. This week, the Council wants to highlight the start of its grassroots advocacy initiative, The Caring Force.
The Caring Force was first introduced in the May 2011 issue of The Provider newspaper, and was described as an “initiative” generated in response to rising tensions between providers and state government, in which providers “were told they are off the books in the eyes of Beacon Hill,” according to the May 2011 issue of The Provider newspaper. To ensure that human services providers, workers and persons served had a presence in state government, they formed this grassroots advocacy movement with the goal of shining a spotlight on the work human services professionals do in communities across the Commonwealth.
The Caring Force became the centerpiece of that year’s Annual Convention & Expo, whose theme, #transformations, reflected the progress the Council hoped to make with its initiative.
Former Providers’ Council CEO, Michael Weekes, wrote, “The Caring Force is a new initiative of the Council that is reaching beyond mere change. It’s about transforming lives in dramatic, often radical ways. And not only is it about helping people transform, but in doing so, it essentially transforms our system of care so that our priorities are aligned with our values of a fair and just society,” reflecting on the initiative in the December 2011 issue of The Provider.
The next year in 2012 The Caring Force hosted its first rally at the State House in protest of the Patrick-Murray Administration’s decision to delay the release of the Salary Reserve indefinitely. Rallies like this would become The Caring Force’s signature event.
Today The Caring Force has about 32,000 members across Massachusetts. For more information on the Caring Force, please click here. For further questions, please contact Isabella A. Lee.
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