Last month, BronxNet TV aired an episode of Mission Bx featuring a discussion of the Human Services Recovery Taskforce’s report, Essential or Expendable: How Human Services Supported Communities Through COVID-19 and Recommendations to Support an Equitable Recovery.
Host Eileen Newman spoke with Michelle Jackson, Executive Director of the Human Services Council and Maria Lizardo, Executive Director of NMIC about how the Human Services Recovery Taskforce was created and why its work in recording the challenges nonprofits faced during the height of COVID-19 is so critical. Michelle spoke about how the Recovery Taskforce, co-chaired by Urban Pathways’ Chief Executive Officer Frederick Shack, looked to find new and innovative solutions in their recommendations, but ultimately discovered that “the cracks in the relationship between nonprofits and government were becoming chasms”, and in order to have an equitable recovery these challenges must be addressed.
The report presents four recommendations for an equitable recovery for New Yorkers. One of these recommendations is that “government must commit to paying equitable wages to contracted human services workers.” Most human services in New York are contracted by the City and State governments, which set staff salaries at rates well below the salaries of their own government employees- human services workers make on average just 71% of what government employees make. Michelle shared that the Human Services Council will be launching a workforce campaign in the coming months to address this issue, which Urban Pathways looks forward to participating in!
