Successfully advocating for improved family leave policy in California

PL+US / PaidLeave.Us - Fall 2018

Objective: Increase public awareness about the gaps in California’s paid family leave policy while encouraging lawmakers to strengthen paid family leave benefits and provide a model for similar campaigns in states across the country.

Components: Provide strategic direction, editing, and oversight of design for a major report roll-out; create and implement media outreach strategy; create social media content and #LeftBehindonLeave digital outreach plan.

Result: The Left Behind on Leave report and its rollout resulted in roughly 25 media hits for an estimated reach of 495,000 people, among them a Letter to the Editor that ran in the L.A. Times, and an OpEd from an impacted father that ran on 10 California news websites.

Real World Impact: The report played a role in raising awareness of a largely under-discussed problem and presented clear proposals to improve the state’s policy. In January 2019, roughly two months after the report rollout, California’s governor proposed a plan to give new parents six months of partial-paid leave, which would be the most generous policy in the nation.