Current Project

Embody Transformation in collaboration with  UpTogether  is launching a capacity building and direct cash initiative to invest in caretakers, who provide invisible and unwaged care work and are the heart of leading systems change to cultivate safe and thriving communities for all. 

Proposed Roots of Care Pilot

The pilot will combine community building with direct cash assistance to increase capacity for community caregivers to build collective power. The key components are:

• Embody Transformation will offer a holistic community and capacity building program to all participants
• Embody Transformation and UpTogether will collaborate to provide $1,000 per month to 100 caregivers in Central Texas for 12 - 24 months

Who will participate

• Caregivers of dependent children, elders, sick or disabled family members
• Live within Central Texas, with a special focus on select zip codes
• Have a household income at or below 80% AMFI (area median family income)

Background on the project

In this critical historical juncture, prioritizing and nurturing the leadership of those most directly impacted by the intersecting systems of oppression is more crucial than ever. As the income and wealth divide widens, many working-class families are living on the edge of survival while also facing increased criminalization.  In this context, community caregivers are confronted with the three competing needs of 1) providing 24/7 care for the family, 2) working to bring in income for family survival, and 3) organizing with others in the community to build power to improve conditions. Often in grassroots organizing work, even the most committed will struggle to sustain their engagement as grassroots leaders due to the pressures of meeting basic family needs. Creating a mechanism to resource and nurture the caregivers holding our communities together is fundamental along the path towards social justice.

Embody Transformation is launching Roots of Care, an accessible bilingual community-building program that develops leadership and capacity for community organizing. It is an innovative initiative that combines community power building with social support and guaranteed income for low-income caregivers in Central Texas. The project will provide monthly payments of $1,000 to the 100 family caregivers in the Roots of Care program for 24 months. All Roots of Care participants will be invited to join the holistic capacity building program that combines workshops on historical and systemic analysis with a community organizing skills training. The programming will also include community building, social support, and wellness activities.  

Embody Transformation is collaborating with Up Together for the pilot program in Central Texas in 2025-2026.  The Embody Transformation team brings 15 years of experience in community- based organizing in Central Texas and a track record of supporting BIPOC youth, families, caregivers, community groups and organizations (locally in Texas as well as nationally) to build collective power and redress the impacts of history to advance a vision of a more just and loving world. UpTogether has directly invested in individuals and families for over 20 years, trusting that they know what’s best for their households.

The evaluation will include assessing the impact of increased economic security on the ability of caregivers to actively participate in community work to transform systems and advance equity. After the Central Texas pilot project and evaluation, we will have a model to be shared with other interested cities and communities across the country as well as a strong core group to launch a caregivers’ organizing project in our local community with the power to organize to transform systems and advance reproductive, economic and racial justice, and community safety. 

Rational for the project

Reproductive Justice as a framework gives us the opportunity to see what is often not seen. RJ includes not only the rights to full bodily and reproductive autonomy but also the right to raise children in safe and sustainable communities where all families can thrive. To enact Reproductive Justice in its full scope, we must elevate the caregivers who are the heart of leading systems change work and who provide invisible and unwaged care work to cultivate safe and thriving communities for all.

How do we as a society recognize and invest in the caregivers that make life happen each day? This labor, also referred to as Social Reproduction, reproduces our society day by day, in real time. Social Reproduction combined with biological reproduction are the two forces that together make human life possible on the planet. Investing in the essential caregiving work that is fundamentally undervalued and under-resourced is one key paradigm shift needed to transform our communities and our country. Aside from child tax credits and other policies to reshape the tax system, Guaranteed Income as a vision, policy and practice is an innovative approach to recognize and compensate caregivers.

The pandemic allowed us to clearly see the violent contradictions of our society. It illuminated  the fact that our society’s priorities are upside down: community health and caregiving work is the absolutely necessary, often invisible, work that keeps society functioning. The feminized work of nurturing, cooking, cleaning, elder-caring, child-rearing, and nursing are actually more “essential” and important than paid or profit-making work.

We understand that in this critical historical juncture, prioritizing and nurturing the leadership of those most directly impacted by the intersecting systems of oppression is more crucial than ever.  As the income and wealth divide widens, many poor and working class families are living on the edge of survival. Community caregivers are confronted with the three competing needs of 1) providing 24/7 care for the family, 2) working to bring in income for family survival and 3) organizing with others in the community to build power to improve conditions. Often in grassroots organizing work, even the most committed will struggle to sustain their engagement as grassroots leaders due to the pressures of basic family needs. Creating a mechanism to resource and nurture the caregivers holding our communities together is crucial along the path towards social justice.