Virginia legislators recently passed paid family and medical leave legislation - a milestone that reflects growing momentum across the country. 

As the movement expands, partnering with faith communities can connect paid family and medical leave campaigns with diverse supporters and a moral perspective. 

Such partnerships thrive when there are shared values: commitment to family life, protecting the vulnerable, and honoring intergenerational care. 

However, the most successful bridge-builders don’t assume that shared values translate automatically into partnership. They take time to understand the different stories and institutions in which those values live. 

Lead with shared values, then listen deeply      

Here are a few starting points to open conversations about paid family leave with faith-based organizations.

• Families are a source of joy, renewal, and blessing. Communities, congregations, and the economy are all better off when people feel empowered to start and grow their families. 

• The U.S. fertility rate reached a record low in 2024. For many communities, this feels like a wake-up call to reprioritize family life for those who want it. 

• Families provide care for vulnerable people in ways that no other social institution can. Paid leave is an investment in families’ unique and irreplaceable role. 

Don’t overlook the practical questions    

As the saying goes, amateurs talk strategy while experts talk logistics. Practical questions about how paid family and leave policies operate can impact faith communities’ ability to incorporate and advocate for those policies. Be ready to discuss details; don’t dismiss their importance to those who are also deeply motivated by values and mission. 

Consider these themes and prompts for your conversations with religious organizations: 

• Clergy and religious organizations are also, often, employers with many of the same questions that other employers have. 

  • Prompt: Does paid family leave align with your values as an employer? What challenges or benefits have you experienced with paid leave for employees experiencing new parenthood, end-of-life caregiving responsibilities, or important health and care needs?

• Religious groups with local governance (such as independent churches, small nonprofit organizations) may have capacity concerns: reporting requirements, payroll administration, and how to fill critical functions while an employee is on leave.  

  • Prompt: What support would you like to have navigating paid family and medical leave for your workplace?  

• Larger nonprofits and faith groups governed at the denominational level may already have a paid family and medical leave insurance plan. They may want to know how a new public policy will interact with existing solutions.  

  • Prompt: What questions do you have about harmonizing your existing resources for paid family and medical leave with new, public options? 

The time is now to reach out, ask good questions, and build relationships around paid family leave. The conversations you start today will lay a foundation for broad-based civic innovation informed by listening, care, and powerful values. 

In hope, 

Rachel 

Hope& and Bolder Horizon

It’s been a privilege to welcome a new Hope& Consulting client this season: Bolder Horizon. Bolder Horizon is a cross-partisan, policy-focused nonprofit that incubates next-era leaders and institutions to shape child and family policy. Its focus is on families experiencing cycles of adversity and crisis that current policy isn’t solving for: abuse and neglect, social isolation, complex poverty, economic immobility, and substance use disorders. 

Hope& Consulting has supported Bolder Horizon to create the Emerging Policy Leadership Fellows: a 12-month stipended cohort intended to help entrepreneurial, mid-career leaders bring new policy ideas to life. The program focuses on  civic purpose and cross-partisanship to promote policy leaders and a policy ecosystem that produces social good over the long-term. 

Watch this space for the fellowship announcement. Please reach out to me if you know strong candidates for the upcoming cohort.